Andrei Vidaicu
A six week initiative to help increase inclusive leadership
Successfully delivered a prototype that laid the foundation for a new inclusive leadership program launching in early 2025.
I helped increase inclusive leadership in the NSW Government. The challenge was to create an peer-to-peer website that connects Culturally And Linguistically Diverse (CALD) staff members with CALD Champions. Working with the Tech Enablement team, we provided a solution that allows staff (CALD staff members) to easily search and connect with mentors (CALD Champions), and register their interest when no matches aren't available . This helps staff members get the mentoring they need to build a more diverse and inclusive workplace.
“You know what? I'm gonna be honest with you. Sometimes with things like the 'NSW People Matter Employee Survey', I'm not bothered sharing how I really feel.” - CALD STAFF PARTICIPANT
The aim of the MVP is to help increase inclusive leadership by 25% by the end of the first quarter of 2025.
Making CALD Champions work for staff members and leaders
The new initiative primarily aims to support NSW government CALD staff members, while also serving as a valuable resource for:
- CALD Champions who need guidance on handling requests and responsibilities
- Leaders seeking to create a workplace where everyone participates and has a voice in diversity and inclusion.
My role in the project
As the Senior UX/UI Designer, I collaborated closely with a team including a content designer and a software engineer. The foundational research was provided by a service designer who was also our main stakeholder, also part of the initiative working group. My initial responsibility was to lead the team in:
- transforming the supplied material into project requirements
- developing the information architecture
- identifying research gaps and opportunities to enhance the user journey
- creating a testable prototype to uncover any UI challenges that might prevent users from achieving their goals
The mandate:
By the first quarter of 2025, we needed to increase inclusive leadership by 25%. Our Product Owners faced significant pressure from executive leadership to achieve this goal quickly. The mandate specified launching a pilot program by the end of the fourth quarter of 2024.
Since the core problem was already defined for us, and with three weeks dedicated to the design phase out of our six-week timeline, we focused on identifying and implementing the essential features needed before moving into testing.
Week 1
Created a project plan in Confluence for transparency within the team which included:
- Detailed analysis from the supplied research
- Technical constraints and opportunities
- Key success metrics for the pilot
- Link to the three user stories for each of the user groups in FigJam
Facilitated a cross-functional workshop to:
- Prioritize features for the pilot
- Align on technical feasibility
- Create a realistic six week delivery timeline
Week 2
I began the design exploration by using our design system library to create pages in Figma as a starting point for initial review. Creating these pages revealed an opportunity to improve the design system by adding low-fidelity mockups for components. This would encourage teams to explore alternative solutions rather than defaulting to polished, pre-built components.
By the end of the week I presented the prototype to stakeholders for the first time.
Week 3
During the last crucial week, I focused on refining the design based on stakeholder feedback we received.
- Improving the user flows, with particular attention to the email notification system and its integration points.
- Simplifying interactions
- Updated visual elements to align with accessibility standards
- Reduced the number of pages/steps
- Created detailed testing scenarios and tasks in preparation of the usability testing.
The usability testing will evaluate potential challenges, and how users progress on their journeys.