Cohesion - Preboarding Virtual Reality Platform

COHESION

Preboarding Virtual Reality Platform

Capstone Project, Class of 2023

Integrative Studio II: Brett Barndt

MS Strategic Design & Management

Parsons School of Design, The New School

Connection Before Day One

REPORT AGENDA

PART 1

INTRODUCTION

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Cohesion is a preboarding VR platform that offers an immersive experience for new hires that bridges the gap between accepting a job offer and starting work.

Cohesion's journey began as an event-based consultancy, but evolved to become a knowledge sharing platform that provided a more comprehensive and personalized onboarding experience. The platform now includes personality analysis, buddy matching, virtual office tour, as well as introduction to company culture and values, virtual meetings, and personalized content.

Cohesion addresses the challenges of traditional onboarding methods, offering an engaging and integrated solution that reduces time to productivity. The interactive preboarding experience fosters a stronger sense of connection to the company and colleagues, leading to better performance and higher engagement. An ideal solution for organizations of all sizes, Cohesion is scalable and cost-effective to establish connections before day one.

TEAM BACKGROUND

Ines Wu

Simone Chen

Thita Tun

Vinay Pandu

Product Strategist

Design Strategist

Creative Strategist Design Researcher

PROJECT TIMELINE

Team Formation

Exploratory Research

Opportunity Mapping

Landscape Analysis

Ideation Activities

Concept Testing

Functionality Matrix

Prototype Testing

Pilot Launch

OPPORTUNITY PART

2

THE MOTIVATION

Once upon a time, there was an employee. We call him Mr Y.

We started our exploratory research focusing on the communication and collaboration pain points in daily business and product operations.

Mr. Y Series

In Episode 1, Mr Y got the new offer to join a dream company, but he struggled to succeed in the workplace after several months.

Episode 1

In Episode 2, we talked about the emerging themes and insights uncovered from user interviews and workshops that might help Mr Y with his situation.

Episode 2

In Episode 3, Mr Y recalled the onboarding period where he shared his enthusiasm as well as confusion about joining the new company with his friends, which led us to dig deeper into knowledge sharing & onboarding.

Episode 3

The

RESEARCH JOURNEY

Desktop Research

Competitive landscape analysis

Organizational communication

Employee engagement survey

In-depth

Conversations

Junior Employees

Rising Professionals

Industry Experts & Advisors

Interview Guide

Brainstorming

Workshops

Personal insights from reflections

Knowledge sharing ecosystem

Consulting model & role play

Figma Workshop Board

Figma Research Board

TARGET AUDIENCE

High-functioning organizations and individuals with integration gaps

From our initial testing with the events consulting idea, we learned that the scope for organizational development could be enormous and the outcome is usually not in our control. We also realized that most of the existing solutions focus on leaders, but what if we adopt a different approach? What about the newbies and team members?

Complicated, Back-andforth Onboarding Process

Unproductive and Repetitive Training Agenda

As a result, we explored where knowledge sharing can easily create a win-win on the employee journey and set the foundation for relationship building, which organically leads to cultural change in organizations. The prototype testing thus began with the onboarding experience - the start of it all.

Insufficient Integration, Inclusivity & Engagement with New Hires

Limited Connection & Communication Before Beginning in the Office

INTERESTING NUMBERS

For organizations, to onboard or not, it's not a question

During our 2nd round of desktop research, we discovered more evidence supporting our new pivot. The onboarding experience remained key to employee engagement and productivity, which eventually translate into organizational efficiency and profitability.

To everyone's surprise, there are only 12% of employees are currently satisfied with onboarding experience, and a concerning 20% of employees leave in the first 45 days of joining a new organization.

Of employees are currently satisfied with onboarding

20%

Of employees leave in the first 45 days of onboarding

PROBLEM STATEMENT

So, how might we ...

help New Hires better integrate into organizations through knowledge sharing and get upto-speed even before day one?

COHESION

A Preboarding Virtual Reality Platform MEET COHESION

Cohesion delivers a unique preboarding experience by combining cutting-edge virtual reality technology with personalized, interactive, and immersive experience.

Our platform helps organizations empower fully engaged, prepared, and connected employees before day one. We foster a seamless company & team integration process for new hires, while reducing time and resource investments associated with traditional onboarding methods.

CORE FEATURES

Helping organizations empower fully engaged employees before day one

Customized

Onboarding

based on insights about individual preferences & personal and professional goals

Profile & Personality Analysis through advanced algorithms to gather insights into human capital management

Buddy Matching & Job Training

with shared interests and working styles to help new hires acclimate to new environments

Gamified Virtual Reality

via human-like touchpoints to familiarize new hires with workspace and relevant job scenarios

VALUE PROPOSITION

Foster a seamless company & team integration process for everyone

Organizations

Establishes trust and transparency early on

Discover new hires' growth potentials

Leverage existing talent and tacit knowledge base

New Hires

Make easier connections & communication

Cultivate self understanding and environment

Decrease anxiety with support system

Customize and manage training scenarios

Get up-to-speed through interactive VR

TESTING METHODOLOGY

Testing Focus

PROCESS

Expert Opinion

Client Buy-in

User Journey

After prototyping, we went through 5+ rounds of testing with relevant stakeholder. Here's a quick view of the process.

