Multi-Touchpoint Design Strategy
Client: JP4 Foundation
Team: Amanda Snyder, Mica Mei Kwan, Morgan May, Mike Roth
My Roles: UX Research, Strategy, Design & Presentation
Methods: Secondary Research, Stakeholder Walkthrough, Personas, Sketching, Touchpoint Strategy Map
Tools: Figma, FigJam, iMovie
TL;DR
PROBLEM
JP4 needs specific user-centric approaches to communicating their unique value proposition effectively to each of their varied (and differing) target audiences. Leveraging existing UX work, research and data, JP4 needs a clear picture of how to disseminate the right information, at the right time, to the right people.
SOLUTION
A multi-touchpoint design strategy geared towards school leaders that takes into account the specific timing of decision-making for extracurricular programming and school budget timelines.
PROJECT INTRODUCTION
CLIENT INFORMATION
John “Johnny” Price IV was a high school student like many others - a standout student, a star athlete, a kind friend… but also a little forgetful. He frequently came to his parents asking for money to replace his lost or broken athletic gear. His parents, being in a position to meet all of Johnny’s wants and needs, helped him replace this gear without much thought.
After Johnny tragically passed away in an automobile accident in the winter of 2015, his parents were surprised to learn that he had not been entirely honest with them. While they thought they were purchasing baseball gloves and cleats for their son, it turned out that Johnny had been using this money to provide athletic gear to other students who did not have the same economic advantages as him.
Inspired by Johnny’s generosity, the JP4 foundation was established to honor this amazing young man and carry on his legacy. The JP4 foundation has evolved in the past 6 years to focus on helping underserved youth from Minneapolis and St. Paul build lifelong healthy habits that will positively impact their lives with a holistic approach to their well-being through after-school programming and summer camps.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
Though JP4 has managed to build connections with a handful of Twin Cities charter schools, they do not currently have the capacity to expand their after-school program, called the Diamond Club, as desired. These connections are primarily made through word of mouth within their existing network. The Diamond Club is expensive to run, and JP4 needs to develop a strategy to receive a greater financial investment from participating schools in order to scale up. This strategy needs to be organized, efficient and effective.
RESEARCH & INSIGHTS
Our team focused our research efforts in 4 different areas:
🧢 What schools currently exist in the Twin Cities that could benefit from after-school programming like the Diamond Club?
🧢 What does after-school programming look like in Twin Cities schools?
🧢 What funding options exist for after-school programming?
🧢 What can we learn from competitors/comparators?
We learned that:
🧢 There are dozens of charter schools in the Twin Cities that match the demographics that JP4 is seeking to serve.
🧢 Most of these schools do not currently have robust after-school programming
🧢 Though many organizations exist that provide similar services as JP4, most of these do not offer push-in programming onsite in the way that JP4 does.
🧢 There are quite a few resources out there to help underfunded schools access grants and other funding options that could help them to afford to implement JP4’s programming!
Screenshot of our research notes
EARLY IDEATION
BRAINSTORMING
As we considered our design strategy, we decided to hone in on 2 overlapping areas:
🧢 Marketing the JP4 program to Twin Cities Charter School leaders in a manner that takes their unique needs and timeline into account
🧢 Identifying funding options that would reduce the barrier to entry for these schools
PERSONA
We got ourselves in the mindset of a charter school principal by creating a persona. As a former educator in the charter world, this took very little imagination for me. I know intimately the pain points and opportunity areas that these incredible school leaders face day in and day out!
Principal John (who loves to be called “PJ”) has recently taken over the leadership of the elementary campus in a charter network based in South Minneapolis. He is the fourth principal to lead this school in its 9 years of existence. This is his first time being a school principal, and he is coming in with lots of passion and great ideas to address some of the systemic issues that have plagued the school for years. However, once he arrived at the school he discovered that there were many fires to put out. The vast majority of the student body were not achieving grade level standards, explosive student behaviors were causing learning to be interrupted on an almost hourly basis, and staff were stretched to the breaking point. Because of this, PJ found himself working reactively throughout the first half of the school year, and had to backburner some of his ideas, including implementing afterschool programming.
