Framing questions workshop

Estimated timeframe

60 – 90 minutes, depending on number of participants

Goals

• Generate three to five high-priority hypotheses about our users. From these hypotheses we can generate framing questions that can focus our research over the summer.

Tools & set up

• Sticky notes, 2 different colors
• Copious markers (if in person)
• 2 different colors of dots for dot voting, or 2 different colors of markers (enough for each person to have one of each color), or two different symbols (if online)

Who

OMB policy library stakeholders and 18F project team

Protocol

Introduction

15 min.

Start with a round of quick introductions (if needed). Name, job role or responsibility, preferred method of communication, and [silly icebreaker].

Review and tweak problem statement

We have observed that [product/service/organization] isn’t meeting [these goals/needs], which is causing [this adverse effect]. How might we improve so that our product/service/team/organization is more successful based on [these measurable criteria]?

Generative

20 minutes for each phase – 5 minutes brainstorming 15 minutes sharing * 2 = 40 minutes

Everyone has sticky notes (large, 3x5 if we can get them) and markers.

We’ve identified four user groups – so far the primary user group being the Agency Implementer (review user archetype). We’ve done most of our research on this group because if the agency implementers don’t use the policy library, there’s no reason to create it.

The next phase will include an increased emphasis on Policy Writers, a group that we know less about. However we all probably have some assumptions or beliefs about who they are, what they need, and their goals and challenges. For the next five minutes, please write down what you believe is true (or suspect might be true) in response to the following prompts. (additional prompts can be found here if needed).

Agency Implementers:

• I believe Agency Implementers have a need to:
• Agency Implementers struggle with:
• Agency Implementers won’t use the policy library if:

Policy Writers:

• I believe Policy Writers have a need to:
• Policy Writers struggle with:
• Policy Writers won’t use the policy library if:

Five minutes to brainstorm on this question, then one by one each person presents their ideas and places them on the wall or board. The second and subsequent people to read theirs out put similar stickies together.

As a group, we come up with a title for each group of stickies and draw a box or circle around each one of the groups.

Synthesis

Everyone 3-2-1 votes on the following criteria, using a different color (symbol, etc) for each one:

• Core assumption – must be true for this to be a solution in the problem statement
• Based on the least amount of evidence – the ones we feel the least sure about
• Riskiest – If these assumptions are wrong the project will fail

After everyone votes, we rank the assumptions in order from highest score to the lowest. If there are more than five assumptions with the highest score, we vote again on those assumptions only until we have 3-5 that can drive the research.

Wrap up

Discuss key takeaways and next steps for the research team.

Follow up

Results from this exercise will inform the direction of our research, our communications with stakeholders, and how we write deliverables to address major concerns and achieve major hopes.