Listening is kindness.
What if you could give people discounts to their favorite retailers for having more productive conversations online?
In this project, seemingly unrelated scholarly & user data were synthesized together to overcome factors that could hinder adoption of a social landscape-altering digital concept.
Roles & Responsibilities
UX Strategist, UX Researcher & UX Writer
Validate strategic business case.
Identify user actions to serve as KPI.
Determine which platform maximizes opportunity to achieve KPI's.
Fulfill user needs & educate user on product function in chatbot flow.
Successfully onboard users into the app dashboard environment.
Identify user actions to serve as KPI.
Determine which platform maximizes opportunity to achieve KPI's.
Fulfill user needs & educate user on product function in chatbot flow.
Successfully onboard users into the app dashboard environment.
Deliverables
A Facebook app chatbot design and accompanying app dashboard.
The Problem
Conversation between users on Facebook routinely degrades into polarizing arguments.
There is a lack of accountability and incentive to change behavioral & speech choices to achieve rapport, from which mutual grounds can be discovered.
There is a lack of accountability and incentive to change behavioral & speech choices to achieve rapport, from which mutual grounds can be discovered.
The Target Market
Regular Facebook users, defined as users active at least 5 days a week and who comment at least 10x per week.
As enhanced wellbeing has been shown in people who practice empathy in communication at least 2x per day, strategic goals are more likely achieved through higher numbers of generated "in kind" comments.
The Solution
Utilizing a chatbot, user concerns about the product are addressed, especially during onboarding, by forming the conversation around research insights.
Software heuristics were incorporated alongside research types to further intentionally synthesize insights into design using features that support user metrics.
Facebook App Chatbot Interface
Facebook App Dashboard Interface
The project scope did not require a full UX design deliverable but below depicts how the accompanying dashboard might first be iterated upon using features that satisfy user goals, wants and needs.
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The Process
A business based on incentivizing listening naturally requires a thorough understanding of relevant human factors.
The work of Stanford University Ph.D. Jamil Zaki was discovered (in massive excitement):
Uncovering Strategic Business Case:
If people can be motivated to choose empathy in their interactions, the likelihood for listening and rapport-building increases dramatically.
A variety of factors influence the decision of an individual to approach or to avoid choosing empathy.
Harnessing these human factors in the user experience would be critical to business strategy execution.
Identify User Actions to Serve as KPI
When "kindness" is the norm, people will be more kind, more often. Furthermore, human psychology shows that kindness itself is emotionally contagious.
The KPI towards achieving strategic business goals was clear: Comments generated that are "in kind," otherwise known as listening comments, or rapport-building comments.
Business revenue goals were tied to redemption of "points" for comments generated, revealing an alignment with user, business and strategic goals.
But would people use it?
Product / Market Research Begins.
Exploratory research methods were chosen given the experimental concept and potentially divided sentiment towards the nature of the business (rewarding speech).
A form was used to gather exploratory feedback and responses were used to perform further user interviews to evaluate sentiment.
Responses unexpectedly showed cautious openness to the concept and provided insights into factors that might reduce adoption rates.
Determine Which Platform Maximizes Achievement of KPI
Feedback immediately deterred direction away from a traditional "app."
This was reinforced being such a radical concept, along with verbalized concerns surrounding security, anonymity, and usage preferences.
Market research showed that nearly 1 billion comments per day are generated by nearly 2 billion daily active users on Facebook.
Quickly, it became clear that integrating alongside daily user habits in the least invasive way suggested a Facebook Messenger app & dashboard could suffice while maximizing potential for achieving user KPI.
Follow-Up User Interviews: Getting More Specific
Participants email addresses enabled further conversations to expand upon insights from survey responses.
Listening for sentiment as it pertains to the question is the biggest opportunity for deeper insight from potential users.
Sample Follow-Up Questioning Technique
User: How is the sentiment determined?
Follow-Up: It sounds like you're concerned about being perceived correctly. If we could show you an example of how that worked, how would it impact your usage?
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User: I'm not much of a consumer, so 'retail points' don't get me excited.
Follow-Up: Tell me about what might excite you instead.
Fulfill User Needs & Educate on Product Function Using Chatbot (User Journey)
Each insight gained from research was catalogued, translated & prioritized according to where in the user journey the implications apply.
As this project was early in my career prior to receiving training on UX design, this step was essentially a User Journey completed in table form.
Designing the Conversation: Screen 2
Results & Praise for [hone]listens
Business valuation for best discovered business model was deemed between $1M and $3M annual revenue.
The project has been sidelined for 2 years due to the nature of seed capital investments requiring a business model valuation upwards of $100M.
Praise for the work came from Grant Lynch, Research Design Ph.D who validated the thinking and processes backed by his extensive background in research design.
Thank you for reading.