Bearing in mind our user persona and our 2-prong approach, we developed a strategy statement:
All user experience touchpoints for JP4 will help school leaders and decision-makers to feel supported and invested (literally and emotionally) so that they are able to offer a high-quality after-school program to meet kids’ academic, physical, and social-emotional needs.
DESIGN STRATEGY STATEMENT
LOW-FIDELITY TOUCHPOINT MAP
We thought through the journey that a principal would take with JP4; from awareness to consideration, commitment, and then implementation.
We identified all the moments and touchpoints along the way that would be required throughout this journey. We developed a low-fidelity touchpoint map to represent this journey.
FINAL STRATEGY
Leaning on my experience of working in schools, we realized that the timing of our strategy would need to be tied thoughtfully to the school year and the school’s fiscal year.
We determined that our strategy would need to begin in the winter after the school has settled back into a routine post-holiday break, as this is the time that school leaders begin thinking about planning for the upcoming year.
We also determined that the final phase would need to take place by the time the final budget for the next school year is approved by the school board in the Spring.
TOUCHPOINT MAP
With this in mind, we determined the timeline for the three phases that we identified in our strategy:
AWARENESS: Late January - Early February
The goal in this phase is to schedule a meeting with a key stakeholder at the target schools. To reach this goal, JP4 will contact target schools with 4 phone call and email pairings, and one postcard mailing. Each communication will include specific reference to the target school’s demographics and test scores, the value JP4 provides, and why JP4 is a good match for the target school.
This phase is successful when a meeting is scheduled. When this happens, JP4 can move into the next phase.
CONSIDERATION: Mid-February - April
The goal in this phase is for the target school to agree to run the Diamond Club. To reach this goal, JP4 will have a pitch meeting with a key stakeholder at the target school and follow-up communications.
After the pitch meeting, JP4 will send a follow-up email with some logistics/next steps and additional resources that might be needed. JP4 will follow-up with at least 3 additional phone call and email pairings to gain traction.
This phase is successful when the target school agrees to run the Diamond Club. When this happens, JP4 can move to the next phase
COMMITMENT: April - End of June
Commitment occurs from April to the end of June. The goal in this phase is to secure funding from the school for JP4 and have that approved in the school budget. To reach this goal, JP4 will have ongoing email communication with the target schools. JP4 will also likely be in communication with other school stakeholders such as board members.
This phase is successful when the Diamond Club is approved in the school budget.
If by the final school board meeting in June the Diamond Club is not approved in the budget, JP4 will reevaluate and explore further options with the target school. This might include looking at other funding options.
TOOLS & RESOURCES
To help JP4 navigate these phases, we created a number of tools for our client:
1. A detailed timeline showing when each touchpoint should occur within a given phase
2. A list of criteria for JP4 to identify Target Schools for Diamond Club programming
3. A list of 13 Twin Cities Charter Schools that match the identified criteria
4. A tracker to be used while moving through the phases with each target school
5. An outline of the pitch to be given when meeting with school leaders with annotations and links to helpful resources
PRESENTATION
We created a video presentation for our client detailing our strategy and the tools provided
CONCLUSION
RECOMMENDATIONS & NEXT STEPS
As a part of our final presentation, I created a list of recommendations for JP4 to consider that would make the Diamond Club program even more appealing to school leaders, as their implementation would increase the impact of the organization on both students and their families. These recommendations are based on the training I have received from over a decade of working with children that match the demographics that JP4 is seeking to serve. With more time, my next step would be to find supporting research to reinforce these recommendations.
Another next step for our team would include conducting interviews with school leaders and decision-makers to gain their insight into the proposed strategy & timeline, and to determine if there are any missing pieces that would compel them to partner with JP4 and implement the Diamond Club in their schools.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Overall, this strategy will help steer the JP4 foundation and give more structure to how it conducts its work with schools. By giving specific times in which to act, this plan allows the JP4 foundation to be more efficient and more focused with its time and energy. This will allow the organization to expand to include more partnerships, more resources, and, most importantly, more children who can receive all the benefits that JP4 has to offer.
