30 Sep 2022
By Louise Gilbert
As my husband said: you don’t put a new choccy bar on the shelf without doing a bit of taste testing first!
And he’s right – feedback is the breakfast of champions (and some might say chocolate is too…)
So that’s what we did for our new World of Work Program. It’s the first program of its kind in Australia, so it was even more important to hold early prototype testing with potential participants – women who are looking to return to work after a break or change careers entirely.
I wanted to share what the experience was like and how valuable the feedback has been to the development of the program.
Preparing for testing
It’s natural to want to wait until the product is ready before lifting the lid and inviting feedback, but we accepted that we needed to be vulnerable.
The first step was reaching out to an expert for their top tips – and Vic Brennan was my go-to. (If anyone reading this needs a product leader, she is top talent in my books!)
Vic went through the approach I was thinking and fine-tuned it a bit. She gave me some top tips like: “A good rule of thumb is having 6-9 people doing testing, this is enough people to help you identify trends.” So that’s how many people we had. Eight women for one hour each.
Another rule of thumb is to find people where they hang out. So I reached out via LinkedIn and Facebook groups to find a mix of women who are currently out of the workforce and those thinking about changing careers.
I quickly received 50 enquiries to take part – six times the amount we needed – which just shows the level of interest in a program like World of Work for women looking to re-enter the workforce or change careers.
The women were rightly compensated for their time. After all, the cost of living is expensive (I paid $6 for Pringles the other day!) and time is our most precious resource.
Feedback: the good, the bad, the ugly
Before I get into the feedback we received, I will mention that my approach during the testing was one of curiosity and neutrality.
The parameters and expectations were set from the start, and I let the participants know that all feedback is valid and helpful and there are no right or wrong answers.
Here’s some of the ‘good’ we heard:
No bad, no ugly.
Because this is all good learning that we can do something with. We have 28 pages of insights and actions the team is prioritising.
Now what?
We’re now making changes to improve the useability of the program, with updates to improve the flow of the content and making sure the language is consistent.
We also found areas where we are giving too much information – it’s all valuable, but not necessarily digestible in a single course! So we’re mostly stripping back, rather than needing to add anything.
Then we’ll do another round of testing before we launch in October.
My reflections
This experience in testing has been beneficial on a number of fronts.
Yes, we have tangible feedback and can iterate our prototype. But my empathy and understanding of our target user has deepened. I’ve been reflecting on the language I use, expectations and assumptions I hold.
At the start, there were some concerns that our choccy bar wasn’t yet edible, but that’s the whole idea isn’t it? Be vulnerable, put things out there, and just ask for help. Get the feedback, make tweaks and changes, and keep going.
Taste the choccy bar before you put it on the shelf.
I don’t want to name the 50 women who offered their help or the eight women who participated in testing, but I want to thank you all for your contribution.
Want to know more about the World of Work?
We’ve just updated our website with even more details about the program, what to expect, and frequently asked questions.
The World of Work has been funded through the Australian Government’s National Careers Institute Partnership Grants.
