MY CURRENT RESEARCH QUESTION:
Using gamification, how can the mentoring experience be disrupted: re-framed & re-designed to provide wider accessibility and engagement?
MY PROJECT SUMMARY:
I am researching the mentoring experience both from a mentor and mentee perspective, with the aim of redesigning the interaction via a gamified framework. This aim has developed from what I have perceived as a gap in the mentoring process indicated in my research, where those interviewed were looking for direction/ next steps in their different journeys but lacked the mechanism to facilitate this. The framework this project is looking to develop is not aiming to ascribe answers to mentees, but to help them in generating their own, with or without the support of a mentor.
MY MOST RECENT INTERVENTION
The latest intervention I did, as detailed in my blog, involved an ideation/ testing session, where I mapped the findings from the research conducted so far and tried to apply them to a more structured framework. The initial idea was to create a physical board game, however, after several iterations and experimental attempts, the concept has evolved into a digital experience. Once this shift from physical to digital had ‘materialised’, the core design began to take form and make sense.
MY KEY FEEDBACK RESPONDENTS / EXPERTS TO DATE
Product League (mentoring programme and my mentee)University experts and academics (both within CSM and outside)I began by questioning my mentees, colleagues and friends, from a variety of backgrounds and countries. These formed the initial basis of my feedback.
I also spoke to professional life coaches, self-development experts and a trained psychologist.
MY POTENTIAL GATEKEEPERS
The gatekeepers who currently have the most influence on my project are, interestingly, the very people I wish to apply my framework to. The personal nature of the information they need to share, in order to test the framework in the most effective way, is acting as a ‘gatekeeper’.
MY KEY FINDINGS SO FAR
Perhaps the key finding of my research so far, Is that people wishing to make a change (without knowing the exact direction) often have an internal blocker preventing them from addressing it. When testing the provisional framework created in my latest intervention, I found it helped to unlock this ‘mental block’. The experience enabled people to shape their thoughts and address some of the choices and decisions they were ignoring. I could clearly see that the gamification, with its more natural and less pressurised approach (compared to a conventional mentor process) helped to open people to their inner monologue.
MY NEXT KEY ACTIONS
The next step is to create an initial digital prototype which will then be user tested and refined. In parallel, I will also continue testing and adjusting the framework concept on a targeted group (graduating and recently graduated students).
STRENGTHS/OPPORTUNITIES IN MY PROJECT
Now the project is being digitalised, this increases the reach to a potentially global audience. There appears to be an appetite amongst many respondents, particularly given the current global environment, to make change, and therefore it is a great time to introduce a tool that supports this.
GAPS OR WEAKNESSES
I need to conduct further research to fully test whether the framework can be applied in various (sometimes very personal) scenarios and to decide whether this can be universal or needs to be applied to more specific use cases.
A key aspect of the gamification of the experience is making the process ‘fun’, so, whilst the core framework has been created, making it a more entertaining tool is something I am looking to further develop.
My bibliography is:
- Donald A. Norman – Emotional Design
- Edward de Bono – Six thinking hats
- Tom Kelley & David Kelley – Creative Confidence
- Phil Knight – Shoe dog
- Barry Schwartz – The paradox of choice
Sources/references for the near future:
- Henry Petrovski – Success through failure
- John Thackara – In the Bubble, Designing in a complex world
- Nir Eyal – Indistractable
- Nick Bolstrom – Superintelligence