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Overview
For the past 6 months, we’ve been focused on raising awareness of Dovetail. For example, we’ve been building relationships with infrastructure orgs and funders, figuring out how best to signpost non-profit audiences to Dovetail.
This has left us a bit detached from users, their needs, and the product itself. So we decided to do some user research interviews.
Research method
- 4x 1-hour user research interviews conducted via Google Meet
- Discussion guides prepared and interviews conducted by Noam (Product Lead)
- Of those interviewed, 3 people work in digital roles at non-profits
- 1 person works as a freelance consultant supporting non-profits
- To say thanks, each participant received £50 in Waterstones vouchers
Research goals
We wanted to understand:
- Steps and challenges that people (at charities) face when procuring a digital partner
- Overall thoughts on Dovetail as a service
- If used, how Dovetail helped the process
- If not used, how Dovetail could’ve been useful
- Areas where Dovetail could be improved
- Thoughts on how to find good “fit” between non-profits and their partners
- The role of DEI in non-profit and partner relationships
- Where AI has, or could, be of use in the procurement process
Key learnings
On where Dovetail could be improved
- General
- Make it clearer Dovetail is more than a directory
- One interviewee “felt it was only a directory” and “just realised there are resources”
- Provide more incentive to create an account
- For example, show previews of the content account holders will access
- Show testimonials from account holders
- Make it clearer that account creation is free - Done ✅
- Two out of four interviewees were sceptical / nervous about sharing data
- Avoid or explain jargon better, such as “RFI”
- Directory landing page
- Inform users of requirements for partners to be listed - Done ✅
- Show partners by digital output (i.e. website, app, game, chatbot) - Done ✅
- Allow users to quickly see or filter partners by domain knowledge (i.e. sport, legal)
- Profile pages
- Inform users of how partner information is kept up to date - Done ✅
- Add LinkedIn, for legitimacy and easy cross-checking
- Show main services vs secondary - “what are they really good at?”
On how to find good fit
- What people said was important (roughly in order):
- 💬 Rapport - “Can we have a good conversation? Is there flow?”
- ✊ Values - “Do they share our ethos and values?”
- 🥾 Culture - “Do they work in similar ways to us?”
- 🦉 Understanding charities - “Do they understand charities and our limitations?”
- 🌍 Domain experience - “Do they have experience working in our space?”
- 🍎 Similar projects - “Have they done similar work of a similar size?”
- 👁️ Empathy - “Are they user-focused? Do they empathise with our users?”
- 🛠️ Tech - “Do we use the same or compatible tech?” (product and internally)
- 💰 Budgets - “Do we align on budget expectations?”
- 🗣️ References - “Are there good references?”