Fjord Evolution Metro-DC Ambassador Program: Blueprint

Project Type: Organizational/Program Design, Service Design 

Artifacts/Deliverable types: Vision Deck, Stakeholder Workshop (in progress), Program Blueprint (in progress)

My time in the program: December 2018 - present

Metro-DC Ambassador Team: 1 Digital Producer, 3 Interaction Designers (including myself), 1 Business Designer (for 6 months)

Program Goals:

  • Unify our studio (Arlington and DC locations) so that we can effectively connect our studio to the rest of Fjord as one unit

  • Empower the Metro-DC studio to connect to the larger Fjord studio network (the Ambassadors at each studio should not be the only link)

Overview:
Lack of structure in the program has left a gap for new Ambassadors to come in to as well as previous Ambassadors to accomplish much
-
Federal client work has become a barrier for action because of the company-wide unknowns in how to proceed with sharing methods and lessons with global Fjord as well as supporting internal peers with outside work and learnings from global Fjord
-
Our Metro-DC studio had recently grown from 40 people in one location to 200 people in two locations and the Ambassador program was still running on a casual one-on-one style with limited effect
-
Level-setting expectations from Leadership and global Fjord to include: knowledge sharing, time support, decision power
-
A future state Roadmap is needed for awareness and direction from the current Ambassadors, potential future Ambassadors, Studio Leadership, and global Fjord

The Arlington studio designed skateboard decks to create a sense of belonging and personal touch after a months-long DC/Arlington studio Culture engagement which included four Culture workshops. Far left is a younger me, standing above my BOLD desig…

The Arlington studio designed skateboard decks to create a sense of belonging and personal touch after a months-long DC/Arlington studio Culture engagement which included four Culture workshops. Far left is a younger me, standing above my BOLD design made out of hot glue and a whole lotta Great Northern beans.


Our Approach

Before I first joined Fjord, the Ambassador team struggled to consistently produce content or support the studio and were always in discussions of “what to do next”, over and over again. I realized our lack of action wasn’t because of the team make-up or the extracurricular nature of our program, but because we had never solidified a purpose or goal for who we were.
In the summer of 2019, most of our Ambassadors were new to the program and we spent the second half of the year focusing on a vision for the program.

We still had plenty of gaps to answer and help to ask for, but we slowed down on scrambling to start initiatives so that we could instead prioritize who we wanted to be as a program. That was the only way to then understand what initiatives we should take on and support to grow this program and keep it running after we left.

 Research

  • I reached out to other Fjord studios about their Ambassador programs

  • Interviewed with the FE Ambassador Lead about program expectations and comparisons

  • Participated in monthly Global Fjord Ambassador calls

  • [in progress] Interviewing studio peers to understand what they need from the Ambassadors and what they expect from this program

  • [in progress] Conduct a landscape audit of culture and similar programs at other agencies to find other ways to build out this program

Service Design

  • Ideated and discussed various levels of action and involvement of Ambassadors within the internal studios as well as global Fjord studios and within Accenture Federal Services

  • Ideated and discussed recruitment strategies, roll-on/roll-off strategy, leadership knowledge sharing, global Fjord Ambassador network support and integration strategies

  • [in progress] Plan and facilitate Studio Leadership vision workshop to understand what our leadership wants this program to grow into and how it can support Studio-wide missions

  • [in progress] Create a Program Blueprint from the Leadership vision session, Peer interviews, and Ambassador program research to create an actionable artifact to begin implementing

User Experience

  • Ideated and discussed various levels of touchpoints the program could take on (from weekly newsletters to Monday Method discussions to full day workshops on Trends)

Co-Creation

  • Reached out to team leaders for recruitment recommendations and onboarded 3 new Ambassadors

  • Brought studio leadership to the table and invited them to participate in building this program with us

  • Supported other initiatives across the studio to learn more about how they’re working and how to either work with them or not overstep on their goals (Inclusion and Diversity, Book Club, Culture Group, Pro-bono Project group)

    • Outcome: Specifically participated in a Culture Group prototyping workshop where we utilized ideas from previous Culture Group workshops that were grouped and themed (Knowledge Management, Social Interaction, etc) and this helped me realize our program could benefit from using our own methods and looking into the ideas that do not match Culture Group’s initiative, but could easily fall into ours.

 Aha Moment

I was looking for the official on-boarding deck for the program to go over with a new Ambassador recruit (in April 2019), and realized it had nothing of substance to offer her in way of what to expect or what our responsibilities are. I ended up asking her more about what she’d like to do with the program and we started designing it right then.

Lessons LEarned

  • Ask for help

    (leaders need to know when you need them)

  • Slow down

    (sometimes you gotta plant the seeds so others can enjoy the harvest)

  • Eat your own dog food

    (don’t ignore the process you do for your clients! - it’s your job and you do it for them because you truly believe in it)