Decision Tool Co-Creation

Co-Creation Facilitation

The project ask: Create an onramp for newcomers to The Points Guy (TPG) and a personalized decision tool for return users that will help them discover credit cards and loyalty programs based on personalized inputs we get through a quiz-like format.

The solve: As senior leaders were highly interested and invested in the concept of a decision tool for the  TPG audience, and because this tool would be a large initiative that would require cross-functional collaboration, I planned, scheduled, and lead a 3-day Co-Creation session to quickly bring stakeholders into alignment and source ideas. Participants included individuals from editorial (our subject matter experts), product, engineering, marketing, and other creatives.

At Red Ventures (the parent company of The Points Guy), our larger Co-Creations typically consist of three days: a Discovery Day (where we discuss any background research, competitor solutions, business and tech requirements or limitations, goals, How Might We’s, and any other concerns), Sketching Day 1 (typically two sketching sessions), and Final Alignment Day (which often includes an additional sketching round plus final alignment). Due to a crunched timeline and other competing priorities, I devised a way to cut down on the amount of time our regular 3-day Co-Creations take by creating a way for the group to share information and align a-synchronously on our Discovery Day information. As such, I facilitated the first partially a-synchronous, entirely virtual Co-Creation on TPG. All discovery information was created and shared prior to our working sessions, and FigJam was used to allow participants to complete homework prior to our meeting so we could hit the ground running. We may be utilizing this methodology in future Co-Creations as a time-saving method. 

As the lead designer on this project, I created the agenda, invited necessary attendees across functions, communicated homework and sprint requirements, created and shared the best practices and competitive analysis deck, and ran the session. It was my job to ensure that all parties felt comfortable and aligned by the end of the sprint to ensure early stakeholder buy-in and ensure that I had the necessary acceptance criteria for the wireframing stage that would come after.

The deck: Completed research on the best practices behind various recommendation tools, quizzes, and other decision tools for a project for The Points Guy, and included a handful of competitors from the travel and cards industries. This deck was shared with various cross-functional stakeholders (across marketing, editorial, product, engineering, and creative) as background information for the 3-day Co-Creation.