UX Case Study
Understanding a grant management application for Walmart’s Spark Good Local Grants
UX Research with some aspects of Service Design
December 2022 - January 2023 (6 weeks)
Details of my work are confidential. However, here is a glimpse of what I and the team (2 additional designer) worked on for this project.
BACKGROUND
What is Spark Good Local Grants?
Walmart’s Spark Good Local Grants is a program, supported by Walmart Foundation, that was designed to address the unique needs of the community. When non-profit organizations apply to Spark Good Local Grants at their local Walmart stores, Sam’s Clubs, and Distribution Centers, the organization may get awarded with local cash grants ranging from $250 to $5000.
Spark Good Local Grants was originally managed and hosted within a third-party vendor. However, the platform provided an unfavorable user experience for both non-profit organizations and Walmart internal teams who support and manage the program.
The team and I set out to understand the current experience of the legacy application (third-party vendor) and uncover pain points and opportunities for an in-house grant management application. As a result, we were able to provide a deeper understanding of the 4 user roles (non-profit organizations, store manager, finance manager, and program administrator) and the key processes to successfully design an in-house application that provides optimal user experience and meet user needs.
PROCESS
Understanding the key users and their roles.
Spark Good Local Grants is a program that is available for non-profit organizations to apply for local grants. However, there are other roles, such as the store manager, finance manager, and program administrator, who supports the service delivery of Spark Good Local Grants. To thoroughly understand how to design an in-house grant management application, the team and I conducted user interviews with each user roles to uncover pain points and opportunities and understand key processes and the current experiences within the third-party application.
Under the third-party vendor, the 4 user roles were unable to easily apply for a grant (non-profit organization), review/approve applications (store manager), review/manage grant budgets (finance manager), and manage grant program (program administrator).
With these interviews, the team and I were able to uncover areas of pain points and opportunities and key processes to focus for the upcoming design phase of work. We created experience maps, service blueprints, and user personas to visualize the end-to-end experience of the program.
OUTCOME
Translating insights into actionable design requirements.
The team and I provided experience maps, service blueprints, user personas, and presentation share-out deck to showcase key insights that emerged from the research. Our work provided recommendations and design requirements for our design team to begin designing the in-house grant management application in the next phase.
As a result of the work, our deliverables were also used to drive strategic conversations to further improve the Spark Good Local Grants program beyond the initial intent of this project.
REFLECTION
Lessons Learned.
This project was my first UX research project since transitioning careers from public health/health policy research to UX design. At the time, I was hesitant or not as confident in myself as to whether I would deliver quality work and ensure a successful and smooth project since I was new to career field.
However, after some reflection, I realized that I had all the necessary skills to be a good UX researcher. I was able to transfer my previous experience in research to ensure the success of the project, so it was unnecessary for me to not trust myself and my ability to deliver quality work.
Note to self: Trust the process and your ability to deliver amazing work!
read other case studies
Giving Ecosystem
UX Research with some aspects of Service Design (Confidential)
Understanding Walmart Foundation’s Giving Ecosystem
Giving Programs
UX Research with some aspects of Service Design (Confidential)
Uncovering the discoverability of Walmart’s giving programs
Mobile App Redesign
UX Research and UX Design (Highly Confidential & Sensitive)
Redesigning a mobile app experience for incident management
Spark Good Local Grants
UX Research with some aspects of Service Design (Confidential)
Understanding a grant management application for Walmart’s Spark Good Local Grants