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User-Driven Innovation

Co-Designing the Future of
the New Social Intranet Together

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Company
Timing

Role
UX-Reseacher & Consultant
No team

Location
Multiple locations,
The Netherlands

Year
2018

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Methods

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Design Thinking, The elements of UX, design-workshops, cardsorting, Moscow-model

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Tools

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Sharepoint, Microsoft 365 & Microsoft Whiteboard

anchor: TimingPortfolioScrolldown

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1. Who is Timing?

Timing is one of the largest employment agencies in the Netherlands, specializing in providing flexible staffing solutions for a wide range of industries. Their focus is on matching the right people with the right jobs, helping businesses grow while supporting employees in finding work that fits their skills and needs.

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2. The challenge 

Timing found itself in need of a new social intranet. Their old intranet was like a floppy disk in a smartphone world--it just couldn’t keep up with how people worked and communicated. Timing hadn’t yet mapped out their employees' needs, but they knew the old system wasn’t cutting it. My role was to identify those needs and translate them into actionable requirements.

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3. The goal

With no clear understanding of their employees' needs, Timing recognized it was time for a change. That’s where I came in—embarking on an exciting journey to map out those needs, transform them into actionable requirements, and ultimately develop a low-fidelity prototype.

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4. Services

Since this was my second major UX assignment, I knew I was ready for the challenge. This time, however, the ultimate goal was to create a functional interface. To achieve this, I combined the Elements of UX framework with Design Thinking.

But that’s not all! Get ready for some exciting UX methods:

We worked with personas, held workshops, created word clouds, did paper prototyping, and much more. Scroll down for a detailed look at the entire process!

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So, What did I do?

​#spoiler: I started with the end-user
& I made this cool animated Timeline

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​ Time for some cool photos

Don't you think so?

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Play animation again!

Process: Embracing 'Trial and Error' as the Process!

Let me walk you through the model:
It all starts at the bottom, where the new product is still vague and abstract, right? For the new intranet, Timing had some clear goals (as expected), and the users had their needs. That's where I came in to bridge the gap. Let’s dive in:

 1. In the empathize phase, I explored the users' tasks and environments, quickly realizing the importance of speed in the timing industry. Instant access to information was crucial, and delays could mean lost customers. From this, I defined two core user goals: Information and Social, represented by personas.

2. In the define phase, I clarified the problem and set the groundwork for my research. I used two approaches: a KANO-based survey and a creative workshop with tools like a graffiti wall, word cloud, card sorting, and paper prototyping.

3.  Admittedly, the KANO survey didn't yield the expected results. It became clear that many of Timing's goals didn't align with the actual needs of their employees. However, I quickly adapted my strategy and turned to the workshops to compensate for this setback. In the workshop, we gathered user goals, refined them using the Moscow method, and transformed them into descriptive features. These requirements were incorporated into an impressive end-user-made paper prototype.

Outcome & Learnings

In the final advisory report, I crafted an implementation plan based on interviews with social intranet experts and my research data. I also developed a program of requirements and future use case personas/scenarios.

Throughout this project, I gained valuable experience as a junior Human Technology engineer, tackling my second major UX research project. One key learning moment was realizing the KANO method wasn’t fully understood in one of my approaches. To address this, I focused more on gathering requirements during the workshop.

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