A colleague and I were chosen as the first Design Lab Fellows for our ideas on how to personalize learning plans to help career transitions and develop employee-led learning tools to keep students engaged. We were given the opportunity to work full-time for three months to build out a proof of concept of our vision. We decided to combine our ideas into one product; I led the learner experience and she led the educator experience. Together we planned, researched, prototyped, tested, and refined our product, Red Spaceship.

Target audience

CX Design employees looking to grow and track their career or find training to prepare for a specific project or role.

Business goal

To increase engagement and retention and fill skill gaps through targeted training for existing employees.

User goal

To be connected with relevant and engaging learning opportunities that link back to professional aspirations.

Outcome

This project spurred conversation and action to evolve career development and progression for CX Design at Verizon.

Generative research and discovery

We kicked off our research by conducting interviews and distributing surveys to learn what CX employees at Verizon were looking for in professional development and learning opportunities, and what their expectations and goals were for career progression. We also looked at examples of what other companies were doing to promote education and help their employees reach their career goals.

Key findings from employee surveys

• CX employees needed more guidance in discovering opportunity areas for growth
• CX employees felt that development wasn’t tied to career progression
• CX employees felt there was no time to fit in learning with their day-to-day responsibilities

User journey and storyboarding

I mapped out a user journey to begin to understand all of the steps a user would have to go through to build out a development plan and the emotional state that they may be in throughout the process.

To help think through key personas and use cases I also built a storyboard. The two archetypes I focused on were the Rapid Reskiller, someone looking to stay fresh in their current role or get up to speed for a specific project, and the Progressive Planner, someone with a specific career progression goal who is looking for opportunities to level up.

Prototyping and concept testing

I worked quickly to prototype and test different pieces of the learner experience to help inform the final design. I used the User Testing platform to record unmoderated sessions of my CX colleagues and other design professionals answering questions as they clicked through prototypes. Below are they key takeaways from three different studies.

Skill assessment study insights

• All users found the skill review survey to be more helpful than the rating scale
• All users liked having performance review data pulled in as a starting benchmark
• Most users noted that they would encourage multiple inputs, from manager, peers, and self rating, in order to have a more accurate view of skill expertise

Guided development plan insights

• CX employees look for input from their manager when setting up a development plan
• They want more transparency in progression pathways and skill definition
• They would like to have a way to track their progress and see results

Learner dashboard study insights

• All users thought the process of setting up a development plan was clear or very clear
• Many users found the dashboard skills rating graphic very useful, but there was some confusion around the terminology used
• Most participants felt that they had enough information to effectively plan their career progression with this experience

The Red Spaceship platform

Incorporating all of the insights I learned along the way, the final vision came together with high-fidelity screens and a presentation to the CX team and leadership.

Red Spaceship helps busy, distributed employees grow their careers by connecting them with relevant and engaging learning opportunities that link back to their professional goals.

Sparking change and engagement

The work that we did for the Design Lab Fellowship helped to spur conversation about career development and progression among the CX staff and leadership. While the vision for Red Spaceship has not yet been piloted, there has been a full audit of the roles and responsibilities of each career band within CX design and a new CMO job taxonomy has been established. A monthly newsletter compiles industry events and opportunities for the team and a new book club meets quarterly.