Prototyping and testingProblem statement:

John, an accounting and business graduate who is 21 years old, a

people person, affable, lively and outgoing, a team player who likes

to create collaborative teams needs a way to

find direction and guidance to finding a fulfilling career

because he wants to be successful in

business and recognised by his peers, but is unclear on what steps

to take to get him onto the right path.

Taken two ideas from last assignment for prototyping

1

i. the most practical idea (one that could be easily implemented)

Facilitate networking with parents of students for help and guidance through the career guidance at the university

Provide support and framework for career guidance centres, and counsellors to facilitate and encourage parents of students to register with the centre their business experience. 

The prototype, over, was presented to a student and a parent for their input into the next iteration. This test data has been captured on the following page.

2

Prototype 1

3

Supporting information

Call to register

If student If parent If employer

Redirect to student pages

Redirect to Careers Service for employers

Link to student Careers website

Capture Personal information (e.g. contact

info)

Link to Careers / Contact details

Capture work experience

Capture availabilityCapture how they are

prepared to help - ie what commitment they are

prepared to giveCapture any other

information required Thank you page

Present form to capture information

Welcome page

Are you a parent, student or employer?

Website for facilitating parents of students to register

Promote direct to students (to get their parents to

join) and in college http://friendlyURL

Are you a parent, student, employer?

Facilitate networking with parents of students for help and guidance through the career guidance at the university

4

+ What worked Δ What could be improved

• Simple level to capture information to be able to begin matching students to parents

• KISS principle applies- keep it simple and easy to sign up – this looks simple and easy

• Online – easily accessible to all• If a parent is not web literate, they

can have their son/daughter enter the data or could also be done in the careers centre by an advisor

• How to capture CV type information from parent (ie make it easier to enter

• Supporting information probably needs to be expanded – simple on front page, but able to dive deeper to get questions answered, if required (e.g. how the data will be used, etc.)

• Direct import of data, rather than keying it in (e.g. LinkedIn)

• More information on how it will work – matching students to experienced

? Questions ! Ideas• What about non-parents – i.e.

experienced friends and others interested in supporting this?

• Is there a single login that the college uses (e.g. parents who have graduated and could have their degrees imported)

• How would the matching occur – would this be provided in the supporting information

• Data protection laws – how would they impact (parent participant was particularly concerned about sharing their personal data)

• Are all parents able to use the web

• Could employers also be part of the network, like parents?

• Could you import data from LinkedIn?

• Can you automate CV input – i.e. allow copy paste of CV information

• Could this be integrated with LinkedIn or similar

• Could this be done via LinkedIn

• Use industry representation like IBEC and others to register people

• Matching to be done by automation

ii. your favorite idea (one idea that you are excited about for whatever reason... you don’t have to justify why)Create a TEDxJobsIreland to get great

people to talk about worthwhile ideas on the theme of helping students find meaningful careers

Create an annual TEDx on the transition into the workplace and how to help people be successful in this transition. 

This was presented with the chart over the page and two walk throughs (/skits) – one for getting supporters on Board (top part) and one covering examples of the presenters and what they would cover (mid/lower part - to bring the conference alive).

Then collected feedback from two different people, one who was a graduating student, one a parent/potential employer.

5

Prototype 2: Also used a skit/presentation acted out

6

Get agreement from TED (as required) to

become a TEDx

Get financial support/ sponsorship for

conference about Jobs

Get media support/ alliance to publicise

event

Develop initial list of speakers and target

attendees

key universities/third levelstudent union

Chose a venue Get volunteers to help

How to reach them

In personOnline

Expert Group on Future Skillskey companies (IDA help)

Looking to make the leap to a fulfilling careerGraduates (and final year students)

The Audience

Looking for guidance

Secure LineUp of Speakers - THIS is

the key part of the 'product'

ScienceInformation TechnologyResearchPharmaceuticalElectronicsChemicalCreative/Arts/FilmFoodetc.

Get support from key companies and stakeholders

"The Product"

A TEDx on helping graduating

students find the right career

guidance and transitioning to the

right fulfilling career

Initial make up of the 'product' in the

support

(or preparing the packaging)

Confirm/gain support for

TEDxJobsIreland

Top international business leader (CEO-

not local)

Top international business leader (Ireland

GM)

Top domestic employer (Senior Director/CEO)

Speakers about Careers in specific fields including:

Create a TEDxJobsIreland to get great people to talk about worthwhile ideas on the theme of helping students find meaningful careers

The Conference

Create a TEDxJobsIreland to get great people to talk about worthwhile ideas on the theme of helping students find meaningful careers

7

+ What worked Δ What could be improved

• TEDx is a strong brand. Pitching the idea and content (and board) was well received and expected good support

• Expected to be a hit with students, universities and companies

• Skit outlining examples of pitch and presentations

• Format for the conference• Content for the conference

• Needs to be validated that financial support could be secured

• Need to be clear on exactly who would present – i.e. ensure calibre of presenters is high

• Detail on networking – facilitating networking, especially between students and potential employers

• Make it clear that the talks will be available online after also

• Pricing policy for the event needs to be researched

? Questions ! Ideas• How would networking be

arranged• Will government support be

necessary (not planned)• The Audience part highlights

students, but needs to include employers also

• Is there an agency or organisation that this could align with (for help)

• One day conference or multiday

• What time of year – start of final year, after 1st semester exams, or start of summer suggested?

• Lots of ideas for speakers suggested, including Reed Hoffman (LI founder) or Jeff Weiner (LI CEO), Google senior execs, local entrepreneurs and successful businesspeople etc.

• Hold it in a prestigious location for media coverage

• Get the President of Ireland to be patron or open it – very strong for branding/media coverage

• Get a key LinkedIn person to talk about the changing jobs market and how graduates can take advantage of it for networking and information finding

• Have a graduate jobs fair beside it, either at the same time, or before/after it

Reflection 1/2:

8

Lessons Learnt from Testing PrototypesFeedback can be unexpected. People reach differently to what you may expect.

When you try to design for simplicity, for example, sometimes they want more detail (e.g. #1 where tried to simplify the data collection, more issues like data protection concerns arose).

Skits or acted out prototypes, particularly #2, worked remarkably well in getting the idea across and getting feedback. Even just talking through the prototype (as if its rough and ready) helps and gets the user involved.

Also, the rough format of the prototyping facilitates open feedback as people are not constrained by a polished prototype (one people commented on this specifically about feeling unrestrained.

The initial drawing version of the prototypes were very rapid – once clear, I put into Excel to be clearer (my drawing not being very good).

Reflection:

9

What to do next?I also implemented and iterated the first model based on comments (expanded the supporting information section on #1). This is the next step – to take on board the feedback and decide the next action – is the prototype good enough, does it need more work, or should it be scrapped. If it should be scrapped, then is the Problem statement correct or do you need to go right back to basics.

On the TEDx idea, I’d move towards updating the prototype with more detail through progressive elaboration (ie several iterations, assuming they went well, driving out more detail). I’d solicit more feedback, including different types of stakeholders. Assuming this went well, I’d do this until I had a well develop Conference proposition and was ready to go out and get support for the idea.

For the first idea, the facilitating parents networking and providing information to students about career choices, I would expand the idea significantly to include how this would interact with the student database. Ideas such as automated matching, could be added to the prototype to see if they are practical and needed. The prototype needs more iterations to drive out detail and iron out issues. It also needs to be tested with a greater audience.

In summary, with both, need to iterate through the prototyping to develop the idea further. Also need to consider each time, if need to throw away some ideas, take a step back, before moving forward again.