Inspirato Product Design Internship
At-A-Glance
Over the summer of 2022, I worked with the product design team at Inspirato to develop research-backed personas. The goal for my project was to create personas that would help inform future design decisions on the design team and a common perception of who Inspirato members are within other departments.
Team
Kevin Baird
Lauren Waage
Lanae Felice
Jeff Batson
Morgan Kane
Role
Product Design Intern
Timeline
8 Weeks (Jun - Aug 2022)
Skills
Historical Research
Workshop Facilitation
Interviews
Remote Usability Testing
Persona Development
Competitive Research
PROJECT GOALGain a better understanding of customer segments
For my project, I designed four user personas for the design team and other departments within Inspirato so that they can quickly scan and learn about Inspirato users to inform design decisions. Personas bring value as they provide consistency between departments, aid in onboarding and getting new hires up to speed, align user needs, and allow the company to better empathize with their customers. One of Inspirato's core values is "We Care," so creating personas so that the company can better design for them shows they care for their customers. Due to the NDA I signed with Inspirato, I cannot provide specific information related to the company in the photos shown in this case study.
METHODOLGY/PROCESSI used the “Double Diamond” methodology throughout this project
With my limited time at Inspirato, I had to make sure that I worked quickly to deliver quality personas. To do so, the project timeline was outlined as the following: Kickoff Meeting, Initial Research, Project Alignment Meeting, Second Round of Research and Finalizing Personas, and Final Project Presentation.
Kickoff Meeting
KICKOFF MEETING FOCUS
Set expectations for a successful project
During this 1.5-hour-long kickoff meeting, I set out to create a shared understanding of Inspirato users as we currently saw them, introduce the project plan, align requirements and expectations, and determine success and key performance indicators. I facilitated this meeting over Microsoft Teams and utilized FigJam to incorporate interactive activities that gave me insight into what information would be helpful on the personas and keep the stakeholders engaged. Due to the nature of my NDA, I cannot provide a clear photo of the information presented.
Key takeaways
Having the kickoff meeting was essential for understanding the requirements for this project and learning what it takes to make personas that are worthwhile. These were the key takeaways from the kickoff meeting:
01
Personas must be easily accessible, digestible, and scannable.
02
Personas must utilize a shared and inclusive language for everyone within the company.
03
Personas must be templated, iterative, and something that can worked on over time.
04
Personas must only have relevant information and the source it came from.
Initial Research
RESEARCH PROCESS
Data synthesis
Following the kickoff meeting, I synthesized the data from the dot voting and assumption grid in an Excel spreadsheet. In this spreadsheet, I clustered the assumptions into themes, labeled the research methodologies that could, and tagged who I could contact to find the information I needed.
Researching and building a sample persona
Once data synthesizing was complete, I set out to fill knowledge gaps about Inspirato users. I used a variety of research methods in my initial research. Specifically, I wanted to leverage historical research done in the past and utilize the tools available to me. Listed below are the research methods that I used and the goal for using each.
Interviews with Sales and Marketing
Goal: Obtain in-depth knowledge of who the Inspirato members are and their motivations for travel.
Customer Feedback and Annual Surveys
Goal: Gain insight into how users feel about Inspirato.
Historical Research
Goal: Understand the demographics of Inspirato members.
Heap Analytics & Fullstory
Goal: Analyze website usage and potential frustrations.
SAMPLE PERSONA
First iteration of Insipirato persona template
After conducting my initial research, I created a sample persona to present during the project alignment meeting. From the kickoff meeting, the team and stakeholders dot-voted on aspects essential to the personas, so that is how I created the categories. For the purposes of this case study, I have removed information relevant to Inspirato members.
Project Alignment Meeting
ALIGNMENT MEETING FOCUS
Presenting initial research and sample personas
The alignment meeting was centered around showing high-level initial research findings/insights, presenting the sample personas I created, and aligning with the product team with the direction of my project. I presented my initial findings using Microsoft PowerPoint and held an interactive feedback session on FigJam.
Key takeaways
Bringing the team and stakeholders back together was beneficial to the success of this project. In this meeting, we uncovered areas of improvement and decided on an action plan for the remainder of the project.
01
Provide a recommended product for the specific personas and clear differentiators for each.
02
Remove irrelevant information, such as demographic specifics.
03
Lean more into visual design aspects to make personas on brand and scannable.
04
Repurpose the problem statement section to a persona description section.
Round 2 of Research and Final Persona Template
ACTION PLAN AFTER ALIGNMENT MEETING
CARE team workshop
Getting clarity on the persona contents from the alignment meeting, I scheduled a workshop session with the CARE team at Inspirato. The CARE team heavily interacts with Inspirato members, so the insights they could provide were highly valuable to creating the user personas. The workshop was structured to brainstorm the characteristics of Inspirato members, create clusters of post-it notes following the brainstorming session, and then further define each group through a definition exercise.
Building the final personas
After consolidating the data received from the CARE team workshop, I gathered all the research materials and feedback up to this point to create four distinct personas for the three Inspirato product lines. While there was certainly overlap between personas, each had different attributes that differentiated them. Again, for the purposes of this case study, I am only able to show a barebones version of the templates.
Final Presentation and Takaways
PRESENTING FINAL RESULTSPutting it all together
To wrap up my internship, I presented my project to the entire product department that consisted of 30 people. In this meeting I presented the value of having personas, the methodology that I used to create my personas, and showcased the personas that I created through the extensive research that I did over the course of eight weeks.
KEY TAKEWAYS FROM MY TIME AT INSPIRATOWhat I learned from this internship
Working with Inspirato was truly an amazing experience. Reflecting on my experience, I would have never thought I could learn as much as I did in the span of eight weeks. Not only was I able to grow as a designer, but I also grew as a person. Despite the internship being remote and in a different time zone, I still had great opportunities to work and connect with amazing designers and people at Inspirato. Here are some of the biggest takeaways from my internship.
Be Comfortable With Being Uncomfortable
I have my manager Kevin Baird and my mentor Lauren Waage for this one. Coming into this Internship, I had a set of skills that I wanted to develop: presenting and facilitating workshops. In my mind, to get better at presenting and facilitating workshops, it would be a simple one-step solution that Kevin or Lauren would give me. If you may have guessed, I was completely wrong. Getting better at a skill requires repetition, reflection, and facing the things that make you feel uncomfortable. Kevin and Lauren give me many meaningful opportunities to practice my skills and show what I can do which led me to have a mindset change of viewing being uncomfortable as an opportunity to learn and improve.
Have Confidence In Your Abilities
Coming from a primarily educational background, I was not used to having people trust my skills to lead an effort. I had the mindset of “do what your boss tells you to do” which led to me feeling lost at times when stakeholders were asking me where to go next in the project. I knew I had all these skills that I learned in school coming into the internship, but I was not accustomed to the amount of trust that everyone had in me as a sort of subject matter expert. Reflecting on my experience, I am extremely appreciative of how supportive the design team was of me, the amount of confidence they had in me to do great work, and making the team feel like family.
Make Use Of The People Around You (And Connect With Them!)
As much as I like to think I know a lot, I certainly do not! I was super fortunate to work with some amazing people during my time at Inspirato. From working with the VP of Marketing, to the Director of Consumer Insights, to everyone on the Product Design team, I gained extremely valuable insights from them all. After all, they are working in their roles because they have expert knowledge in what they are doing, so make use of them so you can learn and grow. I loved working with everyone at Inspirato and getting to know them on a more personal level as well. A special shoutout goes out to Kevin Baird, Lauren Waage, Lanae Felice, Jeff Battson, and Morgan Kane for being an amazing design family!