ENGAGEMENT

To understand, create and measure

Volvo Cars has pioneered a unique approach to product development through a dedicated test fleet, allowing employees to lease cars equipped with specialized test equipment. This initiative generates both objective and subjective data, where drivers contribute valuable insights through experience reports and participation in quantitative/qualitative UX research.

With a diverse fleet comprising several thousand drivers, Volvo Cars recognizes the significance of driver engagement. The more engaged drivers are, the richer the data collected. My mission was to delve into this engagement dynamic, understand its triggers, identify factors that impact it, and devise ways to enhance and measure it over time.

My role as a UX designer involved translating these insights into actionable prototypes. These prototypes not only aimed to boost driver engagement but also included a strategic plan for systematic measurement over time. In essence, my goal was to encourage more activities that increase engagement, leading to heightened participation and richer data for Volvo Cars’ continuous product development journey.

Team

Mia Lorén – UX designer

Caroline Eriksson – UX designer

RESEARCH AND DEFINE

1

Interviews with specialists – The people working inside of CoDev

2

In-depth exploration of scientific research reports on engagement

3

Benchmarking on how organizations built on engagement foster it

4

Exploratory and screening survey to understand CoDev drivers, their purposes, motivations, and daily experiences

5

On-the-go interviews and Field studies among CoDev drivers

6

Analysis and summary of findings through affinity diagrams and numerical analysis

7

12 deep semi-structured interviews with drivers that was selected from the screening survey

8

Made User journeys and scenarios based on our insights from research-phase

IDEATION AND PROTOTYPING

1

Created several lo-fi prototypes on concepts that came from Mash-ups, mind-mapping and dot voting

2

Took the next step in prototyping, created mid-fi prototypes and started with attitude tests. These tests had participants in roles of CoDev drivers, PO’s, managers and team members

3

Iteration and summarization of test results, making minor adjustments, and preparing for the pilot test with 1500 users.

4

Pilot test of one of the prototypes, our engagement metric. Sent out to 1500 drivers. This provided us with insights and a measure of the level of engagement.

5

Presentation of the engagement-creator prototype to the department

6

Handover and final presentation of results, insights, and prognosis over increased engagement levels.

How we measure engagement

The metric

The metric is a survey designed with questions based on 4 key factors for engagement: Confidence, Appreciation, Inclusion, and Expectations.

By measuring these 4 factors, we gain understanding of which areas we need to strengthen. By identifying these areas, we can implement communication initiatives that stimulate and reinforce drivers’ intrinsic motivation.

This survey has been conducted 4 times a year since 2022, and we have been able to observe improvements in the areas we have worked on.

The metric is also an important channel for us to gather feedback from our drivers on what they desire and need.

How we increase engagement

Communication

Creating engagement starts with us.

Previously, it had been communicated through regular emails created in Outlook. This method is impersonal and challenging to foster engagement in the content, as our drivers deal with masses of information daily delivered to them via email. We aimed to establish communication that is easy to understand and absorb.

A Brand Guide and Tone of Voice were developed for our team. How we communicate is as crucial as what we communicate. We conducted research to identify a robust tool enabling us to create HTML-coded templates that could be exported to Outlook, thus avoiding the necessity of sharing data with third-party companies.

By communicating with our drivers in a user-friendly manner, with minimal and clear information, personalized and straightforward, we have reached our drivers to a greater extent. Today, all communication is sent out after being translated and designed by UX designers.