Uniting Lifeline staff in the rollout of a new Text based Crisis Support Service

Challenge: Lifeline were rolling out major enhancements to their Text service which enables people to receive support through text messages instead of phoning.
They wanted to publicise the work that was being done around the text service amongst their internal teams, in order to let everyone know what they were working towards with the rollout of the new service and why they were doing it. The key aim was to align Lifeline staff to a common goal and expand the program efficiently and successfully.
Solution: We recommended an illustratative approach that would demonstrate the service from the Crisis Supporter’s point of view.
By contextualising the project teams road map of improvements into a vision for the future employee experience - from a volunteer signing up, training, and then gaining the confidence to become a competent team member, we created a storyboard that could be shared amongst the business to unite staff to furthering Lifeline’s values.
Discovery process
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Workshop facilitation
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Persona development
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Experience mapping
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User interface design Prototyping
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User testing
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Front-end development

Outcomes

  • 1
    Employee experience map & clearly defined actions for the business to improve
  • 2
    Internal communication that aligned staff towards a common goal

Understanding employee experience

We first held phone interviews with a number of text supporters who had been part of the pilot service. They had already been offering support for Lifeline via phone or face to face and had transitioned to text. Our research allowed us to build insight into the work life of a Text Supporter and captured positive aspects as well as current challenges.

We then worked closely with Lifeline stakeholders to create some high-level personas that would be used as characters in the story, then went through a series of detailed empathy mapping workshops to detail what was happening from a current-state perspective (of the pilot) and where they’d like things to end up (the ideal future state that the business would be working towards). Having positive and negative emotions helped to highlight where improvements could be made to ease the experience and where volunteers could be supported to keep them on board.

After mapping out the detailed emotional journey, we then picked some of the key moments across the process to expand upon in our illustrated storyboard. We then created a series of illustrations which showed the process from the perspectives of the crisis supporter personas.

AirTeam’s research and communications methods helped gain new insights into Lifeline’s volunteering experience and where we can improve it. We now have a clear roadmap proudly displayed in the office which helps us focus on what matters most: how we serve people.”

– Chris Harwood, Executive Director,

Service Design and Delivery