Optimize Employee Professional Development

Product: "SkillUp" - An internal app for employee skill and career development.

Device Type: Primarily desktop, with mobile support.

Goal: To empower employees with the tools and knowledge to enhance their skills and explore new career paths, all with mentorship guidance.

Workshop Objectives:

• Ideation: Generate a diverse amount of innovative product feature ideas.
• Prioritization: Select the most promising and impactful ideas based on feasibility, user value, and business impact.
• Strategic Planning: Develop a roadmap for implementing the selected features, including timelines, resources, and key milestones.

Workshop Plan:

Phase 1: Preparation (1 week)

• Team Selection: Assemble a diverse team with representatives from HR, stakeholders, education experts and product development.
• Research & Trend Analysis: Conduct research on current industry trends in employee development, emerging technologies, and best practices in learning.
• Brainstorming Techniques: Prepare a variety of brainstorming techniques (brainwriting, mind mapping and rapid ideation) to encourage creative idea generation.
• Workshop Materials: Prepare necessary materials, including whiteboards, markers, sticky notes, and digital tools for collaboration (Figjam).

Phase 2: Workshop Execution (2 days)

• Day 1: Ideation & Exploration Icebreaker: Team-building activity to foster collaboration and creativity.
• 15 minutes - create your own avatar on Figjam
• Product Vision & User Needs: Define the overall vision for SkillUp and identify key user needs and pain points.
• Brainstorming Sessions: Conduct multiple brainstorming sessions using different techniques to generate a wide range of feature ideas.
• Idea Clustering & Categorization: Group similar ideas and categorize them based on themes (learning paths, skill assessments, career coaching, mentorship).
• Day 2: Prioritization & Planning Idea Evaluation: Evaluate each idea based on criteria such as feasibility, user value and business impact.
• Prioritization Matrix: Utilize a prioritization matrix (MoSCoW) to rank and select the top 3-5 most promising ideas.
• Feature Roadmap Development: Create a high-level roadmap for implementing the selected features, including timelines, milestones, and resource allocation.
• Next Steps & Action Planning: Define clear next steps for each selected feature, including detailed user stories, design specifications, and development plans.

Phase 3: Post-Workshop Activities (Ongoing)

• Documentation & Reporting: Document all workshop outcomes, including key findings, decisions, and action plans.
• Communication & Stakeholder Management: Communicate the workshop outcomes and plans to relevant stakeholders and team.
• Implementation & Iteration: Begin the development and implementation of the prioritized features, gathering user feedback throughout the process.
• Continuous Improvement: Regularly review and adjust the roadmap based on internal user feedback.

Expected Deliverables:

• Workshop Report: A comprehensive report summarizing the workshop outcomes, including key findings, prioritized features, and the strategic implementation plan.
• Feature Roadmaps: Detailed roadmaps for each selected feature, including timelines, milestones, and resource allocation.
• User Stories & Design Specifications: Detailed user stories and design specifications for the prioritized features.
• Presentation Deck: A presentation deck summarizing the workshop findings and the strategic plan for SkillUp's future development.

Key Considerations:

• Accessibility: Ensure the app and workshop materials are accessible to all employees, including those with disabilities.
• Scalability: Design the app and its features to be scalable to accommodate a growing user base and evolving organizational needs.
• User Experience (UX): Focus on creating a user-friendly and engaging experience that motivates employees to actively use the app for their professional development.
• Data & Analytics: Integrate data and analytics capabilities to track user engagement, measure the effectiveness of the app, and identify areas for improvement.