Mapping a company to create understanding.
UX design - information architecture - interviewing
Role & Team
Key Skills
Networking & interviewing.
Information architecture for a complex system.
My Impact
By interviewing roles from across the company, I helped identify areas of opportunity to improve work efficiency & company culture.
TLDR
While working at WillowTree, one of my objectives was to fundamentally understand the functions, strategies, and details of the company.
To understand the company on a motivational level, I interviewed 19 different roles (including C-suite) to map out company strategy at every level, from external factors to detailed execution.
Learning & curiosity!
Seeking to understand the company from an organizational to individual level.
As a naturally curious person and someone who needs to understand the "why" of everything to learn best, I sought to properly understand the company and the underlying motivations for its day-to-day regulations, habits, and workflows. To ensure a deep understanding, I synthesized all the info I learned into a design artifact.
The Problem
Without understanding how the agency was structured as a whole, I couldn’t fully understand the objectives of the day-to-day workflows & relationships I saw.
I was curious about all the details I saw: the organization of roles, office & desk arrangements, monthly office all-hands, the tools prioritized by the company… but the people directly around me didn't know either, so I decided to search for that info.
The Solution
Researching & building a model of the agency’s structure, from how it responds to external forces (eg. economic downturns) to how a tight knit culture is grown.
I love talking to people, hearing from new perspectives, and gaining new understanding; so I decided to talk to as many people as time would allow.
Research
Interviewing 19 different roles (from C-suite to juniors) to get a varied & holistic view.
After first asking around, I realized that many full time employees didn't actually understand the rest of the company; this inspired me to talk to people from every single department. Since it's critical to know objectives to understand details, I also spoke with several C-Suite executives to understand the company from a mission & strategy perspective.
Highlighting relationships
For every role I spoke with, I spent time analyzing its relationship with product design so to better understand the intersection of design across the company.
Spotting Opportunities
While chatting with the office head, my combo of fresh eyes & talking with many roles helped me identify areas of opportunity to improve company culture.
Information Architecture
Adding structure & organization to piles of information.
Since successful learning hinges on making connections between new info and ones' existing knowledge, I knew I'd never remember all the info I'd just ingested without building out a logical structure for it.
Product Scope & Planning
With the new scope of the project, I went back to the drawing board to figure out my objectives.
Ideation & Information Visualization
Due to the atypical structure of the information, I needed a unique way to display the data.
I spent a lot of time thinking through strengths & weaknesses of various approaches. As learning, not deliverables, was the objective, I chose to use familiar Figma prototyping as my medium.
Information Architecture
After mapping out the entire company structure, I realized that the information was too complex to be digestible in a flowchart.
Design & Learning Artifacts
Learning via designing, while creating tools to help future interns understand the company.
Having synthesized all this info, I wanted to use this as a design x information architecture exercise for myself! Making design decisions was difficult, as there wasn't a clear user group at first, but the process helped me better understand how to adapt design processes to any situation.
Information Architecture & Prototyping
