Designing Bump: A Remote Workplace Connection Tool
How might we bump into each other again… remotely?
The pandemic caused many businesses to abandon their physical offices and quickly transition to remote working. During my first week at Ironhack, our team contemplated the ramifications of this drastic change and wanted to learn more about this “wicked problem” so that we could offer a helpful solution. We designed a simple, fun, and socially conscious tool: Bump!
What is Bump?
Bump is an add-on to your workplace communication tool (slack, skype, google hangouts, etc.) that is also managed on a mobile application. It simulates bumping into your co-workers by randomizing video chats for quick breaks such as grabbing a coffee in the mid-morning!
How We Designed Bump
Our Initial Research:
We began by researching remote work and the potential issues faced by employees. We identified that remote work had mainly impacted employees in the following aspects:
- Mental health
- Daily routines
- Physical health
- Time off
- Unplugging on time
- Distractions
- Personal time
- Motivation
- Communication
Quantitative User Research:
We developed an 11 question survey which began with some screener questions to understand if the individual had experienced remote working, and to gather demographic information. If the individual had not experienced remote working, the survey was terminated. For those who had, they were then asked to rate these aspects of their life based on how they had been impacted by working remotely (negative impact, no impact, or positive impact). We also asked more detailed questions pertaining to issues within these aspects.
Out of the “negative impact” responses, most were regarding distractions, motivation, and communication with colleagues. However, in the more detailed question about mental health, people reported relatively high levels of anxiety, work-related stress and loneliness since working remotely. We decided this was worth exploring further, as it could be a related issue.
Qualitative User Research:
We chose 6 people to interview who represented our target demographic, and kept an open conversation about remote work, asking the users to describe their pain points, how their team is structured, and their current work environment. We focused our questions on the main pain points we had discovered in the surveys: Communication, Motivation, Distractions, and Mental Health. A recurring issue that almost everybody brought up was missing the simple interactions you have in an office such as grabbing coffee, running into somebody in the break room, or knocking on a co-worker’s door with a question. These are the ways we normally blow off steam so that we can continue to buckle down and get work done throughout the rest of our day. Because people weren’t having these designated social breaks, they were working longer hours due to distractions. People were feeling lonely! People missed… bumping into each other!
Synthesis:
We collected the data from both our surveys and interviews and created an affinity diagram to categorize the information and figure out the main pain points for our users. We then voted on which issues to focus on and luckily our group had an easy consensus, agreeing to look more into the following:
- People missing get-togethers
- Lack of motivation due to distractions and less communication with colleagues
We then brainstormed some “how might we” ideas with our research findings in mind and found that all our ideas could be simplified to one main idea: “How might we bump into each other again?” We used the same method of collaboration as with our affinity map, individually adding virtual sticky notes and speaking out loud with each other until we came to one main idea.
Define:
Based off our research, we created a primary and secondary user persona. Samantha (primary persona) represents the extraverted, social employee who misses getting coffee and chatting with her co-workers. She feels more lonely and distracted throughout the day as a result of working remotely.
Jason (secondary persona) represents the more autonomous and focused employee who now feels incredibly disconnected from his co-workers since he doesn’t initiate online conversations.
Hypothesis:
We believe creating an app that simulates bumping into coworkers while working remotely will improve employee happiness, resulting in higher productivity and motivation. We will know we are right when employee’s reported happiness and motivation has increased by 25% and reported distractions have decreased by 25% in a period of three months, as a direct result of the change in interactions between coworkers.
Brainstorming:
At this point, our team had a pretty good concept in mind. We wanted to create an add-on for workplace communication tools that would be managed on a mobile application that would simulate bumping into coworkers. However, we needed to get a little wild and start brainstorming every thought that came to us. We used the virtual sticky note method and individually wrote down everything we could think of and then voted on our favorite features/ideas. We grouped our favorite ideas into four main categories: On-boarding features, calendar with planned activities, “bumping”, and co-working.
Concept:
Bump notifies you with a “bump” sound when you’ve been randomly paired with one of your co-workers for a quick video coffee break!
Bump also features chat rooms to simulate office discussions:
- a productivity option where co-workers can do to discuss work related issues… like knocking on a co-worker’s door to ask a question
- a social room where co-workers can take a break to discuss personal matters and blow off some steam
- a vent chat option if you’re frustrated and need to complain to somebody
- and a brainstorming option for collaboration… similar to a conference room
The app also has a do not disturb feature if you’re too busy to socialize that day, and has a timer to alert you of when your next scheduled social break is. “Only 20 more minutes to focus and then you get a break!”
We also explored the idea of having the app be mandatory and administering a personality test in the beginning along with a daily mood questionnaire to collect data and match people based on compatibility. This would also help us track our success. If daily moods go up, we’re doing something right!
Our last feature is a calendar for planned at-home group activities. The calendar would recommend activities based on the mood data and would fulfill the users needs for online team building and bonding.
Reflection:
While building a concept from scratch during the first week of a program sounds intimidating, I had an incredible team with a great dynamic. We collaborated using virtual sticky notes throughout the whole process, constantly bouncing ideas off each other with zero judgment. We took our time to make sure we really understood each step and became really passionate about our concept. As a result, our presentation felt like doing a true pitch. We aimed to keep the presentation entertaining… even wrapping things up with a quick rap video clip. However, next time around, I think we’ll spend a little less time over-complicating the gradients and shadows on our slides. Overall, what a great first week!
