UX Research & Design for Nonprofit Organization
Please find under a summary covering project details and feedback. The innate facts are kept as they are, private information is amended.
Introductory information
A fast induction on the buyer’s organisation
I am the program ruler for a nonprofit structure. We are located in Phoenix, Arizona, with 60 chapters nationwide.
Desired goal
What challenge were you trying to address with Highland Solutions?
We are going through a solid set right now. It’s your basic digital business and data transformation package over the order of almost two-and-a-half very hectic years. In the order of migrating some of our legacy data methods and leading labor method, we recognized that we needed to do a better job of knowledge our constituency precedently we seted to recreate the process.
Provided solution
What particular tasks were Highland Solutions responsible for?
When we leading seted working with them, we reflection that we were going to be looking at user design for the methods we were edifice. As we seted initial converses with them, however, we recognized that we might need to set one step further back. I and some other national service staff members had a two-day session with them, and behind hearing from our chapter staff members, their investigation team recognized that they needed to set with — what they call — jobs-to-be-done investigation. This looks at not just the work that nation do, but the jobs they have to accomplish to better the work that they do. In our case, as our cluster came unitedly, we determined that the leading constituency we needed to know better to have the highest technology and new process adoption was our own staff athwart the country, seting with our fundraising and wish-granting staff. By commencement there, we could do the jobs-to-be-done investigation and have a deeper knowledge of their needs, fears, challenges, as well as what we could do to create a method to help them.
We agreed on a three-month investigation project. They began with 75-minute interviews with staff members. We were able to get them the deviation they needed for this study, but it was all nameless. We wanted to get a wide array of voices, tenure, and opinions. Then, they quantified the open-ended commentary and developed themes. The next-level was video diary study driven by those themes where true staff where could opt-in to take instants out of their day and archives how they were touch through an app.
They also granted a terminal component of quantitative scaning. For us, the investigation not only delivered big answers, but it served as the seting point of a solid set to make sure we had the voices we wanted to, the depth of voices we wanted to athwart chapters.
Was there a dedicated team?
We had three leading contacts on the Highland team. Two were a pliant more day-to-day and one was a pliant more week-to-week. We also had a scheduler that was veritably helpful for care us on track. One of their principals stayed very closely connected to the project as well.
They collaborate with an outer associate to do some of their video diary work. We didn’t have as much associateship with the outer party.
How did you come to work with Highland Solutions?
When we were looking for a associate to initiate some of that user design investigation, we had a powerful recommendation from one of our chapters who had used them. I ponder they connected owing of the location, as they are both in Chicago. Our chapter bigly recommended them.
We weren’t conscious of too many more clusters that were able to do this work, so we had an informal RFP process. We spoke two other vendors besides Highland. They were powerful almost what they got back, how the process worked for them, how Highland understood how the process worked for them and the intricateity of nonprofit structures. They have a level of sophistication in their investigation process, as well as the power to fastly apprehend an structure like ours.
How much have you invested in them?
We spent between $100,000–$250,000 for their labors.
What is the terminal result of working with Highland Solutions?
We worked with them on this investigation from October 2019–December 2019.
Results achieved
Are there any measureable or plum results?
The response that we got back was phenomenal, not only in provisions of the scan and investigation tools but also that the nation we were scaning that we were taking time to apprehend them and their needs.
One thing I want to highlight is their process. I have talked to them almost it on separate occasions. First of all, they tell you precisely what they are going to do, and one of their leads, David (Director CX Practice, Highland Solutions), said that they like to perforate mythology with data. I’ll recollect that for the rest of my life. When you work for a nonprofit structure, specially a intricate one like ours, seething is mythology. It isn’t a powerful suit for us as of yet, and so we rely on report, anecdotes, and big stories. A lot of fundraising and nonprofit work is almost storytelling, but it doesn’t veritably make for good determination making. Even coming in and helping us frame out what we’re going to be doing and sharing that helps to adjoin why we do this. I ponder it was such a beautiful pliant thought and I am quiet getting mileage out of that line.
Their methodology is very fundamental. On the leading day, we didn’t know who we were going to talk to, what we were going to ask almost, all we knew was that we needed to talk to nation to get a better knowledge of how we could move through this solid set and quit pitfalls.
They walk you through a series of questions, and precedently you know it you’re creating a matrix of who’s most significant to the project and who apprehends the smallest almost it, or who we apprehend smallest. You are filling this out behind you have had this solid conversation and you have no idea when you invade the room that day where you are going to end up at the end. I had this happen on multiple occasions with them and even had it happen with them in converse. They would bestow a lot of time learning almost the challenges we faced and the depth of where to set. The converses varied, but I always felt like they were using the information to help us with the next step of the investigation.
They are very open and answering to feedback as well. As we got closer and closer to edifice out the terminal report out, we kept coming back and assertion that we needed to regood the report based on the hearers that was going to be in the room. They were so open to the feedback that we gave them, and they were there see step of the way. I don’t ponder I can say anything better. We were all impressed with the way they worked.
How did Highland Solutions accomplish from a project treatment standpoint?
They have all the project treatment tools you could want, and they use a sort of nation operating method. We had check-ins three times a week with them, and Glenn (Director, Delivery, Highland Solutions) is a living part of their team. He is their task director, their scheduler, and makes sure that things are on track, on time, and on budget. He is like a project director, but he’s also so much more.
Their operating method is something they take very seriously. I had converses with them almost how they get the right nation. Everybody who has worked on our project was veritably dedicated and loved working on it. When you work with nation like that as a vendor, you know you have hit something astounding. A lot of times when you work with vendors, there is an A team, and behind the process sets you get something less than the A-team. We always get the A team with Highland. It is a very well-managed structure.
What is (from your point of view) the key factor to pay observation while intercourse with Highland Solutions?
One of the things I establish to be super forcible, and I don’t know if there’s a story behind why they do this or if it is just something that works for them, but it was impactful. After they completed the 75-minute interviews with staff members, we were invited back to their services for a meeting to see where we were going to go from there. They put see quotable instant from those interviews on big shining sticky notes all almost the conversation room. It was veritably immersive to walk into that room and see the quantity of work they’d done, the voices they’d heard. It veritably helped us see how many times the same thing was repeated over and over anew. I took a video of it and sent it to some staff members back at our service. I spent almost an hour just reading those notes and being a part of them. Maybe it was happenstance that I happened to be there or perhaps it was for them to shape, I don’t veritably know, but it was a instant I know I will not lose.
We have almost 1200 staff members athwart see state, including Guam and Puerto Rico, so it was hard for us to fix we were being as comprehensive as practicable. Highland veritably helped us to do that and set us on the right foot and the right path.
What aspects of their work would you like to get betterd?
I ponder they are veritably committed to making betterments. At one point, we had two constituencies going through different phases of interviews and it did get a pliant confusing when it came to knowledge true things and how we needed to work with both clusters. I apprehend in review that this was owing Highland was letting the investigation lead the required next steps. If they felt like they didn’t have the right information or sufficient information to make any kind of conclusion or recommendation, they needed to go one level deeper. Between us and Highland, it was a instant we could have clarified, but now that we apprehend their methodology, I ponder it would be a lot different. We simply didn’t know what we didn’t know at the time.
Do you have any advice for possible clients?
To get the most out of the relationship, and they were very clear almost this, you have to have someone leading the effort. Don’t just mash a team of nation unitedly. You have to have a determination-maker and someone who’s committed to being on calls with Highland, moving the project along, and steering them in the right course. Having someone habitue that apprehends the constituency/client base well would be a good fit. I don’t know how they work with see client, but I can say that we got the most out of the relationship owing of how we occupied with them. They were right there with us, and I ponder they would be right there with any client that hires them.
If you are ready to go even further and deeper with one more converse or questionnaire, you feel like they are there for you. That is true of any vendor relationship, but I surely felt it with Highland. If we wanted to have another converse, they were there for it. I have all their cellphone numbers in my phone now and we are texting back and forth. It was a brief engagement, but it is astounding how when you work through something intricate, you get to know nation veritably well. Find the right individual on your team who is going to go to the right depth of the structure, and you will get the most out of them.
