Chaitime
Chai time, especially in India, is synonymous with the idea of a break, conversing, energising and connecting with others. With the same intention, we co-create the same at workplaces by building value-based cultures through interactions and engagements for connecting and problem-solving. We aim to create social well-being for all to address toxicity at work specially created because of interpersonal conditions. With the help of our application, an organisation can find their toxicity score and get personalised rituals that can be done. The employees can also create, schedule and organise rituals!
Output Links:
Brand guidelines
Service maps
Style guide of the app
Timeline
Subjects
Keywords
Tools
Output
: 3 Months | September - December 2021
: Brand Strategy | Brand Identity | Campaign Design |
Brand Concept | Ui/Ux | Research | Copywriting |
Service Design
: Wicked Problem | Toxic Work Cultures
: Illustrator, Indesign, Photoshop, Figma, Notion
: Application, Brand Guidelines, Service Design, Style
Guide, and Toolkits for creating rituals and for
addressing employee problems.
Context -
An average person will spend one-third of their lifetime at work. This also shapes the quality of life. So it’s very important for one to enjoy the working experience to have a good healthy life. After primary research through interviews with over 70 participants, it was found that it is very common to observe and experience toxic work cultures. These affect the people in the organisation and in turn the organisation as well. Many complained about the relationships they shared with their co-workers and other people at work
Questions -
What behaviours, conditions, and systems contribute to a toxic work culture and its consequences for employees and the organisation as a whole?
How can this be recognised by all?
How can a more inclusive and healthy workplace culture be achieved?
How can workplace interpersonal relationships be improved at all organizational levels (top to bottom) and be mutually beneficial for all?
Discover phase -
The process was very research intensive. Deconstructing Work Cultures and Toxicity with help of research papers, business models and primary research. The sample size of the research is 74 (22 long formats and 52 short format interviews. The research was done telephonically and via virtual meeting platforms). The insights were built with help of different tools like AEIOU, Affinity Mapping, Bubble maps etc. The main approach defined was to work towards interpersonal conditions by combining primary and secondary research.
The next phase was to immerse more in the narrowed-down theme - Interpersonal conditions. Looking at different case studies, from micro to macro solutions that already exist and analysing them. The focused primary research sample was 15 long-format ones. The insights were then categorised into main 3 groups - UNWARENESS, LACK OF BELONGINGNESS, BEHAVIORS, BELIEFS AND INTERACTIONS.
This was followed by the Define phase. The needs were refocused and defined furthermore - Social well-being. With help of empathy mapping and consumer personas, the target audience was defined as well. The organisational level targeted was small to mid-level organisations.
Brainstorm phase consisted of idea generation from different perspectives addressing in similar direction of social well being. Using different tools like Crawford method, free writing, role storming, reverse brainstorming etc really helped. Finding parallel systems to find alternative intervations gave new insights. This phase helped to frame focused how might we questions.
The three main directions were - to increase conversation, to educate and to increase ownership.
Execution Phase -
Going forward with ownership i.e 3rd approach based on insights and further focused primary research. For urban private small-scale offices with employees of less than 100 people, CHAItime caters to making work cultures healthier and mutually beneficial for all by enabling co-created engagements for connection and problem-solving. Thus, the employees have a sense of ownership and belongingness with each other and the organisation, in turn promoting the social well-being of everyone.
Designing a channel to create physical interactions between people to share and know people beyond their work and appearance. Encouraging meaningful conversations will make people empathize with each other and eventually look at problems together with collaborations and co-learning. An application that gives prompts and fun challenges to connect with others can act as ice breakers, small group games, discussing problems at work, appreciating others etc. This can connect people across departments who have never spoken to each other. Letting people express themselves and also share problems enables connections and relationships. This shapes a shared value-based culture. And a start point to improve relationships and create sensitivity. People can be motivated to use prompts and complete challenges with others with ideas of streaks and milestones instead of points and leaderboards. This will also promote healthy competition. This intervention can work great in organizations irrespective of size. But people who already have tension between them might take some more time to open up and make meaningful conversations.
Execution Phase -
With an emic and etic approach, I aim to look at context and identity the problems more holistically. An emic approach is the insider approach focusing more on culturally specific behaviour while etic is an outsider approach that will bring in the universal behaviour perspective - comparing the insights and analysis of both. This approach lets one understand the problem and then analyse it. With the insider approach, the survey is taken from employees and calculated based on relatively larger parameters. Suggestion of rituals are based on the score with the intention to reduce the toxicity and increase the social wellbeing of the employees. The employees can further customise and personalise these rituals or add new ones!
MAJOR PILLARS
Service-oriented: Personalisation and Customisation
Co-creation: engagements for connection and problem-solving.
For all businesses (small scale): Chaitime is for everyone.
Mutually beneficial to ALL
Brand heart -
Values - For people at work
• To be respected, accepted, and appreciated.
• To look at problems together and find interventions catering to all.
• To increase control and contributions towards office culture.
• To achieve credibility, respect, pride and camaraderie
Purpose - To reduce toxic interpersonal relationships in urban work culture for the well-being of the employees - social, emotional and physical.
Brand Voice -
Mature. Relatable. A pinch of expressiveness. Welcoming and Playful.
Archetype - 70% Everyman 30% Creator
Everyman :
CORE DESIRE: Connection with others
GOAL: To belong.
WHY: Without pretense, the Everyman is sincere, helpful, and genuine. Wanting to belong and get along with others, this archetype treats everyone with dignity and respect. That gives people a sense of belonging with a high degree of practicality, functionality.
Creator :
CORE DESIRE: To create something of everlasting value
GOAL: To give form to a vision/idea
WHY: Creator seeks to create something new fostering expression. Collaboration amongst Creators often comes in the form of teamwork and co-creation. While these meetings stem from a collaborative standpoint, they also promote the autonomy of teammates and their individual freedom to create.
TAGLINE - ToGather at Work
Apart from being synonymous with refreshing time, Chaitime stands for
C - (SOCIAL) COHERENCE AND CONTRIBUTION
H - HUMAN CONNECTION AND HEALTH
A - (SOCIAL) ACCEPTANCE AND ACTUALISATION
I - (SOCIAL) INTEGRATION AND INTERACTIONS
The brand’s aim is to have healthy interpersonal conditions in the workplace. This is done by making everyone at the office feel belonged and connected. Collective co-created engagements give a sense of togetherness in the office. This is integrated by also giving them the ownership of finding problems and intervening with collaboration. From the name chosen to the visual language - colours, fonts etc resonate with these characteristics. The target audience sees a creative brand language with what they are already acquainted with.
Click here to view the entire Brand Guidelines, here to view service maps
Application
The app is a platform that helps employees of a company to co-create engagements for connection and creating impact at their firm. This is achieved collaboratively.
The process of the app included user flows, information architecture, paper prototypes, card sorting with users, low and high fidelity prototypes and user testing.
Contact me to view this project's documentation book and view the entire process in detail.
