Campaign design for increasing voter engagement in California.
"Be the Voice. Vote" campaign was designed to study and change the behavior of California voters, and increase their engagement by connecting community and highlighting impact through reinforcing voting as a daily habit.
Problem Identification
The initial steps of how we began this project by doing some basic research, then locking a target group, creating customer personas, doing user research, and identifying their pains and gains in order to create pain relievers and gain creators has been extremely insightful.
"Fall in love with the Problem, not the Solution.”
We pivoted almost every week. It was somewhat scary because it was very uncertain. We found ourselves going back to the Design criteria, doing more and more research and accordingly, evolving our problem statement, several times. That simple-looking framework has to be the single most powerful tool to get clarity regarding an idea.
“You've got to start with the customer experience and work back towards technology - not the other way around.” - Steve Jobs
Project Design Criteria and Target User Persona
Journey Mapping
We got an idea which our whole team was passionate and excited about! We believed in it o strongly that there didn’t even seem a need for user research, but we did it looking to validate our thoughts. And to our surprise, we were proven wrong! The users didn’t want what we thought they wanted. And so, we had to pivot, and go where the data took us. Therefore, the most valuable thing I’ve learnt is “Trust the process”.
Our team pivoted a lot throughout the process. We had quite a few biases of our own. It was hard to let them go, we thought the world would believe what we believed but that was anything but true.
“There’s a good reason why change can be difficult: The world doesn’t always want what you want.” ― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard
User Journey Map of a Voter
A good change leader never thinks, “Why are these people acting so badly? They must be bad people.” A change leader thinks, “How can I set up a situation that brings out the good in these people?”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard
Prototyping and Testing
We were tapping into different aspects of consumer interaction through our idea. Our team initially decided to hold a physical large scale event as our final deliverable. Even though our initial research supported the idea, when we dug into it more, the research took us away from that idea and so we decided to go where the data took us. I find it quite bold and amazing how we have pivoted. I am also excited that it is not just an object we are creating, but a whole experience.
Micro Pilot conducted to test the hypotheses of our idea through a basic prototype.
“For individuals’ behavior to change, you’ve got to influence not only their environment but their hearts and minds.”
― Chip Heath, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard
