Design and Research > Thoughtworks
About Thoughtworks
Thoughtworks is a global consulting company working with clients from airlines to healthcare to federal.
My Role
As a Lead, Running the show on the ground and hands-on.
North American Lead for innovation and new technology
Case studies
Perception io
My role: Experience lead.
Problem to solve:
Fitness in the age of COVID
My role: Research lead.
Problem to solve: When the country went into lockdown in 2020, Thoughtworks was looking for ways to engage hard-hit industries such as fitness centers. We set out to conduct research to shed light on how the industry should adapt to survive. Ideally, we would conduct intercept studies, but due to lockdown restrictions and health concerns, we needed to find another way.
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Solution: I decided on surveys and online interviews. I crafted a draft interview guide and survey, conducted a small series of interviews over Zoom to “test the test,” then sent the survey to a broader audience, allowing people space to provide qualitative responses to each of the questions and opt-in for further interviews. The survey was sent to company personnel across North America, personal connections, and the link made public and connections asked to share broadly to gather data from as broad a set of respondents as possible. In total, we conducted ten qualitative interviews and had 75 survey responses. I then coded the qualitative responses to allow us to obtain quantitative trends from qualitative data. Results: Research uncovered attitudes toward what “fitness” means and how potential clients could apply this to their business, and was used in pitches to potential clients. (Publication) |
Healthcare data company
My role: Product, Research, and Design lead.
Problems to solve: The client had no existing formal research practices, a product manager who was making the transition from SME to product, and they were creating a new product to address a competitive threat. I was coach to the product manager and also leading research.
Solution: Conduct a series of interviews with potential customers and synthesize findings into product direction. Facilitate usability studies on prototypes to test those solutions.
Results: Research had a direct impact on what features to build and in 6 months we launched an alpha version of the product that clients report makes them more effective and efficient (client story). I also introduced research methodologies in a scalable manner (e.g. templates for scheduling and conducting interviews) to be used on future versions and additional products. This was also one of the first research projects for Thoughtworks, which had traditionally been development-focused, and I shared internally through brown-bags, created an archive of materials for other groups to use with their clients, and acted as a resource for other teams wanting to do research.
Leadership coaching organization
My role: Engagement and Product lead.
Problems to solve: A leadership coaching organization was looking for ways to scale its services – which had been time-intensive due to the nature of coaching – and improve their bottom line.
Solution: I lead the discovery team in a series of workshops, interviews, and market research to identify operational improvements and new product opportunities.
Results: In six weeks, we identified opportunities to improve operational efficiency (both to speed the onboarding process and reduce the revenue drain) as well as new products; recommendations were used by the client in pitches to VCs.
Department of Veteran Affairs
My role: Product lead.
Problem to solve: The VA is a huge, old organization with old software and processes. Thoughtworks was hired to aid their modernization efforts; I lead process improvement research.
Solution: Conduct a series of interviews, workshops, and a review of existing processes to determine the ideal solution that would work within their ecosystem.
Results: In six months, I introduced a new product cycle and modernization review process that takes into account the complexities of their ecosystem, provides structure to guide teams to improved practices, and enables the modernization review board to evaluate which systems to modernize and thus their roadmap.
Hybrid/Remote work
My role: Research lead.
Problem to solve: Originally travelling consultancy which had travelled to client sites, COVID lockdown had changed the working model. As the world was re-opening, Thoughtworks needed to understand employee views toward in-office vs remote and business travel, not just in terms of how often people wanted to commute, but as a consulting company, when we thought it was important to be in the same room as clients.
Solution: I conducted a series of interviews and sent out a survey to the company. I started with a few interviews to “test the test,” then developed the survey – leaving room for qualitative responses, and allowing respondents to opt-in for further clarification. I then coded the qualitative responses, conducted further interviews where needed, synthesized the qualitative and quantitative responses, and provided proposals.
Results: Findings were used by leadership for guidance on both office policy and crafting our offerings to our clients (e.g. when we would travel on-site).