Research
Research included a survey that would be sent out company wide using slack - the primary shared form of communication - as well as interviews and secondary research of other tools that allowed for connection.
A concept to encourage connection and collaboration within AKQA’s global network.
Role
Creator, Researcher, and Product Designer
As a creative at AKQA, my coworkers and I were running into a couple pain points over and over again. I didn’t feel connected to the agency on a global scale. I vaguely knew that there were several other studios out there making great work, but I didn’t know what their work was or who they were. I knew that AKQA was a global brand, but I didn’t know how far reaching or influential the work we were doing was. We also were having a difficult time finding and connecting with other creatives to collaborate and share knowledge about specific clients, industries, or types of projects. We knew there were thousands of employees at AKQA who could provide information or knowledge about their previous and current work, but there was no one resource to find and connect with them.
I recruited the help of a fellow creative and we set off to gather research, establish goals, come up with feature lists and creative solutions, create a timeline and propose the concept to leadership.
Research included a survey that would be sent out company wide using slack - the primary shared form of communication - as well as interviews and secondary research of other tools that allowed for connection.
We chose to step back and decide if we could provide solutions with current internal platforms. We found that although AKQA had several platforms of communication and information dispersal, none of them could efficiently be used to achieve both goals. For example, Slack was widely used across every studio, however it didn’t allow employees to discover the people or studios they needed to talk to. The AKQA Weekly featured studios, work, and people from around the world, but didn’t provide the opportunity for a two way communication or an option to search work.
Create an internal tool or service that increases efficiency by maximizing our global network of talent and expertise.
Allows employees to more easily connect and collaborate.
Demonstrates our breadth of global capabilities.
Showcases the beautiful spaces in which we work.
We began with three main groups: employees looking to connect, collaborate or learn more about AKQA, recruiters looking to educate and entice prospective employees, and client services members looking to attract new clients. We chose to focus on the first group for our initial rollout while considering recruiters and client services for a later features/iterations.
24. Junior Designer, Portland Office
Elaine focuses in brand design and has been with the company for 3 years. Elaine went to school at RISD. She is single and spends between 50-60 hours per week in the office. Elaine loves riding her bike to work, playing with the dogs in the office, and hiking on the weekends. She leads an active social life on the weekends but prefers to spend most of her evenings at home cooking when she isn’t working late in the office. At work, she looks for mentors - especially strong female leaders. She is friends with several people in the office and regularly spends time outside the office with them.
35. Project Manager, London Studio
Christine just joined the company 2 months ago. She is married with a 3 year old child. She rides public transportation to and from work for 45 minutes each way and usually works while on the train doing administrative tasks like emails and to-do lists for the day. She spends on average 40-45 hours per week in the office. She must leave the office on time each day to get home to her family, so it is very important to her to be efficient during the main working hours in the day.
50. Design Director, São Paulo Studio
Marc has been with AKQA for 7 years and transferred from the Paris office to São Paulo 3 years ago. He is in a relationship and prefers to be home most weekdays while going out on the weekends. He manages a group of designers and is constantly looking for new ways to help them with their careers and work at AKQA, while also pushing his own career. He lives 2 blocks from the office and spends and average of 60 hours a week working. He enjoys concerts and travels somewhere new once a year for a month.
45. Strategist, São London Studio
Quinn has been with AKQA for a year and a half. They work an average of 40 hours a week, but some time periods will work several more hours when putting together a new pitch. They enjoy the city life during the weekends but spend most weeknight at home cooking with their partner and unplugging. They ride public transportation for 30 minutes during their commute and prefer to read news while on the Tube. Quinn loves traveling internationally and locally.
Our users will all come from incredibly different backgrounds and cultures, so the language must be precise and easy to follow.
Our users are busy while they are at work - this product should make their lives and jobs smoother and more enjoyable - not cluttering an already full schedule and desktop.
While connection is important, safety and privacy are more important. We need to be conscientious about everyone’s wishes to remain anonymous or uninterrupted.
Not all of our users will be tech-savvy or have access to high-tech equipment.
Budget and time are valuable resources that we won’t have much of.
Because this is a self-initiated project, we would need the executive team to buy into the idea, fund, and provide resources to make it happen.
We created two different goal-focused categories to base our user flows and features:
The Curious doesn’t have a specific goal in mind but are here to browse through new content.
The Seeker has a specific reason or goal for finding a type of work, person, or studio.
How the employee will interact with the product will be heavily affected by one of these two categories, and each employee will most likely find themselves in both at different points.
After creating a list of features based on our research and insights, we prioritized four core components for first iteration and a subsequent five for the second.
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Taking into consideration the restriction of time, resourcing and budgeting, we chose to use a format that would be easy to implement and already in use with AKQA’s internal system: the company's website with an employee only portal activated by the employee’s AKQA email. We prioritized the ability to utilize our slack channels whenever possible. Concepts also included different physical installations and programing concepts.
As a way to announce the product to employees, I concepted different activation installation ideas that would serve as a launch announcement but also a tangible solution to the concept of connection With each installation, employees can scan a QR code that would take them to the sign-on portal.
Screens will be installed in each lobby of AKQA offices around the world that display a map of the world marking the 21 global offices. By utilizing Slack conversations, lines appear between the studios to visually show the connections and communication happening in real time. Each studio is represented through a specific color. As a Slack message is sent to another office, a line with that studio’s color is drawn across the map. This serves as a beautiful installation but also an ever-present reminder of the interconnectedness of the studios around the globe.
Create a digital installation that allows employees to collaboratively create a communal piece of ever evolving art. This can operate through the digital platform – employees contribute a piece of the overall work which is added later, or can be created in real time through an app connected to screens installed in the lobbies.
Along with a screen, each office would also have an iPad with an app that would allow the employee to create a piece of music with shapes and colors. This digital art piece could then be sent to other studios as a finished piece or an invitation to collaborate. The UI would consist of a variety of shapes, colors, and lights that when touched or moved would play a series of musical sounds - allowing anyone to create the music and accompanying art. This back and forth between the studios creates a conversation that transcends language and skillset boundaries.
Based on our "seekers" and "curious", I created a user flow that streamlines the tasks laid out. How each employee interacts with AKQA connect depends on their primary goal, point of entry, current location and more and therefore will have a very different journey.
This project is still being developed at AKQA.
From Project management to wireframing and user flows, I was able to touch on each step of the process with this concept. I got a glimpse into the intricacy of forming a creative team, managing timelines and resources, identifying users and stakeholders, conducting research through surveys and interviews, interpreting data, creating insights, synthesizing insights into actionable concepts and strategies, presenting to stakeholder, and spearheading an internal creative effort.