STEP 1

PREPARATION

Prototype and prop design

Identify target participants

STEP 2

PARTICIPATION

Background Introduction

Prototype walk-through

STEP 3

REFLECTION

Internal synthesis

Note-taking and discussion

STEP 4

ITERATION

Iterate and redesign

Refine pitch narrative

FEEDBACK & TRACTION

Positive reactions and valuable suggestions from all our participants

Never seen something like this on the market. Very novel experience and angle, while creating value for HR and users

I can definitely see the investment potential in this, also huge opportunities with HRIS integration and business model

My organization would love to use this as they are still using traditional tools. When are you gonna launch this?

Consulting Expert

Senior HR Manager

Agency New Hire

PART 4

PILOT

THE LAUNCH

First impressions are important, obviously

After we got certain positive feedback and validation, we launched our project through different touch-points, including a landing website, a 3-minute product demo video, and a social profile on LinkedIn.

We have also been seeking feedback, funding, and support from different venture incubators.

Landing Website

Venture Incubation

Video Demo

LinkedIn Profile

BUSINESS MODEL

A distillation into how Cohesion works with different partners

The core value of the cohesion platform is the algorithm that analyze the company profile as well as the new hires’ work styles and personalities, matching them with their support ecosystem at work and providing them with a customized journey into their new workplaces. Our core offering is the software and a personalized, immersive onboarding experience. For the VR headset, we will be working with manufacturing vendors and partners. We will also try to promote and distribute our product through larger tech industry exhibitions and mixed reality community events, to gather more attention, traction, and feedback.

Key Resources

Personalization

Key Activities

Integration

Software

Key Partners

VR Headset

Manufacturers

Key Channels

Tech Events & XR Communities

MARKET POSITIONING

We currently target the US tech industry, which adds 500k+ new positions per year

Through preliminary market research, we have identified the unique positioning of Cohesion at the cross-section of virtual reality technology and applications, employee onboarding solutions, and knowledge management software.

USD 5B in 2022

USD 10B by 2032

CAGR 8.9%

Virtual Reality Technology & Applications

Starting with mature markets, we stand out and empower our solution with emerging virtual technologies; the growth potential is enormous. We differentiate ourselves from the existing solutions by offering highly personalized experience especially focusing on the pre boarding and onboarding period. In other words, we’ve found a blue ocean.

Knowledge Management Software

USD 17B in 2022

USD 227B by 2029

CAGR 45.2%

A red ocean turned blue!

Lack of personalization

Employee

Onboarding Solutions

USD 25B in 2021

USD 73B by 2030

CAGR 12.5%

REVENUE MODEL

Cohesion can have 3 revenue streams, based on early indications

could provide

If they are willing to explore more, we can then license our software to them on a long term basis.

There are also potential for us to integrate with larger consulting firms and technology companies to offer a human capital management package.

SERVICE JOURNEY

We provide short-term training and long-term analytics capabilities

EVOLUTION PART 5

CONCEPT ITERATION

After the concept testing phase, we brainstormed and organized our thoughts on Figma and Docs to plan the next steps and visualize user flows for the Cohesion platform.

Both digital and physical sketches were immensely helpful for visualizing and clarifying the virtual onboarding process through Cohesion.

We finalized our prototype design after 5+ testing sessions. For the pilot launch, we designed initial branding elements, inluding a logo for the LinkedIn profile page and a banner with our tagline: Connection Before Day One.

USER INTERFACE

The user flow had gone through 2 iterations, for both the HR-facing and user-facing sides. For the HR POV, we made the iterations based on feedback from our 1st round of testing with a senior HR manager.

For the User POV, v1 provided the basic structure of VR setup, questionnaire, buddy matching, welcoming message, and virtual office visit. v2 had more info on direct supervisor and teammates. It also added a few options at the end of the pre-boarding experience for new hires to start training modules, browse events & workshops, and schedule calls with people around the company.

HR v1

USER v1

USER v2

HR v2

LANDING PAGE

We developed a client-facing landing page website to show the value proposition of the Cohesion platform. Preliminary sections from concept testing phase included Taglines, How We Help, Client Profiles, Why Us with statistics, and Customer Testimonials.

At the end of prototype testing, we designed more pages to show Registration, Our Story, Product Demo, and Research Report, adding more creditability and product assets to showcase our narrative. This became the final version used for pilot launch.

Concept Testing v1-3

Pilot Launch

PRODUCT ROADMAP

EVALUATION MATRIX

CONCLUSION

TO BE CONTINUED ...

The development of Cohesion was a result of extensive design research and prototype development by our team. Our research included interviews with HR professionals, new hires, and subject matter experts to understand the challenges and opportunities in the preboarding process, thanks to all the participants along the way.

We then translated our insights into a comprehensive preboarding VR platform that bridges the gap between accepting a job offer and starting work. We are proud of what we have accomplished and believe that Cohesion has the potential to revolutionize the preboarding process and enhance the employee experience. We are excited to see its impact on the organizations that adopt it and look forward to continuing to improve it with the feedback of our users.

COHESION

Connection Before Day One

Capstone Project, Class of 2023

Integrative Studio II: Brett Barndt

MS Strategic Design & Management

Parsons School of Design, The New School

Vision

Re-imagining the people side of business, starting with knowledge sharing on the onboarding journey.

Mission Revolutionizing the onboarding experience by establishing strong connections, driving sustainable productivity, and promoting long-term engagement before day one.

APPENDIX

Video Links For Submission Only

Capstone Project, Class of 2023

Integrative Studio II: Brett Barndt

MS Strategic Design & Management

Parsons School of Design, The New School

3 Min Stern Pitch

5 Min Symposium Pitch

10 Min Class Pitch