employees’ lived experiences are retrospective, resulting from their cognitive and emotional evaluations of workplace interactions. Employee experience designers actively aim to guide and create positive experiences for employees. The goal of design is to align employee desires, work requirements, and organizational context. Designers first seek to understand employees' existing lived experiences and then, using design thinking tools, create more positive experiences for the future.
It’s important to note that some aspects of employees’ experiences remain private and personal, beyond the organization’s reach. However, a significant portion of their experience can be improved through thoughtful design actions. In less than a decade, several practical frameworks have been developed for designing employee experiences.
Double Diamond Model of Design
In 2004, the UK Design Council proposed a model called the Double Diamond, describing the stages of any design process—irrespective of specific tools or methods—under four key phases:
- Discover: Exploring the problem space and understanding challenges.
- Define: Clearly articulating the problem to be solved.
- Develop: Generating, testing, and refining solutions.
- Deliver: Finalizing and implementing the solutions.
These phases are often divided into two key spaces:
- Problem Space: Where problems are identified and defined.
- Solution Space: Where ideas are developed, tested, and transformed into prototypes.
In the context of employee experience design, the first diamond is referred to as the Opportunity Space to encourage a more optimistic mindset. (Bridger & Ganaway, 2021)
Stanford Design School Framework
The Stanford d.school framework offers five activity categories for experience design:
- Empathize: Understand employees' needs and perspectives.
- Define: Clearly articulate the problem to solve.
- Ideate: Brainstorm ideas to address the problem.
- Prototype: Create initial versions of the solution.
- Test: Evaluate the prototype and refine the solution.
Each activity leads to specific outcomes that contribute to the final solution, which is then implemented and tested.
Morgan's Employee Experience Design Cycle
According to Jacob Morgan, employee experience design operates as a repetitive cycle with the following five steps:
- Respond:
Analyze employee feedback about existing organizational actions. Employees often have valuable input on work flexibility, compensation options, training methods, and more.- Essential: Establish real-time feedback mechanisms. Annual surveys are insufficient; real-time communication and feedback are necessary.
- Analyze:
Extract insights and actionable themes from employee feedback to inform design decisions. This phase may involve ambiguity and challenges, requiring people analytics to structure and interpret both qualitative and quantitative data. - Design:
Create mechanisms to address employee needs based on feedback and analysis. Avoid excessive time investment in this phase; instead, prioritize iterative improvements through feedback in subsequent phases. - Execute:
Implement solutions in one or more organizational environments—physical, cultural, or technological. This may be done through pilot programs or full-scale launches, depending on organizational needs. - Intervene:
After implementation, the designed solution becomes part of employees' new reality. This phase involves ongoing observation and refinement of the solution based on how it is received by employees. (Morgan, 2017)
It is critical to view employees as co-creators in the feedback cycle, distinguishing modern design models from traditional approaches where organizations controlled 100% of transformation initiatives.
Three-Space Design Framework
Building upon Stanford's framework, Bridger and Ganaway introduce a third space called the Planning Space, alongside the Opportunity Space and Solution Space. This framework emphasizes the strategic alignment of employee needs, work requirements, and organizational context. The three spaces operate as follows:
1. Planning Space
- Discover: Identify overlaps between employee needs, work requirements, and organizational goals.
- Define: Articulate the target employee experience as a desired outcome of the planning phase. This may result in a target experience statement or a value proposition that outlines the organization’s goals for employee experience.
2. Opportunity Space
- Discover: Engage with employees through direct conversations to deepen understanding of their work and challenges. This involves qualitative methods beyond simple surveys.
- Define: Reframe problems or opportunities from the employee's perspective based on insights gathered during discovery. This step determines the focus areas for ideation and solution development.
3. Solution Space
- Discover: Generate ideas to address identified problems or opportunities. There should be no constraints on the number of ideas generated, but focus will eventually narrow to one or two concepts for further testing.
- Deliver: Create small-scale prototypes to test selected ideas. Feedback from these tests eliminates unfeasible solutions and refines viable ones.
(Bridger & Ganaway, 2021)
Key Considerations in Employee Experience Design
- Collaboration with Employees:
Employees should be active participants in the design process. Designing with employees rather than for them ensures their needs and expectations are accurately reflected. - Data-Driven Design:
HR data analysis and insights are critical for understanding employee journeys and planning effectively. This requires leaders to engage with employees personally and build meaningful connections. - Strategic Balance:
Effective design aligns three competing demands:- Employee needs: Addressing what motivates and inspires employees.
- Work requirements: Meeting technical and non-technical job demands (e.g., processes, tools).
- Organizational goals: Supporting the broader business objectives, brand, and culture.
- Iterative Process:
Employee experience design is not a one-time initiative. Continuous improvement through feedback, testing, and refinement is essential.
By integrating these frameworks and principles, organizations can systematically design meaningful, aligned, and positive experiences for their employees.
