ebay: Reimagining the learning experience for managers

What matters most to our managers and how can we use those insights to transform internal learning experiences?

ebay has a long reputation for designing and delivering excellent internal learning programs. In 2018, a team comprised of HR, L&D and talent leaders came together to apply a design thinking approach to reimagine what the learning experience could look like for its managers in the US, Europe and around the globe.

A design-led approach

The project kicked off with a one-day training session where the team was grounded in the fundamentals of design thinking, planned their field research, and agreed a set of norms for how the team would operate.

They chose a group of managers from various disciplines to interview, job shadow, and observe. With the support of their Treehouse coach, the team formed actionable insights into what mattered most to the managers they were designing for, as well as where some of the current pain points and opportunities could be found.

These insights focussed the teams’ ideation and prototyping efforts, resulting in a set of creative, low-fi concepts in the form of storyboards, GUIs, and role-plays. These prototypes were then tested and evolved with users and peers outside of the design team.

Treehouse coached teams throughout this process, using remote innovation platform, Sprintbase during the initial workshop, and for the following six weeks as they moved from field research to rapid prototyping and iteration.

Testing new, human-centred ideas

This project saw teams go on to develop and test a first-of-its-kind gamified virtual development platform that completely reimagined the learning experience for ebay managers. Initial demo days showcased a blend of VR, AI and human interaction, promising to surpass any expectations initially held by the team at the beginning of their sprint.