Work
Strategic design innovation to improve diversity and inclusion employment outcomes
CoAct
In Brief
In Detail
Challenge
Having identified large companies with diversity targets as a growth area in which it might better serve employers directly, CoAct set out to improve access and outcomes for employers and disadvantaged job seekers.
A leading hypotheses we held prior to commencement was that sector-wide knowledge sharing could be a key and unmet need for Australian employers looking to improve diversity and inclusion across their workplaces.
Outcomes
Brokered relationships for CoAct with senior diversity and inclusion decision-makers in almost 40 organisations across Australia
Identified five untapped customer types with unmet needs that CoAct could engage with
Identified, conceptualised and validated three promising business innovation opportunities aligned to CoAct’s strategic goals
Developed a model of organisational change to support CoAct’s ongoing innovation activity Recommended two concepts for continued exploration and further refinement ahead of a pilot and go-to-market strategy
How it was done
Established relationships on behalf of CoAct with senior diversity and inclusion representatives from 37 organisations across Australia
Conducted co-design workshops with industry subject matter experts to generate and develop new service concepts
In-depth concept testing with employers to identify value, gather feedback and de-risk recommendations
Conducted two rounds of national engagement with industry and stakeholders to shape new business opportunities aligned to modern innovation frameworks
Developed a maturity model of organisational change to demonstrate how large employers think and act, supported by research
CoAct is a national for purpose agency supporting job-seekers from disadvantaged and diverse backgrounds find meaningful employment.
CoAct engaged Prime Motive to surface, test and identify new business opportunities involving large Australian employers that could tackle unemployment in new ways.
We leveraged industry best practice innovation frameworks and convened large groups of external organisations in participatory design processes, drawing on the domain expertise of industry diversity and inclusion leaders and subject matter expert to co-discover, define, and live-test concepts to that responded to the opportunity statement and created value for all parties involved.
Leveraged innovation frameworks and engaged in user validation to ensure success in new services and ideas
Our approach leveraged effective industry innovation frameworks to identify, shape, and optimise new business ideas.
Ideas were tested and validated ensuring final service recommendations met the needs and expectations of our target audience; and that any investment of time, money or resources to progress services was justified.
Convening external organisations in participatory design processes
With a hard to reach B2B customer in focus, our approach brokered relationships for CoAct with senior diversity and inclusion decision-makers in almost 40 organisations across Australia.
Once a relationship was established, we convened groups of these organisations in a participatory design process, drawing on their domain and subject matter expertise to co-discover, define, and live-test concepts that respond to our opportunity statement, live scribing and visualising their thinking to bring the service concepts to life.
Integrative thinking frameworks consider multiple perspectives and explore creative solutions
Alongside the development of new business ideas, our approach applied the practical tools of integrative thinking frameworks to support better decision making throughout the process. In the early stages, this meant sessions and prompts to expand thinking beyond the traditional binary choices of "either/or" and instead consider a range of possibilities to create "both/and" solutions.
Mid-project this meant considering multiple perspectives and exploring creative solutions with external stakeholders to come up with innovative and effective solutions that satisfy multiple objectives and create value.
As we worked toward the final recommendations, these frameworks brought forth the evidence needed to highlight the most promising service concepts and the conditions under which they would succeed or struggle in the market, supporting informed decision making about which to develop into a go to market ready service.
Recommendations moving ahead, supported by a reframed approach to market
The project proposed three service concepts aligned to strategic objectives refined into distinct and comparable strategic choices in the final report.
Extensive research and engagement with large Australian employers and subject matter experts revealed insights into the ways they think and act on diversity and inclusion within their respective organisations — which we were able to provide as additional project outcomes.
CoAct are now positioned to pilot these concepts in the pursuit of meeting the needs of Australia’s largest employers.
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