Learn, Strategize, Activate: Tactics to Innovate and Elevate
Human-Centered Design is a robust practice that leverages a wide range of methodologies to collect insights and spark innovation—and sometimes that feels quite nebulous. In this article, we aim to help keep our feet on the ground by illustrating concrete tactics that fall into one of three phases of the Human-Centered Design process—learn, strategize, or activate. Most often, a Human-Centered Design engagement with Olio will include some combination of tactics from each area.
What is Human-Centered Design? We explain what it is and why its so important in this article.
This list of tactics is by no means exhaustive, but rather a quick survey of the Human-Centered Design landscape. As you read, see which methodologies catch your attention. They might signal an opportunity to move your organization closer to its strategic priorities.
Tactics for Learning
Some people like to talk about the first phase of Human-Centered Design as the discovery or inspiration phase. We simply call it learning, because that’s our focus in this very important step. Regardless of what you call it, these tactics all center around immersing ourselves in your audience’s world and emerging as creative thought partners, capable of leading complex and nuanced work. Let’s take a closer look at the possibilities.
Ethnography
What it is: Ethnography is the study of people and culture, and there’s no better approach to learning and documenting what it’s like to be part of a target audience. It often involves qualitative research like 1-on-1 interviews, shadowing, or photo diaries.
Why it’s valuable: Understanding your audience’s perspective on a strategic priority offers insight into what aspects of a strategy will be effective with your audience, how it should be shared with them, and why. By stepping into someone else’s shoes, we gain empathy to inform strategies and spark ideas for innovation.
Market Research
What it is: Market Research looks closely at a group’s behaviors, motivations and preferences. Focus groups and surveys or questionnaires are common forms of marketing research.
Why it’s valuable: Collecting data on target audience behaviors and preferences helps identify trends and shifts and get a clearer understanding of what’s needed to make programs and services more desirable.
User Experience (UX) Research
What it is: UX research comes in handy when your organization needs to evaluate and improve an existing program or service that requires audience interaction. Examples include A/B testing, analytics, prototyping and innovation sprints.
Why it’s valuable: It helps identify the aspects of the experience that meet your target audience’s needs and are also feasible for your organization to deliver.
Tactics for Strategy
The tactics in this section take what’s gleaned from the Learn section and go a step further. Guided by our deepened understanding of your audiences’ needs and wants, we tap into key insights and ideate solutions to address your organization’s strategic priorities.
Voice of Customer
What it is: Voice of Customer work involves collecting customers’ feedback on their experiences with your organization and using those insights to incrementally inform improvements. Ideally, a Voice of Customer strategy spans your entire organization, so all departments are involved in listening, analyzing and implementing feedback.
Why it’s valuable: It helps your organization check internal biases and assumptions, so you can continue to invest in and grow programs and services that truly matter to your stakeholders. It’s also an opportunity to build more intentional relationships with stakeholders.
Stakeholder Journeys, Lifecycles and Blueprints
What it is: Stakeholder journeys, lifecycles and blueprints help your organization understand the overarching experiences that stakeholders have with your programs or services, and what it takes to successfully guide them through those experiences.
Why it’s valuable: By analyzing how stakeholders interact with a series of touchpoints over time, you are able to empathize with stakeholders' functional, emotional, and social needs at various points throughout their journeys. These insights reveal the make or break moments for your stakeholders’, as well as the touchpoints they need to access your organization’s offerings more consistently and successfully.
Brand Positioning
What it is: Brand positioning refers to the unique space that your organization occupies in the minds of your stakeholders. It encompasses how your organization is perceived, differentiated and valued. Value propositions, key messaging, brand attributes and brand identities are just some of the components that go into brand positioning.
Why it’s valuable: It provides a strategic framework for building awareness, engagement and support among stakeholders. By defining and effectively communicating your organization’s unique value proposition, nonprofits can attract resources, mobilize communities, and create lasting social change.
Tactics for Activation
This last set of tactics are examples of how we bring strategy to life. They often involve crafting communication touch points and experiences, and they are what people typically think of first when thinking about design.
Stakeholder Toolkits
What it is: A stakeholder toolkit is a collection of resources, templates, guidelines and assets designed to facilitate effective engagement with key stakeholders. These stakeholders may include employees, funders, partners, community members and other individuals or groups with an interest in your organization's impact.
Why it’s valuable: Stakeholder toolkits serve several purposes and offer various benefits to organizations, including increased stakeholder agency and autonomy and more turnkey processes for outreach and communication.
Experiential Events
What it is: An experiential event is a gathering that creates meaningful and memorable experiences for attendees. Every aspect of the event is curated with the attendee in mind, including venue selection, layout and decor, program content, technology integration, attendee engagement activities and logistics management.
Why it’s valuable: Experiential events enable your organization to create impactful and memorable experiences that drive engagement, raise awareness, generate revenue and foster relationships, all while advancing your mission and objectives.
Communication Touchpoints and Campaigns
What it is: Communication touchpoints and campaigns encompass any and all points of interaction between your organization and its stakeholders throughout their journey. They can include both digital and offline channels where communication occurs.
Why it’s valuable: Communication touchpoints and campaigns deliver consistent, targeted and personalized communication experiences that enhance your stakeholder’s overall experience, reinforce brand identity and drive positive outcomes.
Your organization’s mission. Our toolbox of tactics. The opportunities are endless.
As Human-Centered Design advisors and practitioners, Olio helps nonprofit organizations look at their strategic priorities and develop action plans to reset, reframe and focus on the future. We do the heavy lifting needed to keep projects moving with intention. As designers we're trained to untangle messes and establish a clear vision for what could be. And by using the tactics above, we seek to understand problems, break them down, and find productive ways forward. We analyze what's going on and offer ideas on how to do things differently. We help you think—and implement—constructively and creatively.