Revolutionising Aged Care and Disability Support in Australia through the Product Experience

Mable exists to enable people looking for care and support and those looking to provide it to connect on their terms. We proudly offer Australia’s largest and most diverse online community of independent support workers.

Product experience is all about people's experience when using Mable’s website and app. With a core focus to provide an easy-to-use and safe online platform, it’s an amazing opportunity to be the Head of Product Experience at Mable to ensure that we foster trusted two-way connections and always solve the right problem in the right way.

Through on-the-job learning with my incredibly talented colleagues and collaborative problem solving with inclusion and accessibility specialists, I’ve grown immensely both professionally and personally during my time at Mable.?

Unique insights into product experience through the lens of our customers, cross-team collaboration and passionate advocates?

My team uses a human-centred design framework to build empathy and understanding and ensure that all of our work focuses on specific goals, motivations and pain points to solve real problems for people.?

Our unique insights come from looking at our platforms through the lens of a customer and asking ourselves things like:

• “Does this help people do what they want to do?”
• “Is this easy to understand and use?”
• “How does this make people feel?”
• “Do we include, welcome and learn from people with diverse perspectives?”

To do this, we use tools like exploratory interviews, concept tests, surveys, usability tests, support calls, product analytics and experiments.

Collaborating with other parts of the business is also a critical element. For example, our Customer Operations and Community Engagement teams talk to people every day and have fantastic insights to share with us.?

Within the business, we also have many passionate advocates and leading thinkers on what is possible for people with great support, which is invaluable.?

Pressure makes diamonds: Using the “triple diamond” approach from problem discovery to solution delivery

At Mable, we use a "triple diamond" design process that comprises problem discovery and problem definition (first diamond), solution discovery and concept validation (second diamond) and development (third and final diamond).?

The diamond shape represents the divergent and convergent thinking throughout each phase, and effort can be scaled up and down as required.?

For projects where the problems are already well-understood, we may speed through the first diamond so that we can move onto the second diamond quickly. For other projects, we may go deeper for the first diamond when there are important or complex problems.?

For development (third and final diamond), we collaborate with product managers and engineers to ensure that our design strikes the right balance between viability, feasibility and desirability. In doing this, we determine the easiest and leanest way to create a feature that will meet the needs of our customers.

To ensure that new features are easy to understand and use, we design a user interface that is intuitive and well-explained. We also often run usability studies on prototypes, putting them in front of real customers and understanding how they perform.?

Bringing people with different contexts and perspectives into the process and learning from them is crucial, so we explore things like:

• “Is this enjoyable to use for people who use assistive technology (such as screen readers)?”
• “Is this easy to read for people with visual impairments or people who have left their glasses at home?”
• “Are the buttons and links easy to press for people with motor disabilities?”
• “Does this make people from marginalised communities feel welcome?”??

My team can then review, assess and make any further adjustments required to ensure that the feature is welcoming and inclusive for everyone.

In a recent project at Mable, the problem was well-understood, but there were many ideas about how we could solve it. After a collaborative ideation session with ten high-level concepts generated by the team, we took these into research with our customers, and a clear leader emerged from the feedback. This demonstrates how this lean process ensures that we solve the right problem the right way.?

Career development and on-the-job learning with my supportive and talented colleagues?

I've grown immensely at Mable, both from the external training opportunities provided and from working with and learning from amazing in-house talent.

I recently attended a Figma Masterclass to ensure we are getting the best out of our design tool and a course by Hilary Lindgren from Salus Psychology on managing emotions in the workplace. This covered practical mindfulness tips and strategies, which has been a great tool as COVID-19 has been hard on everyone.?

The biggest learnings have come from working with my phenomenally talented colleagues in a supportive and collaborative environment. Design covers so many skill sets, and the people at Mable are so generous with sharing approaches that they have mastered.?

I've also had the opportunity to work with specialists in inclusion and accessibility, some of whom use assistive technology themselves, and I've learned so much by tackling problems together.

At Mable, we regularly check in on our team’s sentiment about their role, wellbeing and the vibe. I am pleased to say that our team culture recently scored 94 out of 100! Which is 20 points above the industry average. This is a credit to the many big and small things that our leaders do, and I’ve relished the opportunity to be coached by them.

Are you interested in joining us on our vision of an inclusive society where everyone belongs? Then check out the latest career opportunities at Mable.?