service: business case design
design challenge:
Discover, ideate and co-design a new service business model with the NIWL team.
my role:
Lead Designer and Strategist.
key skills: communication, project management, stakeholder management, research planing and execution, interviews, co-design facilitation, brainstorming, competitive audit, journey maps, synthesis and insights, pitch deck design, presentation.
client:
National Institute of Work and Learning (NIWL) at FHI 360, international organization based in Washington D.C.
project outcome:
A Staffing Firm Business Model outlining why the organization was well positioned to start this new service, required investment and timeline outlining potential revenue and profit.
the process:
discover, test, deliver
discover
We conducted preliminary research and expert interviews to explore what types of services the department could offer and who the potential customers might be.
I facilitated brainstorming sessions with the team to generate ideas, developed affinity maps, and created a final logic tree to organize and evaluate potential solutions. The team ultimately identified three top service ideas and prioritized “Youth Hiring Services,” highlighted in yellow.
To prioritize and refine our final hypothesis, we created a 2x2 matrix to evaluate each solution based on feasibility and impact. Youth Hiring Services emerged as the final choice, as it ranked highest across both dimensions.
With that in hand, we developed a main hypothesis along with three supporting sub-hypotheses for a Youth Hiring Service. These statements served as a foundation to guide the next stages of our research and design process.
how might we generate new revenue through a service-based solution within the National Institute for Work and Learning?
hypothesis
NIWL can provide staffing services to US-based companies, addressing their entry-level diverse talent needs by acting as a third-party intermediary that connects job-ready, diverse youth with suitable entry-level positions.
(what needs to be true)
Desirability: There is a need for this solution in the market/it is solving a major problem.
Feasibility: NIWL is well positioned to fulfill this need/solve this problem.
Viability: The organization can generate revenue and profit with this solution.
sub-hypotheses
test
I developed a research plan to test the sub-hypotheses and led the analysis for Desirability and Feasibility, while our Finance Analyst conducted the Viability analysis.
To test feasibility, I took a 2-step approach:
Comprehensive internal analysis
I reviewed past project scopes and outcomes, as well as strategic documentation, and conducted interviews with 10 internal stakeholders and 5 clients.
I organized the information using a “Know-Have-Do” framework and developed a core capabilities map outlining the people, processes, and systems that support them:
youth
We developed two journey maps for youth, one for “getting job ready” and one for “applying for a job”.
getting job ready
applying for a job
employer
recruiting and hiring
To test desirability, I also took a 2 steps approach:
External Analysis:
Conducted a comprehensive analysis to understand the staffing firm market and the trends in youth hiring and diversity & inclusion in the US.
Interviews with:
10 potential customers: decision makers in HR (managers and directors, strategy leads, diversity and inclusion leads). We interviewed executives in different organizations including Johnson & Johnson and Phillips.
7 youth advocates: we identified and interviewed youth education/employment experts, with profound knowledge about youth needs in this area.
I built journey maps for Employers and Youth to understand feelings, pain points and opportunities of our potential users.
2. Competitive audit
To understand competitors’ value proposition & operating model, and establish what were NIWL differentiators I conducted a competitive audit identifying key competitors, their value proposition and operating model:
With steps 1 and 2 we gained strategic confidence that NIWL was well positioned to start a staffing firm focused on diverse youth in the US. We confirmed our sub-hypothesis around feasibility.
We confirmed that a staffing solution would solve a real problem for employers. Steps 1 and 2 gave us more strategic confidence, our solution was in the right direction. We confirmed our sub-hypothesis around desirability.
key insights:
Filling up entry-level positions is a major problem for organizations and an opportunity for service providers.
Employers have difficulty finding and sourcing more diverse demographics due to inertia and systemic barriers that could be addressed by a third party.
Diverse/non-traditional talent is becoming a priority for organizations in the US since diversity has been tied to higher innovation, revenue and profit.
There is a gap in the market and a willingness to pay for specialized services for diverse/untraditional and job-ready youth.
NIWL is well positioned to act like a “broker” and fill the market gap between “employers looking for diverse talent” and “diverse youth looking for jobs”.
deliver
We delivered a Business Case with detailed research results, insights and recommendations along with suggested next steps.
I created an idea resume with key information about the case and why NIWL should build an MVP and test the solution:
We developed action recommendations with investment ask, key activities and source of funding to implement the case. We also developed detailed budget for the first three years of operations, leveraging information from our financial analysis (Viability).