PART 4 - HEY! THAT’S NOT AN ANSWER

CROSS-CHANNEL ECOSYSTEMS 101

Andrea @Resmini

January 12 2017

WAIT A SECOND, THAT’S NOT AN ANSWER

It is. While a certain project will be initiated because ofa social, organizational, or individual need or pain, that need or

pain is not what generates the ecosystem

That need or pain is a problem space within an ecosystemthat is usually, at project start, largely unknown

HERE YOU GO AGAIN. NEEDS AND PAINS?

Yes. Needs or pains are usually the reason an investigation starts

Examples of organizational pain are “not intercepting the actor’s path because they go to competitors”, “increase our paid-for vs

free customer ratio”, or “enter the online grocery market”

A social pain could be reduce traffic, or promote equality

NOT FOLLOWING. MAYBE AN EXAMPLE? PLEASE?

Sure. Suppose there is a fictional University X whose management wants to “improve their courses”

This need or desire to improve is the organizational pain that serves as the catalyst for the design process

“MAKE OUR COURSES BETTER”

SO WE HAVE PA...

Before we get to that. I find always extremely useful to have the design team produce a rough sketch of the ecosystem as they

see it based on whatever information they possess

This is an iterative process whose primary goal is to provide a canvas for further reflection and a way to make bias explicit

ALRIGHT. PAIN ...

… this can be the ugliest, most terrible sketch ever, or something more refined or structured, depending on resources

The important thing is that it gets to be constantly used and revised, and made like a map / rich picture / system map

Pictures. Links. Not a list, nor a set of requirements

...

You were saying that pains are not solutions, right?

They aren’t. They are a problem space that requires investigation

But then, what about the actors and their experiences?

THEY WANT BETTER COURSES, NO?

Do they?

We know what University X wants to do, and we could argue that University X is an actor (or many different groups of actors), and

we’d be correct, but are they ostensibly the primary actors?

Are they the ones for whom we make better courses?

I GUESS NOT. I WOULD SAY STUDENTS

Correct again, at least in our example. In reality, even that would have to be checked. It might be that a better course means a course that can be approved by some certification authority

Here, let’s say students. So, wouldn’t you agree that we first of all should know what a “better course” is to students?

SURE, BUT WHAT ABOUT TEACHERS, OR STAFF?

Pragmatism is the name of the game, as in all of design

If budget, time, or other constraints allow it, investigate them

If pockets are empty and results due yesterday, stick to the primary group of actors. Remember there’s always more actors

WAIT. WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE’S ALWAYS MORE?

Given any system, its boundaries are arbitrarily established based on the questions being asked

You cannot argue in abstract that the group “students’ partners” is to be included or excluded, for example

OK. BACK ONE STEP. INVESTIGATE PRIMARY ACTORS

Using whatever tools or methods are appropriate, actors are investigated to find out what “a course” is to them

We want to know their goal and the path they travel

Usually, not only there are differences between actor groups, but individual actors in the same group do not see eye to eye

YES, STUDENTS ARE INDIVIDUALS. BUT GOALS?

Students will tell you that a course for them is something they want to pass because they need the credits, or that they want to

learn all of the knowledge, or that they hate school

These “goals” are important in connection with the path they travel through the still unknown ecosystem we are exploring

THE PATH THEY TRAVEL?

At this stage, these different “goals” will probably configure structurally different cross-channel ecosystems

Even though the base elements might or might not be exactly the same, their role, their relationships, and their weight in “the

experience” will be different from actor to actor

ANY WAY YOU CAN MAKE THIS A TAD CLEARER?

For a student who just wants to pass, additional non-compulsory reading material or resources will have little importance

For an off-campus student, the teacher’s office might be useless but a Facebook group or the course online platform essential

Goals and paths through the ecosystem are linked

PART 5 COMING JAN 19

“FUN TIMES WITH PATHS AND MAPS”

Andrea @Resmini