Brick house with brown door

Ample Labs: A Case Study

Exploring hidden homelessness in Toronto

Keywords: Research for Startups, Product Pivot

 

"The work that Anna and Blue Umbrella did played a huge role on understanding exactly what our end-users were going through right before and during COVID-19. We were impressed by the quality, depth and attention to detail of the results. We know this will play a big part of informing our upcoming product strategy and roadmap."

- CG Chen, Founder, Ample Labs

 
 
 

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Background

Ample Labs (2019-2022) was a social startup using AI and Data to help prevent homelessness. They created Chalmers, a SaaS web chat bot connecting people in challenging situations to critical services in seconds e.g. free meals, shelter, clothing banks and other resources.

Ample Labs engaged Blue Umbrella as they were pivoting the product and target users. They moved from: helping people locate resources to a becoming a homelessness prevention software. The goal of this study was to better inform the team about “hidden homeless” individuals - who had been without permanent housing for less than 6 months.

Co-creation was embedded in the DNA of Ample Labs. They regularly worked with the community members with lived experiences of homelessness and with diverse identities and situations. We worked very closely with the team to understand the business goals, design the study, recruit individuals, fine-tune the deliverables and tag recordings in the Dovetail repository!

We conducted hour-long exploratory interviews with 13 individuals experiencing hidden homelessness in order to understand:

  • Individuals’ characteristics, needs, behaviours and pain points

  • Online and offline channels used to find resources, social services, jobs and social connection 

  • Barriers to accessing or discovering online resources

  • Experience with the Chalmers chat bot

Next, we developed 3 personas and journey maps to illustrate the findings and identify high priority areas for product development strategy and marketing.

 
 

Services:

  • Strategy & UX Research

  • In-depth Interviews

  • Research with a Vulnerable Population

  • Participant Recruitment

  • Persona Development

  • Journey Mapping

 
 
First interactions with Chalmers bot: asks which resources you seek and asks for permission to use location

Screenshot of Chalmers web app on mobile - the polite, helpful chat bot

 
 

Short video demonstrating how to use Chalmers

 
 

Persona & Journey Map Development

 
 

We conducted in-depth interviews and developed 3 personas to highlight key aspects such as their daily reality, experience with Chalmers and sources of income.

 
 

The personas captured:

  • A top-line description of their Current Situation

  • A short Summary in the form of a story

  • A description of their Income, Human Connection, How they discovered Chalmers and the Effects of COVID on their circumstances

  • A list of Immediate Needs to help prioritize product development and user acquisition

  • Visuals describing modes of commute (Getting around) and Technology Use

  • Slider scales to help with Persona comparisons: Income, Last Shelter Stay, In-Real-Life (IRL) Social Network

 
 
 

Along with the persona, the journey maps are intended to be used for empathy building and storytelling. Ample Labs used the deliverables in pitches for funding & partnership opportunities, for roadmap planning, and to improve the user acquisition strategy.  

We developed 3 journey maps depicting each persona’s reality as they transition between permanent housing, temporary housing and homelessness. The video below is a brief (2 min) overview of Jade’s journey map.

 
 

The journey map for Jade as she transitions from permanent housing into hidden homelessness. It includes a story, her feelings, thoughts and needs at every step. It also includes the issues she encounters, offline and online resources used and her Chalmers experience.

We developed 3 journey maps depicting each persona’s reality as they transition between permanent housing, temporary housing and homelessness.

 
 

The impact

Our work allowed Ample Labs to:

  • Pivot the product to address a wider social challenge.

  • Apply primary research about needs and motivations to user acquisition strategy.

  • Find and address gaps in the product offering.

  • Inform a product strategy and roadmap based on needs of current and potential users.

  • Integrate storytelling using personas and journey maps into funding pitches and partnership opportunities.

The Ample Labs team wrote a Medium article about this research project. They kindly offer the 3 personas and 3 journey maps free for download. Contact us if you’d like to discuss the project, research process or data outputs.

 
 
 
 
 

Let’s find out if we are the right UX strategy & research partner for your team!

We loved working with the Ample Labs team. They believed in co-creating solutions with the community and incorporating design and research into the product at each stage.

Are you working on a social mission-driven app and want to know about the true needs, behaviours and attitudes of your users?

Let’s find out if we’re a good fit.