Article Title
Article Type
EScience in Action
Publication Date
2021-11-09
DOI
10.7191/jeslib.2021.1214
Abstract
Objective: Customer journey mapping and design thinking were identified as useful tools for identifying deeper insights into the research data service needs of researchers on our campus with their direct input. In this article we discuss ways to improve the process in order to identify data needs earlier in the project life and at a more granular level.
Methods: Customer journey mapping and design thinking were employed to get direct input from researchers about their research processes and data management needs. Responses from mapping templates and follow-up interviews were then used to identify themes to be explored using design thinking. Finally, a toolkit was created in Open Science Framework to guide other libraries who wish to employ these techniques
Results: Outcomes from the customer journey mapping and design thinking sessions identified needs in the areas of data storage, organization and sharing. We also identified project-management lessons learned. The first lesson was to ensure the researchers who participate adequately represent the range of data needs on campus. Another was that customer journey mapping would be more effective if the responses were collected in real time and researchers were allowed more flexibility in the mapping process.
Conclusions: Modifications to the customer journey mapping and design thinking techniques will provide real-time responses and deeper insights into the research data service needs of researchers on our campus. Our pilot identified some important gaps but we felt that more subtle and useful outcomes were possible by making changes to our process.
Keywords
Design Thinking, Journey Mapping, research data services, RDS, faculty engagement, IMLS
Acknowledgments
This project was funded with a Institute of Museum and Library Services Sparks! grant. Disclosures: The content of this article is based upon a panel presentation at RDAP Summit 2021 titled “Research as Design-Design as Research: Developing a Researcher-Driven Collaborative Model for Data Services” available at https://osf.io/vd3n7.
Repository Citation
Bjornen K, Ippoliti C. Using Customer Journey Mapping and Design Thinking to Understand the Library’s Role in Supporting the Research Data Lifecycle. Journal of eScience Librarianship 2021;10(4): e1214. https://doi.org/10.7191/jeslib.2021.1214. Retrieved from https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/jeslib/vol10/iss4/1
Rights and Permissions
Copyright © 2021 Bjornen & Ippoliti. This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
