This organizational design program was conducted by frog design for a non-profit client. The project - research to business strategy to service design and business roadmap - was developed over the course of four months.

PROBLEM:

A professional association is facing declining enrollment amongst it's field’s newest graduates and is concerned about the long-term sustainability of the organization. What’s it to do to both stay relevant and afloat? How might we influence a politically complex organization, with national, state, and local leadership?

SOLUTION: 

This open-ended problem could result in any number of outcomes or solutions, and it did. frog presented options to the client and they ultimately decided on a service that provided an additional revenue stream via connecting new graduates with experienced practitioners.

PROCESS:

Understanding the Client + the User
We began this engagement by interviewing key stakeholders to understand the internal dynamics of the organization, their membership strategy and vision, and ownership of different initiatives.

Then we went into the field and spoke to graduating students and those early in their career about their career path, ambitions, and struggles; interactions with the organization; and the value of subscriptions and memberships.

Combining User Needs + Market Opportunities to Create Value
During the synthesis process--combining observation, pattern identification, and by asking why and so what--we were able to understand the motivations and influences for this group of graduates. We identified key needs and themes and translated those into opportunity areas. 

We looked to the market to analyze these opportunities and see if and how the marketplace was currently serving them. We brainstormed a number of concepts as potential solutions, iterating on them until they became more impactful and profitable.

We also further classified our members into archetypes based on key motivations identified in the research. We decided on a target, then determined which service offerings best supported them.

The FINAL stretch:

Defining the Service
Now that a concept was selected, it became time to add shape to it. We defined the system requirements and necessary features for the digital product, then defined a sample story flow with storyboards (not shown here) to illustrate the greater service.
 

OUTCOME: 

frog was able to successfully build a case for the service and get in buy-in for the idea at various levels of the organization. They are now preparing for a pilot.
 

CONTRIBUTIONS:

• Research screener
• Research discussion guides
• Interviews
• Analysis and Synthesis
• Opportunity brainstorming
• Archetype development
• Customer journey map
• Use case definition
• Concepting
• Feature development
• Experience principles
• Brand filter