Employees have devices. Check. Working remotely? Check. Accessing the network securely. Check.

Phew, you’re all good, right?

I don’t know about you, but right now my employee experience involves more than technology and network access. Daily, I am working to find creative solutions for every part of my daily life, work and personal. How do I create an atmosphere in my house that is conducive to two working parents, one online college student, and two high schoolers who are transitioning from spring break to online learning for the first time? Can you say dance parties at noon?

So with all the transitions and challenges our employees are facing today, this probably isn’t the best time to think about innovation. But I would argue, and as my colleague Chris Voce recently discussed in his blog, your ability to innovate and create a smoother and productive remote experience can pay dividends and help nurture an environment where employees can drive innovation in other parts of your business.

In another recent blog post, Forrester’s James Staten argued that now is the ideal time to drive a companywide innovation campaign:

Amid all of these changes, it may seem counterintuitive to launch a companywide innovation campaign, yet there may be no better time to look for creative ways to solve problems for your customers and stake your claim as an innovation leader and driver of change.

As Staten’s model suggests, there are major disruptive innovations to be had. But there are also opportunities to drive lasting, incremental changes to employee experience. The employee experiences you design today should be durable and deliver lasting value, even after COVID-19 is past us. Companies that take a design-focused approach to creating these innovative solutions for their employees will win in the long run.

This sounds great but you’re probably thinking, where do you start?

How Design Thinking Can Help Improve Employee Experience

I was recently on a call with a cross disciplinary group led by our Citrix HR team. Our design challenge: “How might Citrix best support and deliver an employee experience as COVID-19 progresses?” Our starting point was simple: Talk to your teams. Ask them to share what their days are like. Collect stories that can help others to have empathy and understand what employees are dealing with. This will help to ensure that whatever solutions are designed are human-centric.

Design Thinking is a methodology established at Stanford University that puts humans first, then backs into a solution that makes sense to them. Instead of leading with technology, you’re leading with the needs of actual people, then creating technology solutions that work for them. And your employees are in a perfect position to help (and I imagine would be thrilled to help build better technology experiences from which they can benefit).


Let’s look at the five stages of design thinking:

Empathize

Organizations usually can’t truly walk in their end users’ shoes. It’s a little different in our current climate, and many of you are probably getting a good look at what it means to be a remote employee at your company. And I’m sure there’s no shortage of data — number of help desk calls, number of tickets, time to call resolution. Those are metrics that matter to the company, yes. But what about your employees?

Imagine setting up a virtual “water cooler” where your employees can openly discuss their experiences and you can gauge true sentiment. At Citrix, we use Slack to capture our end-user sentiment, to understand what is most important, and to glean the drivers that lead to loyalty and, ultimately, enable IT to focus resources on what matters most to employees. Build a rapid cohort of your most innovative employees to help. (Yes, the ones who are the loudest and are the most willing to help give feedback and co-design with you.)

Define

A great problem statement will clarify what your end users are trying to solve and will guide your team. Once you collect your insights and feedback, it’s important to create or frame a problem statement that is human-centered but not too specific or too broad so you have room for innovation. Most teams kick off their problem solving by focusing on internal needs or problems but now you’re solving for human needs.

So shift from starting with a problem statement like this (very inside out):

We need to find a collaboration tool so people can be productive.

And move toward a problem statement like this (outside-in):

How might we help our remote workers feel connected to team members and not lose momentum on projects, because remaining productive remotely will relieve parental guilt and enable them to be closer to their families.

Ideate

When was the last time you really let your creative juices flow? This stage is where teams can tap into their creativity to drive innovation, big or small. It’s about letting the team dream up what is possible. Set the right tone from the start — there are no crazy ideas, there is no judgment, and there’s no way you’ll shut down an idea because it “didn’t work before.” Fire up a brainstorming session with your employee cohort to discuss and refine your problem statement. Use prompts like “what if” or “imagine if” to spur ideas and keep minds open to possibilities. Finding a new, open space (or a fun, remote collaboration tool) will help people get outside of their current mode of thinking, lower barriers, and be more apt to think more creatively.

Prototype

Before spending too many resources (think time, money, and effort), build a lo-fi prototype. You want to have something that your users can interact with and respond to. This can be on a whiteboard or on a slide. Put your idea in front of your employees to get their initial reaction before you get invested in it financially and emotionally. It’s much easier to go back and make changes after receiving negative feedback if you haven’t spent hours and hours on a solution. Remember, it’s essential to keep the user in mind when building your prototype so you can solve the human need, not just the technical one.

Test

In this stage, you’ll use the prototype you designed. You’ll want your end user to interact with your initial prototype fast and early so you can gain insights on where you are hitting the mark and where you aren’t. Ask them to verbalize what they’re thinking and feeling as they work with your prototype. Iterate and get each new version back in front of your employees for feedback. Continue this loop to ensure you end up with a solution that delights your end users.


Make no mistake. This is a challenging time for everyone. Driving innovation right now might seem counterintuitive as employees work hard just to stay productive in a prolonged crisis.

But it also presents an opportunity, as we support our employees, to look beyond “just getting by” and to move toward innovation and building for the future. Listening to your employees’ stories now and learning how they’re succeeding (and where they’re coming up short) will help you drive innovative solutions, programs, and practices that will enable you to deliver the best employee experience, no matter the circumstances. Remember, how you react and innovate today will leave a lasting impression on current and future employees.

Want to learn more about Design Thinking and how you can integrate it into your organization to tackle your next employee experience technology challenge? Citrix is helping companies reimagine the future of work for their employees today with Design Thinking. Ask you Citrix representative how you can tap into our Design Thinking services.