Introduction
The inspiration for this project arose from noticing frequent requests from our users reaching out to the support team for teacher and training recommendations. Exploring this further, we recognised an opportunity to use our existing artist knowledge management system to match users with suitable teachers.
Problem Identification
The challenge was to create a system that not only offered paid work to our collaborators but also provided users with high-quality personalised teacher recommendations. We had the advantage of colleagues with experience in setting up training sessions, but also recognised the diversity of needs and wishes that we’d be serving with a semi-automated solution.
Research Process
I set about conducting research using Business Process Model & Notation (BPMN), interviews, and observation of historical student requests. BPMN visually represents the sequence of events and decisions that lead to a business outcome taking place. As well as helping to uncover existing inefficiencies in our communication with users, it also served as a “straw man” in interviews, prompting high quality discussion around the problem.
Colleagues, users, and teachers were interviewed to get insights into current experiences, expectations and challenges. From the interviews, it became clear that connecting the right teacher with a potential student is a multi-dimensional problem. Not only must there be alignment of location and availability, but also teaching style, area of expertise and experience must be taken into account.
Solution
I proposed a "lesson menu" that users could select from during their initial application. The lesson menu consisted of three broad areas that students had requested lessons for in the past. This solution eliminated the need for pre-lesson consultation and allowed us to match potential connections based on these three broad lesson types.
We developed a web form to gather student requests and availability, which could be filled in before a teacher was contacted. A back-end in Salesforce would then assist matching the request with an appropriate teacher. When a match had been made - the student and teacher would be put in touch. The system also handled invoicing from the teacher, and a feedback form, triggered after the session took place.
Reflection
While teachers used the feedback form (It was tied to their invoicing), users lacked a similar incentive leading to a much lower rate of feedback. I learned that it's important to consider incentive for all users in system design.