Curating a Role Model Report Experience
UX Researcher, Plot Twisters
Background
Plot Twisters encourages kids, teens, and young adults to see themselves as the storytellers and narrators of their own journeys. Role models are a part of everyone’s life
Goal
Encourage teens to explore their possibilities in life through role models
Responsibilities
Conduct interviews to identify what a Role Model Report experience includes
Plan & facilitate co-design sessions with a role model, teens and adults to explore what aspects of a role model’s life are crucial for a report (TBD)
Collect insights from interviews about the role model report experience
Team
Melissa Regalado (me!), Jenny Liu Zhang, Karla Leung, Amanda Curtis, Caitlyn Chang, & Joanna Shan
Duration
May 2020 - Present
What’s the problem?
Curriculum often focuses on teaching core subjects but does not take into the context of students’ lives and the world they live in. As a result, students struggle to find a sense of purpose in their educational journeys.
Objective
Encourage teens to explore their possibilities in life through a journey of personal exploration
Why research?
Product Thinking & Research
Our team wants to know how teens of today think of role models, their life journeys, and how they can take ownership of their narratives.Think Thank
Our think tank is a secondary research hub for all things on youth development, digital literacy, narrative building, and well-being related topics. These topics continue to shape K-12 students. Question
What Impact do Role Models have in young teens lives?
Who is a role model and how do we define success??
One of Plot Twisters’s core products is Role Model Reports (RMR), which are the narratives of people we’ve encountered in our life, look up to, or want to learn about. Through interviews, we learn about young peoples’ journeys, challenges, aspirations, and strengths. 
2019 mockups of Role Model Reports by Jenny Liu Zhang“why is a role model’s story/report valuable?”
throughout life, we tend to deviate from conventional paths. We want individuals to engage with the narratives of people whose goals, habits, and aspirations they resonate with, which is why we interviewed adults who might be role models.
Question
Why might someone need Role Model Reports?
Our Studio Team Says….
“Role Models should remove the pressure over what college you want to go to and what to study. The idea that people are much more than a career, job, major, and money.”
— Karla Leung
“I wonder what they're going to say. Like what they aspire to. Like what if they say YouTuber or Vlogger? It also will inform the people we reach out to. Maybe our idea of career paths doesn't match what jobs are out there right now.”
— Joanna Shan
“When I was in middle or high school the people I looked up to had careers with financial stability. But if I could go back I wish I had met people who were like me, had similar experiences and could just learn about what brings them joy in life.”
— Melissa Regalado
Research Method
1:1 Interviews
Role Model Report Interviews
We conducted 10 interviews
These interviews were held virtually through Zoom or by phone. They were 1 hour long and followed a story-like and casual to semi-structured format. The Goal
Learn about each role model's life, which includes: events, strengths, goals, career paths, hobbies, etc. Most importantly, to build trust with each role model we interviewed! They decided which direction to take their story in. Learnings
Next Steps
What does the structure of a role model report look like? What are its contents/features?
By asking them questions about their life journey, we hope to learn about what type of content matters most to young kids, teens & adults. Most importantly, through interviews & co-design sessions with role models we want to learn what important information should be included in these role model reports/stories.
How will individuals interact with these reports?
We don’t want young adults to simply read these reports! We want them to engage with them and the people whose stories are featured. Can they filter reports to find role models with similar experiences to them? similar career paths? Can they ask the role model questions?
Personas- What do teens/young adults need out of these reports?
All of our research initiatives are currently in progress because we want to conduct interviews with adults about they could get out of these role model reports? Is it about building relationships with role models? Reading their stories? Finding people like them? These interviews will help us narrow down our personas for this project.