Screenshot of Feeding San Diego's website

Field Research: Feeding San Diego

Overview

In February of 2021, Feeding San Diego (FSD) began hosting large-scale food distributions to meet the rising need for food assistance throughout San Diego County. To facilitate the registration and check-in process for these free events, I implemented RSVPify, an event management solution. RSVPify is a comprehensive software with capabilities ranging from form design, custom questions, and automated email communication to a check-in suite that leverages unique QR codes to track guests.

Although RSVPify was meeting the goals of our marketing and communications team related to client communication and registration, the general sentiment from the volunteer team on the ground at check-in was that RSVPify was a complex system that was a bottleneck at our food distributions.

Objective

At the highest level, all stakeholders agreed that our registration and check-in solution for food distribution needs to be quick, efficient, and straightforward. There was a growing disconnect between what we wanted this software to achieve and how it appeared to work.

After isolating the problem to the check-in process, I designed a framework to get to the root cause. My field research and corresponding analysis aimed to provide our executive team of decision-makers with the tools and knowledge necessary to make an informed decision on how to solve the problem at hand.

My Role & Responsibilities

As the Senior Digital Marketing Manager, the original owner of RSVPify, and manager of the digital creation and advertising of our large-scale food distributions, I spearheaded this case study.

Design Study: Design research questions and processes for data collection.

Conduct Research: Conduct field research and interviews. Shadow volunteers at the check-in station of two different large-scale food distributions.

Perform Analysis: Compile and package findings, provide meaningful and easy-to-understand analysis.

Present Findings: Present analysis and provide recommendations on next steps.

Process

Getting to the root cause. Having volunteered at a handful of the distributions in question, coupled with detailed knowledge of problems encountered by the volunteer team, I developed a study that sought to answer two essential questions:

  1. What are the most significant pain points with our current process?
  2. What is the root cause of these issues?

I developed a SmartSheet form that would allow me to quickly capture data surrounding:

I attended two distributions and shadowed volunteers at the check-in station. I also interviewed the four volunteers I shadowed and asked them to rank their experience using our current check-in software.

I compiled the data and put together a presentation highlighting key findings. Some of these findings included:

I wrapped up the presentation by revisiting my original hypothesis and answering the two primary questions related to the root cause I set out to explore. I then provided my recommendation on immediate and long-term next steps segmented by type (technology, communication, other).

Finally, I scheduled a meeting with relevant stakeholders and presented my analysis and recommendations.

Result

The decision to pioneer this research study arose from my experience with RSVPify not matching up with the story I was hearing from the volunteer team. Before anyone made a potentially costly decision to switch platforms, I wanted to help provide concrete data on what problem we’d be solving. As I suspected, most issues at the check-in station stemmed from inadequate technology and guests’ confusion during registration.

Shadowing and interviewing volunteers provided valuable insight into some of the issues that were within my power to solve — and I was able to make adjustments on the backend of RSVPify.

Although the Marketing team is undoubtedly a stakeholder in the event software we use, it became increasingly clear that we are not, nor should we be, the decision-makers. Since the handoff of responsibilities related to this project, the volunteer and operation teams have begun phasing in some of my recommended next steps.

Platform + Technology Used

LESSONS LEARNED

It can be challenging to remain objective; research helps eliminate some of our biases and is essential in decision-making. I learned that showing rather than telling stakeholders the root cause of the problem was profoundly more influential. This show, don’t tell theory is one I carry throughout all of my projects.