Designing an AI implementation strategy for Weekend Creative Agency
Role
UX Designer (1-person project)
Duration
4 months (February - June 2024)
Target group
Digital product designers in Weekend
The challenge
Right now, generative AI is hotter than a phone left in the sun at Coachella. Companies are tripping over themselves to incorporate this juicy piece of innovation in their own work processes. Enter Weekend Creative Agency, who brought me on board to introduce this tool to the agency's team of digital designers. The challenge was to find a suitable approach that accommodates their busy schedules and constant workload.
The question
How can I design a strategy for introducing generative AI as a tool for Weekend’s designers that is tailored to their needs?
Phase 1: Research
Techniques to learn about Weekend
Interviews with employees
Employee survey
Fly-on-the-wall for ongoing projects
Examining past projects
Techniques to learn about generative AI
Conversing with AI experts
Reading case studies from other businesses
Joining AI workshops
Taking AI courses
Processing results
Research results
Weekend Creative Agency's work process is elusive, almost like catching smoke, while generative AI offers endless possibilities. So, how do you unite these two seemingly disparate areas? This brings us to the next phase of my project, which I like to call the 'strategically throwing pasta at the wall to see what sticks' phase — essentially, scrum-style testing to determine the best fit.
Phase 2: Build-Measure-Learn
Creating an AI focus group
Some of the crew at Weekend were not strangers to generative AI. They had already been experimenting with it and integrating it into their work before I even began my project. Seizing this momentum, I organized a focus group where we could exchange ideas and facilitate information sharing.
Making an inter-company AI project sharing location
In the spirit of a high-tech show-and-tell, I set up a communal hub where everyone could show off their generative AI experiments and their outcomes.
Posting daily newsletters
I created and posted a daily AI newsletter, containing hot topics, discussions, trivia, tips, and more to a shared Slack channel. All in one condensed newsletter, optimalized for quick readthrough.
Giving ChatGPT and Midjourney workshops
I designed and gave two workshops for the most relevant to Weekend AI tools, to ensure that everyone has some formal learning and hands-on experience with prompting techniques.
Creating a prompting toolbox
For those who didn't have the time to join the workshop or who wanted to go more techincally in-depth into prompting, I created a prompting toolbox for Weekend which employees could always take a look at.
Conducting an AI pilot project
Working together with others on a project that was already ongoing at Weekend, I incorporated AI usage into some activities that would normally be done without AI, such as target group research, concept creation, and competitive analysis.
Planning fun activities like AI Bingo
To raise general interest and presence of AI within Weekend, I planned company-wide activities where everyone could enjoy AI's results in an entertaining way.
Build-measure-learn outcome
Phew... that was a lot, right? But thanks to all these activities, I learned some valuable lessons about Weekenders' learning styles, communication styles, and responsiveness to AI integration. I also identified the areas within the company where the AI strategy needs to be applied. This leads to the next part, which is actually building the strategy!
Phase 3: Building the strategy
Brainstorming
Evaluating ideas based on learnings
The strategy
I then built the AI implementation strategy, which I'm not going to show here because it’s a private document. However, I can give you a brief overview of the contents. Some of the elements contained in the strategy were:
A shared definition of what generative AI is and what it means for Weekend.
An AI maturity chart that is created for and tailored to Weekend, and shows the categories where Weekend can progress in to increase their AI maturity level.
A game plan for advancing their maturity to the following levels, along with instructions that every employee can follow.
A vision for the desired future of AI integration and how it will look for Weekend.
Conclusion
Learnings
1. You can't make people use something they're not interested in, like AI. Instead, understand why they hesitate. It could be a misconception or a past bad experience with ChatGPT—knowing this can help.
2. Dealing with agencies means navigating their tight schedules, where new tasks often fall into a backlog. Learning to adapt quickly is key to getting stuff done.
3. Embrace the mantra: Iterate, iterate, iterate! Treat every failure as a learning opportunity and keep experimenting—some ideas will inevitably stick.