From abstract concept to concrete artifact
Using Prototypes to Gain Buy-In
UX Writing | Workshop Facilitation | X – The Moonshot Factory | 6 weeks
Background
X – The Moonshot Factory works towards 10x impact on the world’s most intractable problems. Our team was brought in for a design sprint to unlock new possibilities for artificial intelligence products that mitigate bias at scale.
Challenge
How might we build enterprise products with a baked-in bias toward equity?
Result
Speculative design of Opportunity Atlas: an imagined AI model to ensure fair, equitable, and socially just decisions across enter. The prototype product landing page was effectively used to gain leadership buy-in.
Team
Kirsten Collins, UX Writer
Julia Um, Project Lead
Vivian Lee, UX Designer
Michelle Zamora, UX Designer
Armando Somoza, Design Strategist
Skills
UX writing
prototyping
parachuting into a new space
workshop facilitation
critique
What does a policy intelligence machine look like?
After hitting a regulatory wall with a concept for an equitable lending product, our client X, The Moonshot Factory asked:
”What does a policy intelligence machine look like?”
Our team of design strategists went through a 5-week sprint to ideate answers this question.
Ideate and Narrow
With minimal established criteria other than the potential for a 10x solution (vs 10% improvement), we convened for a self-guided rapid ideation workshop, generating 75 concepts.
We then selected 10 concepts to build out further, considering potential customers and equity implications.
We presented and discussed these, noting themes and highlighting the most promising aspects.
We then selected two concepts to present back to the client for feedback.
Concept #1:
Social Intelligence for Offline Change
Leverage Google’s AI, data, and power of compute to map a path to behavior or attitude change through network influence to reach new audiences and engineer ideas and make behaviors to go viral.
Bake in anti-bias and ethical guardrails for public good.
Concept #2:
Equity Forecaster
An intersectional AI tool that examines history across numerous lenses (e.g. economic, political, global, educational) to create an impact analysis to better inform key decisions for companies and organizations.
Converge
#2, an “equity forecaster,” was the clear choice based on client feedback. They asked us to consider potential data sources.
We pushed back on this directive. After an initial round of research, our design strategy team suggested X and their partner, the Othering & Belonging Institute at Berkeley, were better resourced to more quickly identify data sources.
Instead, I proposed we focus the remainder of the sprint on our strength: prototyping for storytelling.
Show Don’t Tell
We struggled to articulate this big idea succinctly. How might we help busy decision makers “get it”?
Inspired by our prior work in strategic foresight, we decided to create an artifact of the future: a landing page imagining how Google might position and sell Opportunity Atlas.
I suggested a “Google Maps for Opportunity” metaphor to make the idea relatable and concrete.
I assumed the role of Lead Content Designer and collaborated with our UX Designer to create a landing page mockup.
Wireframe
The UX designer blocked out a layout based on Google’s site architecture.
Using Miro, I gathered all the bits of language we had already generated throughout our sprint, and synthesized it into headlines, calls to action, and descriptors to bring our concept to life.
We shared versions along the way with the rest of our team for feedback.
Refine
The designer then made high-fidelity mockups in Figma. I refined the language with more simple and specific phrasing.
Critique
Once we had a complete draft, we presented it to the rest of the team for critique. This helped us focus our design on the real goal — an artifact to provoke discussion — and stop spending time laboring over the details to maintain fidelity to the Google design system.
Present & Provoke
We presented the final prototype to the client. I facilitated an in-person jam session between our team and X leaders to ideate additional possibilities for where this concept could go next, and potential next steps to explore.
NAV BAR
Aligning our concept with Google’s core commitment to belonging.
HERO SECTION
Using Google Maps as a metaphor to make an abstract accessible (atlas, maps, route)
VALUE PROPOSITION 1
Emphasizing how AI can be a force for good in human behavior, contrary to the dystopian cultural narrative about AI.
VALUE PROPOSITION 2
Demonstrating how Opportunity Atlas could be packaged for enterprise customers.
CREDIBILITY
This concept leverages Google’s partnership with the Othering & Belonging Institute.
SOCIAL PROOF 1
Testimonial showing potential customer and impact.
SOCIAL PROOF 2
Illustrating more customer segments through case studies.
FOOTER
Included Google’s existing footer to make a big, abstract idea feel real and possible.
Learnings
Of all our project deliverables, our client reported that this future artifact was the most effective in provoking feedback and ideation among project stakeholders and collaborators.
For me, it reinforced that visual prototypes are a low-lift tool for quick worldbuilding and often a more impactful way to convey conceptual ideas than written narratives.