Imagining an automated and intelligent grant system for Unite Here: North America’s largest hospitality union
Timeline
8 months
January - August 2023
Role
Product Designer & UX Researcher
Team
1 Product Manager, 2 Product Designers (me), 1 Engineer
Tools
Figma, Notion, Jira
OVERVIEW
The Why
Unite Here is a labor union that represents 300,000 working people across North America.
Administrators approached us with their frustrations regarding their grant workflow—the process through which the Union's governing body, the International Union (IU), distributes funding to local affiliates to organize campaigns. The manual system took days to process and often delayed critical campaign funding. Our goal was to streamline this workflow and help the Union allocate resources more efficiently.
The Problem
How might we create a more efficient and intelligent grant workflow for Unite Here?
The Outcome
We created a new digital platform solution that would cut down grant processing time by over 60%. I led the design of a service blueprint and grants management software, and delivered design documentation, an implementation guide and a product roadmap to the clients.
SOLUTION PREVIEW
UnionFund is UNITE HERE's comprehensive platform for grant management. The tool streamlines workflows for enhanced efficiency and organization, reducing manual processing for administrative staff and empowers leaders with data-driven insights to make informed decisions on grant distribution.
SOLUTION: GRANT COMPILER
Automating mundane tasks
The grant compiler streamlines the grant processing stage with a customized task-focused design. Admin can spend less time on processing and they can collaborate better to ensure a transparent and organized workflow.
SOLUTION: STAFF DATABASE
Find workers based on unique skills
The staff database has profile information and performance data on each staff who has been covered by a grant. Leaders can now easily track performance of grantees and find workers based on campaign needs, which greatly improves their planning process.
SOLUTION: GRANTS DASHBOARD
Gain insights on grant performance
With a new dashboard that consolidates all grant performance, Union Leaders can gain comprehensive insights, empowering them to make informed and timely decisions. Leaders can monitor campaign success and grant expenditure, identify trends, and pinpoint potential issues as they arise.
“This is the first time I’ve seen anything like this, from workers to organized shops to organized members involved....”
THE OUTCOME
From A/B testing we found that the processing time reduced by 60% with the new workflow.
Admin expressed that the new workflow was “delightful” as it would free up time for them to spend on tasks to which they are more uniquely suited like campaigning and outreach. We ended the project by handing over our design materials and implementation instructions, including a product roadmap. I’m excited to see the impact of the improved workflow on the union!
DESIGN RESEARCH PROCESS
Understanding the problem space
We needed to gain an understanding of the grant workflow, which was a 50+ day process, identify the stakeholders involved and learn their current behaviors and frustrations.
We spoke to 30+ users via user interviews & contextual inquiry, and conducted a competitive analysis to look into existing tools that non-profits use for grants management.
Research Insights
INSIGHT #1
Manual Processing is the biggest time sink (40% of the total time). Excessive manual labor spent by admin staff in mundane tasks such as compiling & editing grant applications from jotforms into a spreadsheet leads to significant time loss.
INSIGHT #2
The lack of standardization leads to scattered information across various platforms. IU and Local staff spend hours searching for grant information across emails, messages and online tools, leading to a disorganized process for all stakeholders involved.
INSIGHT #3
Many organizations use a central management system (internal or commercial) to maintain an organized grants process; this was absent in UNITE HERE’s workflow.
THE OPPORTUNITY
In this case study I go into depth on one of the opportunities:
How might we expedite administrative processing to assist locals in obtaining necessary funding?
Our success metrics:
1. Decrease time on task (by at least 50%) so that funding can reach Locals faster
2. Facilitate data-driven decision making so that union leaders can plan efficiently
IDEATION
Uncovering opportunities through storyboarding
Using speed-dating with storyboards I tested many ideas with users & found that they saw most value in an online management platform that would serve as a centralized place for all grant-related information and tasks.
Local Staff Member applying for grants
Keep track of tasks via centralized platform
Testing the concept
I led the creation of a service blueprint with our clients to visualize the service components of the grants management platform. This helped us decide the most important functionality of our solution. Key functionality included an in-built grant application for Locals and automated grant compiling for the IU.
Laying out the Information Architecture
Before designing the interfaces, I focused on laying out the platform’s IA. I worked with users to understand how they organize information and created this diagram. The platform is broken down into 4 key parts: Grants Log (contains all grants and history), Grant Compiler (where grant details are reviewed), Leadership Dashboard and Staff Database).
DESIGN CHALLENGE
Grant Compiler: Balancing automation and user autonomy
I led the design of the grant compiler, which is where Locals’ grant applications are automatically compiled, then reviewed for approval by IU staff. The goal of the grant compiler is to reduce time and manual labor spent on grant processing by IU Admin. I documented the many steps and components of grant compiling via user flow diagrams to align with the team before moving on to wireframes.
TESTING EARLY AND OFTEN
Users wanted a task-oriented design
I conducted think-aloud usability sessions with 7 users to test completion and comprehension of the workflows.
“I like this task-focused design since I always knows what’s next. My focus is on progressing to the next task.” - IU Admin
DESIGN DECISION #1
Leveraging mental models
When designing the layout and interactions of the grants platform I considered users’ digital literacy and their mental models. Most staff are very familiar with popular admin tools like Excel and Powerpoint but have little to no experience with other software. I quickly realized that following Jakob’s Law was the best practice here - most commercial software and other grant management platforms used a tabular spreadsheet format to display grants. Hence, I went with Option 1 and 1a.
DESIGN DECISION #2
Reducing cognitive load
Minimizing cognitive load through checklists and dropdowns helps admin focus on the task at hand, enhancing their productivity and enabling quicker completion. Dropdowns help IU Admin easily search for and add financial codes and checklists help them keep track of the many steps in the workflow.
DESIGN DECISION #3
Streamlining communication and collaboration
Providing in-built communication methods can drastically reduce reliance on email back-and-forths and phone calls. Users can send emails from the compiler by selecting a template.
VISUAL DESIGN
Design System
I assisted the visual designer in creating a minimal design system that was suited to our design needs. We stayed true to Unite Here’s branding, while using hues of grey as a secondary color to balance the boldness of the red. To make the software feel more approachable and friendly, we chose Poppins for headings and titles. Roboto was chosen for the body due to its clean and easy-to-read appearance - a type that our users were drawn to.
Color, Typography, Icons and Components
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Building tech for non-profits is DIFFICULT
Entering this project, I recognized the inherent challenges of developing new technology. However, operating within the non-profit sector amplified these difficulties. Through the project, I acquired the skills to not only envision future possibilities but also to incorporate low-tech solutions and establish milestones that effectively steer teams toward a desired future state.
Prioritize people and behaviors, NOT technology
It’s important to have faith in people, not the technology. All the transformative outcomes that Unite Here is bringing about aren’t driven by the technology itself, they’re driven by prioritizing people and creating behavior change. It was important for us to create opportunities to co-create with users to build feasible solutions.
Thanks for reading!
I’m excited to see the impact of the improved workflow on the union! It was a pleasure to work with the clients & learn about the amazing work Unite Here does for working people everyday. If you’re interested in learning more about this project, you can view the UnionFund website or our journey on our Medium blog.