Context
The School of Slow Media (SoSM) is a documentary programme that transforms leaders, creatives, and change-makers into mindful listeners and effective storytellers. The SoSM has hosted over 15 REMIX programs across South Asia, where participants produce micro documentaries showcasing everyday human stories over the course of three days.
Purpose
The team began asking about the impact created during REMIX, and how it fits into the overall outcomes and mission of SoSM. Our goal was to understand this, and contribute to the design of REMIX 2.0.
A clustering exercise to identify challenges & shifts for each team.
Scope
I worked with the founding team to design the key research questions & methodology. Ultimately, we sought to understand:
Who are the people in the room?
What do participants expect to harvest from REMIX (pre-program)?
What do participants harvest by the end of the program?
What’s the impact on the participant & their system?
We clarified the key potential shifts designed into the program in order to measure against them, during and after the program. I used card sorting, shadowing, follow-up interviews, and a survey to produce an initial report of trends & opportunity areas, structured against our key questions.
Outcomes
When I think of user research, I think of two models — a) the consulting model, where a researcher packages insights & delivers to the client and b) the embedded model, where a researcher is co-designing from insights to solution with the core team.
As a group, we decided to lean into the embedded model. We’re continuing to design the next iterations of SoSM programming.
If you’re interested, reach out to view the research findings. Additionally, below are a few photo selects from my day shadowing one of the participating teams.
An attunement exercise in the morning, at the park. Practicing observation without storytelling or fantasy.
I shadowed the team Humankind Media during their pre-production, production, and post-production process.
On the bridge, on the way to the interview.
On the path, on Banana Island.
Settling in with the documentary participant, Duóc, over trà dá and cam sành.
The group captures shots around Duóc’s place.
Quick interlude: dog meets Xu An.
And Xu An meets dog.
Look at that face. :)
Interviewing Duóc and soaking up his amazing story.
By the end of the interview, it’s nightfall. The view of Hanoi buildings, from the garden.