UX Research for Social Entreprise Incubator Web Platform
Background
co/rizom is a social entreprise incubator (SEI) that connects artisans with creatives and business professionals to develop collections for a global audience. They call these teams PODs. PODs follow the co/rizom roadmap to create unique products that co/rizom presents to the world.
The co/rizom road map is a seven-step product development process that gets artisans ready for the global market in 30 weeks.
In order to facilitate the implementation of the roadmap co/rizom developed a POD web-based platform.
My role
UX Researcher: as a consultant, I was brought in to understand how PODs use the co/rizom platform, uncover any pain points they encounter when using it, and identify any additional needs they may have that the platform doesn’t cover.
Develop strategy and methodology.
Stakeholder empowerment: provide guidance to internal team to conduct research.
Methodology
In order to establish the methodology for the research, I met the client several times to better understand their objectives, their reasons behind needing this research, and what were they looking to get out of the research.
We also discussed the types of users they wanted to interview, which were the PODs formed by artisans, creatives and business developers. co/rizom’s aim is to select two international cohorts of PODs per year to go through the co/rizom road map. For the first part of 2023, 14 POD teams participate in the incubation programme.
With the information from the meetings with the client, I created a research road map with the necessary steps to complete the research process. The research road map also serves as a guide to the internal team to conduct research.
In terms of methodology, I advised for remote 1:1 interviews with open-ended questions paired with usability tests in 90 minutes sessions. Additionally, a survey was also used.
Next Steps
I created the open-end questions based on co/rizom’s objectives and goals cited in the meetings. We revised together the document and iterated on some sections.
Results
Based on the insights from our user research, co/rizom developed a tailored web tool that aligns with the needs and preferences of artisans, creatives and business developers. This tool is currently being prepared for launch on the co/rizom website.
This UX research process supported the evaluation of the project’s success.
Additionally, following the insights we gathered, co/rizom established a collective of stakeholders who are now collaborating actively, extending their interaction beyond the project's communication framework.