Maxine Tzeecheen Yuan | UXR: Spontaneous Conversations in a Remote Workpalce

Background and Goals

About the client: TEECOM is a technology-consulting company; their motto is "We make technology work in buildings." They specialize in implementing technological assets, such as security systems, internet, etc., into offices, lecture halls, and in general - buildings. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, TEECOM has forgone their physical office and is staying remote (permanently).

TEECOM has tried a number of things to increase employee engagement, such as weekly employee satisfaction surveys known as OfficeVibe (which all had very high marks), as well as implementing the Slack integration called Donut to have two people meet and talk. However, prior research in the company indicated that co-workers felt Donut interactions felt forced, artificial, and sometimes even awkward.

Our final product was an intended Zoom integration where workers can meet in the Lobby to talk, have side-conversations with each other through audio/video chat, and a Town Hall platform for large company events - mostly with the same functionalities as Spark Lobby.

For this project, I was the Project Lead/Manager and User Researcher. As the project lead, I partook in all team activities, managed deadlines, and presented findings to my group's stakeholders. I was also the sole book writer for this project (we documented our processes into an ebook and then printed book).

My team was a group of 6 - with 3-4 designers and 3 researchers (one of our researchers/designers was a double role).
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Explorative research goals:

How do we recreate spontaneous interactions in a remote environment?
What has prior research said and done already?
What kind of apps/products exist now in an attempt to solve this same problem?

User research goals:

What does the term "employee engagement" mean to remote workers?
What are other companies doing with a remote work model? Is it working well or not? Why or why not? What do workers think of it?
Is TEECOM doing too much to increase employee engagement?

Design research goals:

What do workers prioritize the most during work hours?
How do we create online, spontaneous interactions that are not awkward nor forced?
How can our system accommodate for so many different types of people - and thus a variety of needs and desires?

Methods

To carry out this research project, my group utilized the following methods:‍

Qualitative Methods

Literature review
Competitive analysis
33 in-depth interviews with workers outside off TEECOM and TEECOM employees
Qualitative and quantitative testing

Analysis

Iterative qualitative coding
Iterative insight discussions and writing

Data Synthesis

7 archetypes
7 empathy maps
6 user journey maps

Figure 1: Qualitative coding organization and categorization via DoveTail

(Fun fact: that's not all the categories or tags. The amount is so astronomical that two desktop monitors cannot fit all the tags.)

Figure 2: Iterative coding for each interview (yes, 33 total!)

Crucial Insights

(there's so many... where do we even begin?)

The following three findings were critical in our product development:

Nearly all 33 interviewees noted that non-work related discussions, jokes, and conversations happened before meetings begin.‍
Workers value productivity and efficiency the most, regardless of which industry they were in. This meant that our product could not be "live" (eg controlling an avatar during work hours).
Co-worker bonding also primarily occurred during work hours, meaning that many were not willing to sacrifice after-hours to chat and bond - unlike traditional happy hours.

Consequently, our product must fit all three criteria.

Other primary findings include how we identified 7 different archetypes - or user types - which resulted in a wide variety of needs and wants. Addressing these different needs/wants was part of our product goal.

Secondary findings validated the initial research results that TEECOM has. Such validated insights include how remote workers felt that spontaneous opportunities are "nice to have but are not a must." Additionally, TEECOM's workers felt apprehensive about Donut; it worked well when paired with somebody who has a common interest, but when it didn't, conversations felt forced, awkward, and even bred social-anxiety.

Want to read more about our project and process? Check out our ebook! It's a big file, so we recommend downlaoding it.

Alternatively, feel free to email me (mtyuan@uci.edu) to 'spark' a conversation with me (no pun intended).
I'd love to talk to you about what we did, and how we did it!

Figure 3: Iteratively generating insights on DoveTail

Research Impact

Problem Impact:

UXR has championed this project and its solution, prompting possible behavior changes for spontaneous conversations in remote work. We tackled an issue that many others have tried, but for us, we solved it with extensive research - even consulting 30+ academic papers. Our solution is loved by our remote workers who tested our product.

Our product solution fulfills the needs and desires of a variety of workers, ranging from HR, engineering, software development, and project managers.
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Our product also accommodates for a wide range of personalities: those who are introverts, workers who are married and have a family, new hires, and more.
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Strategic Impact:

This journey has left a legacy with our client, TEECOM, who intends to continue to work on our prototype to bring it to fruition. It will not only be deployed in TEECOM but also for their potential clients.

Stakeholder Collaboration Impact:

A ripple effect for UXR buy-in: TEECOM has a high buy-in for UX, and they promote this buy-in with their potential clients. Check out their blogpost on our project!

^{“I like where this is headed.}^{I like this is like the old watercooler chats.}^{So we are getting together, we are getting ready to go into a meeting, and we have a chance to just chat it up a little bit before we start our meeting." - Tester 2

"}^{I don't ever join meetings early, just because I'm in work mode.}^{So if I was, given that prompt of, ‘Oh,}^{Spark is being used now.’ So I can join early and start talking with people, I would definitely choose that}^{.” - Tester 4}

Figure 4 (above): A GIF of our prototype to show the heart of our concept, "bubble groups." Bubble groups are to help: facilitate audio/video side-conversations in an online space, give users control of who they want to talk to, and happens before a Zoom meeting begins.

Reflections and Learnings

Technology and its limits: make no mistake, technology cannot replicate every situation in reality in a 1:1 ratio. However, that doesn't mean we cannot try. This project has challenged that mindset that while technology has its limits, there can be another solution that is equally good if not better.
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Stakeholder buy-in and their collaborative support: our project would not have been possible without the support of TEECOM, our contact at TEECOM, and TEECOM's employees!
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Understanding my strengths/weaknesses as a researcher: this project has made me understand myself better as a UXR. I can "read between the lines" for insights and patterns, not commonly seen; however, this is a "big picture" approach. Working with my Lead User Researcher, I've come to realize that this approach causes me to miss small details that are equally as important if not enlightening. This is something I intend to work on.

Trusting and pushing my team beyond our limits (but not overly so): receiving feedback from my team, I have a tendency to push my members to have things done by the early half of the week. This fast-paced was not without its challenges, but when disaster struck (and it did), that management style has extensively helped my design team in generating more solutions the design problems they were facing.

In the words of my Lead Researcher, who managed in my absence when crisis struck, "I think you really push us to have things done early... and I really think that's paying off now. We only have 1 or 2 days left, but because of your planning, we don't feel rushed. We can sit down and come up with more ideas..."

Special thanks:
I would like to extend my full gratitude to my project team: Mara da Silva, Sharon Peng, Yujie Qiu, Yemengxue (Michelle) Zhang, and Divya Yendapally. When crisis struck one of my closest families, whom almost lost her life several times, my absence was inevitable. I could not have asked for a better team to manage and operate themselves during my absence - making phenomenal progress.

I would also like to extend my thanks to our stakeholder and client, TEECOM, and our contact Eli Phillips, for presenting us with a challenging problem that nearly all remote workforces face.

Last but not least, to my faculty advisors, professors, and the University of California, Irvine's MHCID program for accepting me as part of cohort 6 to take part in this capstone.