How can we revolutionise workforce knowledge to boost client service and drive sustainable progress?
ESG Playbook
Lead Product Designer, January 2022 - October 2022
📢 Client challenge: KPMG takes pride in its role as an industry leader in delivering ESG-related services that contribute to a brighter future. Nevertheless, not all colleagues are fully aware of the extensive range of ESG consulting services the firm offers. To address this knowledge gap, we have been tasked with designing a digital 'one-stop shop' content management system, encompassing marketing materials, thought leadership content, pitch decks, case studies, delivery collateral, and the necessary technology for crafting ESG proposals and ensuring successful project delivery.
📁 Responsibilities: Conducting discovery workshops to comprehend global requirements for the product and service. Additionally, I conduct interviews to map out the content journey, understand personas and user journeys, and create wireframes and prototypes to support the development process.
🛠️ Tools: Miro | Figma | After effects
Approach:
How do we align the vision and strategy of global senior stakeholders to ensure successful project delivery?
Given the global significance of this project, we've structured our approach into two key phases: the initial opportunity sprint, during which we collaborate with global business leaders to gain a deeper understanding of the project's vision and scope, and the discovery sprint, where we actively engage with stakeholders to conduct research sessions, devise feature designs, and facilitate testing sessions.
Opportunity sprint
During the Opportunity Sprint, the primary emphasis was on framing a challenge and identifying the potential MVP scope through a series of highly collaborative workshops and stakeholder sessions. Throughout this 4-week sprint, we engaged with business leaders worldwide, fostering virtual collaboration to pinpoint the project's initial scope.
Discovery sprint
After the opportunity sprint, we dedicated four weeks to thorough end-user research and technical assessments. Our goal was to validate previously identified features, establish their priorities, and develop recommendations for a future product roadmap in coordination with a proposed delivery plan.
Opportunity sprint
Vision and guiding principles
This task aims to capture the vision and guiding principles provided by our global sponsors, which will serve as the guiding framework for the remainder of the project development process.
Vision and guiding principle workshop
Outputs
Vision
Guiding principles
Opportunity sprint
Business blueprint
The business blueprint activities have enabled us to identify some initial insights from technical, timeline, and value proposition perspectives.
Business canvas
Discovery phrase
Ecosystem mapping
We've initiated an ecosystem mapping exercise to gain a comprehensive understanding of all the stakeholders we should involve in the discovery phase.
Ecosystem mapping
Outputs
Research participants planning
Discovery phrase
Knowledge Board
We established a knowledge board after determining our approach to engaging with stakeholders for conducting research sessions. This board serves as a tool for pinpointing gaps in our understanding and the research methods we intend to employ to address these gaps.
Knowledge board
Research question board
Research:
How do we effectively capture opportunities and pain points when conducting research for a global audience?
Opportunity sprint
Persona development
Some sponsoring team members possess in-depth knowledge of the types of users who might benefit from the product and service. We conducted an initial persona understanding workshop to capture these existing insights. This persona development exercise has assisted us in identifying key interviewees for the discovery phase and formulating the gaps that need to be addressed as interview and survey questions.
Discovery phrase
Surveys
We have crafted a comprehensive survey to evaluate motivation, challenges, and aptitude for potential services. This quantitative approach has enabled us to validate common themes discovered during interview sessions and present a broader dataset to support our recommendations.
Persona development
Outputs
Opportunity sprint
Initial feature list
We have captured the existing insights and knowledge from the project sponsoring team and translated them into a list of potential features. These insights were the foundation for constructing our hypothesis and knowledge board during the discovery phase.
Initial feature list
Outputs
Key feature overview
Survey form
Outputs
Survey result summary
Discovery phrase
Interviews
After scheduling with the relevant research subjects and setting up the interview tracker, we commenced the interview stage. During this phase, we divided our efforts between interviewing potential users and engaging with content publishers and reviewers, aiming to gain a comprehensive perspective on product engagement.
Interview board
Outputs
Discovery phrase
Persona, user journey and adoption journey
Based on the findings from the interviews and surveys, we have constructed a comprehensive understanding of potential users. As a result, we have generated three distinct personas. Furthermore, we have developed their user journeys and explored the adoption process based on our research findings.
Recommendations:
How can we enhance the experience for both content consumers and publishers?
Opportunity sprint
Service blueprint
Once we have identified that the product requires both front-stage content access and backstage content upload, review, and governance, we set up a workshop to better understand the initial service blueprint process. This enabled us to explore the current content capture and access process (as-is), which allowed us to conduct further investigation and generate recommendations for content governance and the sign-off framework during the discovery sprint.
As-is service blueprint
Discovery phrase
To-be service blueprint
Based on the findings from the discovery phase, we were able to propose recommended user journeys for both content consumers and content publishers to engage with the product. This was the foundation for us to create high-fidelity wireframes and prototypes during the design phase.
To-be service blueprint
Design phase
How do we turn vision and insights into reality?
We have decided to use the dark mode to enhance the online reading and content exploration experience. As part of our ongoing efforts to communicate our vision to a global audience within the firm, I have also created a promotional video to showcase the vision for the product.
Design system:
Reflections
Global audience for research
One area where we've identified room for improvement in our ESG playbook project is greater participation in global research, particularly in surveys. Encouraging more active involvement from participants worldwide is crucial to collecting diverse insights and ensuring our ESG initiatives are well-informed. One method we could have used is to develop targeted engagement campaigns encouraging participation in surveys and research activities.
Mobile-first approach
Another significant aspect of our ESG playbook project that requires reflection is our approach to mobile accessibility. We've encountered technical restrictions when attempting to access intranet content via mobile devices, highlighting the need for a "mobile-first" approach from the outset. Moving forward, we must reevaluate our content design and delivery strategy to accommodate mobile users effectively.
“The feedback ESG Playbook received from the clients was absolutely stellar – we got two calls from 2 partners praising the quality of deliverables.”
- Product manager for ESG playbook
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