MyPlan
Connecting employees to their organization's gender equality initiatives
Decision makers in male-dominated industries use the Best Practices Framework (BPF) to foster workplaces that provide equal opportunities to women. However, they struggle to organize and distribute practices to their employees. I led strategy and design for MyPlan which gives business leaders a centralized space to share up-to-date practices relevant to their organization. Since 2023, over 20 initiatives were created using MyPlan which helped 68% of Engendering Industries partners promote women at the same rate as men.
Team
1 Product Owner, 2 Developers
Role
UX Research, Product Design
Timeline
3 months
Empathize
Business Problem
The BPF saw less than 400 views last year; a small fraction of the 98 organizations implementing the framework. I started speaking with business leaders and their employees to understand their struggles with adopting the BPF.
Business Leaders
Meeting-filled people who make decisions at a high level and leave the details to the BPF.
Goals
Learn best practices for a more gender equal workplace
Help employees on team adoption of gender equality initiatives
Provide valuable, research-backed initiatives to leadership to make decisions on company policies
Needs
A resource that has easily shareable information. PDF, email, and website
Expects resource to be scannable since some sections will not apply to her group
Wants to be able to send links to resources and search for specific content
Employees
Individuals working in low data areas who have limited access to PDFs and high-res images.
Goals
Contribute to company culture and do their part in providing an inclusive work environment
Digest short and easy to read material so it does not impact their job speed
Share materials with other coworkers when asked
Needs
Guided material that provides actionable steps to follow
Digest short and easy to read material so it does not impact their job speed
An always up-to-date reference that they can access in the field (low data environment)
Journey Map
I focused in on how business leaders use the BPF and found that getting practices to employees involved too much heavy lifting.
Find Best Practices
Managers collaborated with Engendering Industries to identify best practices for their company to implement.
Copy-paste or screenshot practices
Then, they paste text or images into a document, presentation, or email.
Send blurry images or large PDFs to employees
And give it to employees via email or in person.
On top of that, employees had a hard time receiving PDFs and screenshots since most of their work involved being outdoors.
User Problem
Business leaders require resources to help them get selected practices to employees.
Define
Competitive Analysis
What shape will this feature take?
Baseline
I first looked at many existing digital frameworks (M3 Playbook) which follow a similar structure to the BPF but offer little in personalization.
Big Picture & Plans
Then, I remembered how I would create "plans" for my college course schedule. This seemed most in-line with the kind of plans being created with Best Practices.
Smaller details
Each phase in the BPF has multiple practices, so I decided to mirror a Product Management tool's stories and issues.
Suggested User Flow
As a team, we agreed upon an enhanced user flow that helps business leaders get practices to employees with minimal effort.
View the Best Practices Framework
Add relevant practices to MyPlan
View added practices to MyPlan
Distribute MyPlan to employees by copy-paste or link
Instead of business leaders compile and send these resources themselves.
Objective
How might we help business leaders organize and distribute a Best Practices plan?
Iteration
Integrating throughout the Best Practices Framework
Cards vs. Tables
Practices needed to be updated to reflect the addition of MyPlan. I explored a check-boxed table approach and one where you add and remove cards. Although the table allows for sorting, it proved to be too complicated compared to adding and removing.
MyPlan Details
Most requests asked for the ability to still export their practices as a PDF, so the MyPlan screen went through multiple revisions to reflect functionality important to those who use the feature. I also added enhancements like "return to phase" and "keep exploring" to help users return to exploring practices while inside MyPlan.
Cart Idea
One of the earlier concepts involved a sidebar cart that slid out for MyPlan. We eventually removed the idea as the pattern resembled a shopping cart too much and added confusion.
Testing
Onboarding
After prototyping, the proof of concept went through a few rounds of user testing to ensure refined user journeys.
One major flaw stuck out. Users found MyPlan intuitive, but they had difficulty starting from an empty plan. To use MyPlan effectively, we introduced the Rapid Assessment that takes first time users through a series of questions to pre-populate MyPlan for them.
Small Details
Adding to MyPlan from the Assessment
Early concepts of Onboarding Results had a 'suggested reading' below answers to the assessment. Later, we incorporated the practices into the answers for a more streamlined appearance and added the ability to add all suggestions.
Launch
My Plan
For developer handoff and product launch, I created a comprehensive and responsive high fidelity prototype.
Assessment
The length and result of the assessment was determined through usability testing where we found a comprehensive quiz and actionable results page made the most sense.
Assessment in Progress
Assessment Results
Practices are easily added and removed throughout the Framework
Style Guide
I compiled the BPF into a cohesive style and identity for the Best Practices Framework to be used in desktop, mobile, presentation, and other media.
Design System
The Best Practices Framework was added to Engendering Industries' existing design system, which I also led. I was responsible for creating the overarching site's comprehensive and responsive design system. It involved 0-to-1 identity, designing styles for all template pages, and delegating tasks to graphic designers.
Reflection
For my first major product release, I held the majority of responsibility for design. I realized understanding the BPF was crucial for change, and how important simply reading it and meeting with its authors can be. I learned when to be firm and confident while presenting to stakeholders, something that will continue throughout my career. I also learned to trust my coworkers; this MVP would not have been released without collaboration from other designers and members on my team.
In 2024, we transformed the BPF into a product that re-imagines how leaders organize and share practices with employees. I received support and guidance from my Creative Director, CEO, Director of Project Management, and the entirety of the client's team. I took on many unfamiliar challenges in this project and am thankful for all the help I received!