Over the past week, we’ve spent a lot of time reviewing documents, talking to teams inside and outside of the division, and mapping out the process and pain points as we understand them. We jammed on the issues that we’d identified so far and turned them into a succinct problem statement.
What we’ve realized is that the state of many applications as they are first presented to MSP is that they are not yet fund-able ideas, but they contain “nuggets” of promise that catch MSP program staff’s interest. Then, a lot of important (and valuable!) work goes into bringing those ideas from “nugget” form to a state where they can meet all standards necessary to receive funding.
The problem seems to be that the already-intensive process of bridging the gap between nugget and fully-fledged idea. With no centralized system for documenting and storing information, the level of support that gets offered to applicants may differ based on the program consultants’ workload, the frequency/quality of communications, and their access to up-to-date information. It makes the process arduous and difficult to do at scale.
So: How might we make the process of bridging the gap between “nugget” and “fully-fledged, ready-to-fund idea” more consistent, intentional, and efficient without losing the co-creation experience?
Our problem statement will certainly evolve as we dive deeper into our user research, particularly with applicants, who we haven’t had a chance to engage yet - but we think it’s a good start!
What do you think?