A human-centered design approach to ecosystem mapping
- Anika Horn
- Posted on
- Ecosystem Building
Bill Romani, Director of the Design and Innovation for the Public Good, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
In this conversation Bill talks about:
- The human-centered design process and its application to ecosystem mapping
- How to seamlessly connect a bounty of assets to the researchers and innovators who could use them to translate their ideas into innovations for the public good
- Ideas for continual stakeholder engagement
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Human-centered design is an innovative process that emphasizes the human experience and co-creation to generate and test innovative ideas that translate into desirable, feasible, and viable solutions.”
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is the nation’s first public university. With that history comes the university’s primary mission to serve the residents in all 100 counties of the state. Carolina’s Office of Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Development – Innovate Carolina – is charged with facilitating collaboration and innovation across the university’s many different schools and departments. With a team of 50 people Innovate Carolina is home to:
- The Office of Technology Commercialization
- Design and Innovation for Public Good
- Impact Hubs & Engagement
- The Institute for Convergent Science
When Bill Romani, the Director of the Design and Innovation for the Public Good (DIPG) team, arrived in Chapel Hill he saw an abundance of resources and opportunities for innovators throughout campus. What was missing was a platform to seamlessly connect this federated bounty of assets to the researchers and innovators who could use them to translate their ideas into innovations for the public good.
Prior to Bill’s arrival in April 2023, others had attempted mapping the university’s innovation ecosystem to make campus resources visible and facilitate cross-pollination. But the overviews and simple spreadsheets were limited in scope, quickly outdated, and not very user-friendly.
To create a university-wide ecosystem map, Bill and the DIPG team applied their expertise in human-centered design to co-create its content and features with the people who were going to use it.
Before Bill and his team could start creating the map they needed to identify who their target audience was likely to be. They identified four groups or “personas” that became the focus of their design work.
- Faculty founders
- Student innovators
- Community changemakers
- Curious citizens
Innovation Junction, home to Innovate Carolina co-working space and services
“At first, we reached out to innovation stakeholders at the university to find out the innovation resources they had in their units and what types of content they and their colleagues were most often searching for. We talked to unit directors, chairs, and faculty members that had ‘innovation’ in their titles or who were otherwise involved in innovation and entrepreneurship at the university and in the surrounding community.
We talked to established founders who knew their way around the ecosystem and could share their experience of learning how to successfully navigate through it with us: resources they had benefited from, people who had helped them along the way and assets they wished they’d had known about.
Lastly, we spoke to emerging founders to gain a deeper understanding of what types of questions they had so early on in their journey, what resources they were looking for and what type of content they were most interested in.
Once we learned more about their experiences and got a sense of the content that was important to them we created a content map that we could bring back to these same stakeholders and get their feedback on what we had created. What had we missed? What was incomplete? What needed more access? Who owns what? That was our first step in the human centered co-creation of the ecosystem map.”
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We use the ecosystem map as a jumping off point to start building personal relationships because we know that is what helps an ecosystem thrive.
Ecosystem stakeholders participated in sessions to guide the Innovate Carolina platform
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A lot of figuring this piece out came down to creating good models of an ecosystem map and asking the right questions.
Once they had an overview of the different types of resources and content that was most relevant to their community Bill and his team set out to find out how end-users would like to consume this content.
“A lot of figuring this piece out came down to creating good models of an ecomap and asking the right questions,” Bill explains.
“We had assumptions about what would work best in terms of delivering the content. Based on those, we tested different search tools and page designs and gathered feedback from users about what they preferred. Some of the models were really low fidelity like our early graphic wireframes. Others involved users conducting real searches on early online prototypes of our map.
The results were direct user feedback that informed how we designed future versions of the platform.”
Now that Innovate Carolina has a functioning ecosystem map, Bill and his team are continuing to test new functionalities to fine-tune the platform and allow it to evolve alongside its end-users.
Bill shares an example of how the functionality of the map directly meets the needs of those same users they interviewed early on, “Implementing the AI-powered chatbot is a great example of iteration of our EcoMap platform. Let’s say an emerging founder without much experience in innovation lands on our map and is looking for an accelerator to take their business idea to the next step.
The Chatbot is able to first outline what an accelerator is to help the founder discern whether that is the appropriate resource for them (at the idea-stage, other formats might be better suited) and then either a) provide a list of accelerators at UNC Chapel Hill or b) guide them to the resource they actually need right now.
For experienced innovators and founders with more specific questions, that same AI platform can connect them directly with the person or resource they need to take the next step with their idea or company.”
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It’s important to us to continue to test and iterate the platform because that’s what the ecosystem does too. The needs of our end-users change, so our map should be able to keep up with that.
Once the original excitement over an ecosystem map wears off, it can be tricky to keep engaging stakeholders. Bill and his team, however, are intentional in leveraging the platform not just as a digital tool but to actively build and nurture their university ecosystem.
He explains, “As far as end-users go, we use the ecosystem map as a jumping off point to start building personal relationships because we know that that is what helps an ecosystem thrive.
Our goal with human centered design is to build a platform that meets entrepreneurs and innovators where they’re at, connect them with the right opportunities and resources, and then keep guiding their journey throughout the ecosystem. Each time they interact with a person or department is a touchpoint for us to engage with them, get feedback and learn more about their journey.
Similarly, Bill and his team are hosting pop-ups and workshops throughout campus to highlight specific verticals within the ecosystem.
For example, one such pop-up is bringing innovators in similar fields together who may just be starting out on their innovation journey. This 75-minute interactive session provides an opportunity for emerging founders to learn about the entire spectrum of innovation resources available to take their idea or initiative to the next level – all by leveraging Innovate Carolina and learning how to navigate the digital platform while meeting peers and like-minded innovators.
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Our goal with human centered design is to build a platform that meets entrepreneurs and innovators where they’re at, connect them with the right opportunities and resources, and then keep guiding their journey throughout the ecosystem. Each time they interact with a person or department is a touchpoint for us to engage with them, get feedback and learn more about their journey.
Involving end-users in the design of any ecosystem map ensures not only that they have buy-in into using the final product but it allows them to help co-create the map with their insights and experiences – ultimately leading to greater adoption and a more effective platform.
Rather than developing a solution and presenting is to users in hopes of adoption, deploying a human-centered design approach help us build a solution that meets local founders, innovators and changemakers where they are: by curating the right type of resources, understanding how they’re best consumed and engaging users on an ongoing basis to co-iterate the map as it evolves.