A HOLISTIC VIEW OF USAID
A design strategist’s approach to solutioning for a Government client

Assisted with streamlining the public-private partnerships process, saving more than 50,000 total employee hours each year.

Design & Strategy Intern, Senior Service Designer, UX Designer, Disruption Designer, Functional Analyst, and more.

Figma, LucidChart, Mural, Jira/Confluence, InDesign & Illustrator.

April, 2023 - August, 2023

Team

Tools

Timeline

OVERVIEW

THE PROJECT

As a Design & Strategy Intern at Steampunk, Inc., I worked directly with two other designers on a contract with USAID. Steampunk was hired to build a customer relationship management (CRM) system for USAID employees who engage with the Private Sector.

MY ROLE + IMPACT

Harnessing my visual and strategic design background, I participated in and even led key design initiatives to assist with building a Salesforce CRM for USAID; these initiatives include:

PROBLEM STATEMENT

USAID’s work with the private sector encourages inclusive growth and a more significant global development impact.

However, a lack of a shared system or defined process has created a roadblock to consistent and effective relationship management between USAID staff and the private sector.

Working closely with the cross-functional Steampunk team, I helped inform CRM design decisions to address these specific challenges and enhance the overall effectiveness of staff engagement in the private sector.

DISCOVERY

The affinity map helped me and the Design & Strategy team build five detailed User Personas, which the business team still uses for creating and defining user stories to develop Salesforce features, and the Disruption designer (Change Management) uses to determine potential barriers to adoption.

I analyzed 32 interviews with USAID staff from HQ and 14 different missions and operating units worldwide, creating an affinity map from comments, insights, and pain points to identify patterns and themes. Below is a snapshot of the affinity map.

INTERVIEWS & AFFINITY MAPPING

The Lead Service Designer, UX Designer, and I conducted an initial discovery effort to comprehensively understand the agency's expectations and requirements for the planned CRM, starting with individual and group interviews.

CONCEPT MAPPING & PROCESS FLOWS

From this process flow, I helped determine that Due Diligence should be included as a Salesforce object for the Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Working directly with Steampunk's Functional Analyst and Senior Service Designer, I identified the business value to help develop a user story and technical solution for efficiently handling Due Diligence in the system.

ECO-SYSTEM MAP OF USAID’S DATABASES

Through interviews and interactions with the client, the Steampunk team discovered a complex network of systems and databases within USAID. To leverage USAID's existing data and understand which database was needed to integrate with the ECRM, I worked closely with Steampunk's data architect to identify databases suitable for integration by building the eco-system map below to understand the connections, data gaps, and uses.

A CONCEPT MAP OF USAID’S CONTRIBUTIONS & AWARDS

Below is a concept map I put together from USAID's existing data architecture combining funding tools, awards, and contributions and how they related to any mention of the USAID PSE partnership lifecycle.

I wanted to determine if and how funding and dollar amounts would translate into the development and design decisions we had already made for the ECRM.

A PROCESS FLOW & COMPLEXITY MAP OF DUE DILIGENCE

Due Diligence is USAID's process of confirming if a partner organization has any reputational risk. It is standard for every USAID employee engaging in a partnership to complete Due Diligence, so understanding the process, its complexity, and its importance to the system users was the motivation behind the flow below.

DISCOVERY IN A NUTSHELL

Working with the Design & Strategy team during this phase of the contract was been a fantastic experience, and collaborating with different types of people in different roles taught me how to advocate and explain the 
holistic service design approach and how it benefits technical analysts, data architects, developers, and most importantly, the client.

DESIGN & WORKSHOPPING

In addition to gathering the complete picture of USAID, I was also been able to design solutions and stepping stones needed to implement a successful ECRM. This includes custom Salesforce components for Due Diligence and creating and facilitating an engaging workshop improving Steampunk and Client communication and alignment.

CUSTOM SALESFORCE COMPONENTS

The Design & Strategy, Business, and Technical teams crafted a solution for including Due Diligence in MVP that required designing custom Salesforce components. The components would be integrated into Account pages, providing users real-time risk status updates.

I created user-friendly and accessible custom components and worked with the developers to bring them to life in Salesforce. The components and mockups are below.

CHANGE MANAGEMENT DEEP DIVE

Identifying a recurring communication challenge with the Change Management team and USAID client, I proactively organized a workshop that involved a few exercises to encourage strategic alignment.

Initially, the client was skeptical and slow to engage with the workshop. Noticing this, we worked together to ensure they understood the benefits of each exercise and skipped bits and pieces that felt less relevant to their team. Ultimately, The workshop facilitated improved understanding, collaboration, and strategy alignment, leading to more effective change implementation and communication.

CONCLUSION

  • To learn more about USAID’s efforts in modernizing foreign assistance through private sector engagement, click here.