Background

In late 2023, the Workforce Australia Services provider in Broome was entering a unique, never-before researched transition of their employment servicing. The key feature involved public servants working alongside providers to improve outcomes. I was tasked by my branch manager with making an on-site visit to gather insights and capture the ways of working to inform potential future strategic changes to employment servicing.

My Role

I was the sole Lead User Researcher on this project.

Research Process

Discovery research process overview

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Plan

• Communicate with stakeholders
• Define research goals and key focusses
• Set expectations </aside>

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Empathise

• User interviews
• Observation
• Empathy mapping </aside>

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Define

• Customer journey mapping
• User profiles </aside>

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Ideate

• How Might We’s </aside>

Planning

After discussing the context of the research with my branch manager and relevant stakeholders, I defined and communicated my research goals.

Limitations

Given the unique nature of this project, the following limitations were communicated with stakeholders prior to conducting the research:

• Few participants due to the provider being a small business. It was recognised that there is an increased likelihood of bias in findings
• Qualitative research approach had limitations in capturing generisable findings that a quantitative approach could provide with a larger sample size

Research methodologies

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Direct observation

The site visit allowed me to observe employment servicing in-person and notice how all key actors interact with one another, and observe how they used our digital products.

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Structured user interviews

I organised one hour sessions with consenting participants 1:1 to ask about their experience and responsibilities in depth.

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Adaptive user interviews

Throughout the site visit, I asked about their day-to-day and what parts of the system they used, refining my questions in discussion. I would ask about things I noticed throughout the day to gather more detail.

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What I discovered

Key insights:

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Public servants don’t have authority - navigating boundaries is key

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Providers are hesitant to tailor the service because of repercussions

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Providers concerned about the future of the arrangement

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Public servants have the upper hand in networking

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Visibility of information on systems is a challenge

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Research artifacts delivered:

• User profiles to capture the public servant user and provider user at a glance
• A customer journey map to communicate the free-form nature of the employment servicing experience

Results and takeaways

I have socialised and presented my research report branch-wide. Key stakeholders have referenced my research in subsequent relevant projects to inform the policy and service design.