Manager Experience: Exploring the Future to Design Solutions Today
METHODS & ARTIFACTS
Current state journey map
Persona & Scenario
Future vision workshop
Future vision journey map
Near-term future prioritization workshop
User flow workshop
User flows
KEY OUTCOMES
Stakeholder Alignment: A clear, collective understanding of the current challenges set the stage for collaborative future visioning
Innovative Solutions: An idea generation activity led to a diverse range of innovative solutions, empowering stakeholders with inspiring ideas to address the prioritized challenges
Actionable Insights: Post-workshop engagement helped connect the ideal future vision to work to be done in the near term
User-Centricity: The prioritization of user pain points and needs ensured that the solutions generated were directly aligned with users’ needs which enhance the relevance and impact of the design solutions
CHALLENGE
Managers struggling to support low-performing employees often hit the same roadblocks: unclear processes, confusing guidance, and a lack of visibility into how and when to engage HR (Human Resources). These gaps in clarity don’t just slow things down - they undermine the confidence and consistency in how performance issues are addressed.
To tackle this challenge, the Employee Experience (EX) design team was asked to host a Future State Workshop that would bring key HR stakeholders together to come to a shared vision about a future low performance experience. I was responsible for leading the end-to-end process - workshop planning, facilitating, and synthesizing outcomes - with support from one UX Researcher and Experience Experience (EX) leadership.
APPROACH
Before the workshop
Before we could imagine the future, we needed to align on the present.
Because the current experience hadn’t yet been mapped from a research-based lens, we started by collecting what was already known. I led a quick-turnaround effort to gather insights from existing research to identify recurring themes in the manager experience. To close knowledge gaps, a UX Researcher and I conducted a short survey that gave us additional firsthand insights.
In just a short time, we were able to produce a concise, one-page journey map that reflected the current manager experience - highlighting points of uncertainty and other pain points. This artifact became a powerful pre-read and guided the workshop discussion on the day itself.
Workshop
We brought together a hybrid group of 17 HR stakeholders - 11 in person and 6 virtually. To ensure an inclusive experience, the virtual participants had a dedicated virtual moderator and activity boards that mirrored the in-person materials.
The workshop was structured in two phases: current state problem framing, and future visioning.
We kicked off with an alignment activity to ground participants in the real challenges managers face. Using the journey map, we facilitated a group discussion to align on top pain points and translate those pain points into the underlying user needs. After dot voting to prioritize those needs, the group focused on the top six needs to drive ideation.
Participants then moved into future solutioning mode by generating a wide range of ideas to meet each of the prioritized user needs. The workshop culminated in a storytelling exercise where participant teams synthesized their concepts into end-to-end narratives, presenting their future-state visions back to the group. Every vision presented was rooted in addressing unmet needs, which embedded a clear sense of purpose and direction.
After the workshop
Following the workshop, I synthesized all inputs into a comprehensive future-state blueprint. This became a foundational tool for driving further prioritization and cross-team alignment - particularly where product dependencies and overlapping responsibilities exist.
To help communicate the vision more broadly, I also developed a one-page future vision journey map tailored to leadership and partner teams to ensure the vision would resonate with diverse audiences.
When it came time to move from ideas to action, I facilitated a more focused workshop. This session helped the team translate their concepts into a decision tree, which evolved into their MVP: an intake form that guided managers to next steps based on their unique situations.
