The Jeremiah Program

Service design for volunteer satisfaction

Nursery children playing with teacher in the classroom

In 2019, I received the Summer Scholars Independent Research Fellowship, Northeastern's most generous undergraduate research award, to fund a ten-week independent research project in collaboration with my faculty mentor, Dr. Miso Kim.

This research was conducted in partnership with the Boston Chapter of the Jeremiah Program, a national non-profit organization with the mission of ending the cycle of poverty for single mothers and their children—two generations at a time. This research supports this organization in its effort to develop its volunteer program and foster a robust pool of committed volunteers.

PROJECT GOAL

This project aimed to demonstrate how a human-centered service design approach can be used to improve the experience of volunteers within a nonprofit organization.

BACKGROUND

  • Many non-profit organizations have not developed ways to take advantage of their volunteers as strategic assets
  • Current research in volunteer management outlines best practices/factors affecting volunteer retention but does not focus on developing distinctive strategies for specific organizations

  • I approached this problem with a problem-solving methodology called service design, bridging the gap between theory and practice by providing the necessary framework for generating tailored strategies for improvement

METHODOLOGY 

Research

I conducted 18 interviews & 4 hours of direct observation. The data collected informed the development of visual models.

 

I conducted 18 interviews & 4 hours of direct observation. The data collected informed the development of visual models. 

  • Stakeholder Map
  • 3 Personas
  • Affinity Diagram
  • How Might We Statements
  • Journey Map
stakeholder map-01
Personas
Affinity Diagram-01
Affinity Diagram-02
User journey
Ideation

Ideation

I facilitated 2 co-ideation workshops with volunteers from the Jeremiah Program and self-generated ideas for improvement.

Prototyping

I developed 6 prototypes, both digital and physical:

  • Welcome email
  • Volunteer handbook
  • Kids' profiles
  • Pre-shift email
  • Newsletter template
  • Activity kits (shown here)

I conducted 6 feedback sessions with volunteers from the Jeremiah Program, which informed the final recommendations and the creation of a prioritization matrix (shown below).

Activity Kit

Prioritization Matrix

Prioritization Matrix

matrix@3x

Implementation

I outlined 17 distinct recommendations and steps for implementation, in order of priority. I also designed a service blueprint showing a comprehensive view of all of these recommendations, integrated into the existing ecosystem.

Service Blueprint-01
Service Blueprint-02
Service Blueprint-03

FINAL RESULTS

Final Report

All findings and recommendations were passed off to the Jeremiah Program in the form of this Research + Discovery Report.

SEE THE FULL REPORT
Research + Discovery Report
SERVICE DESIGN MADE SIMPLE

Service Design Made Simple

This project culminated in an online resource that outlines each step of the service design process.

VIEW THE SITE

Conclusion

A service design approach:

  • proved successful in developing ideas to improve the service quality of an organization’s internal environment
  • can successfully be used with budget and resource constraints
  • can and should be adapted for other contexts as a method to gain high-level understanding of a system, find pain points, and develop strategies for improvement