Project Update
This week, we followed up with external stakeholders, and got a few more leads. Again, I don’t have much to report at this point, as we’re really waiting on these stakeholders to be able to make progress.
Readings
I’m continuing my investigation into value-sensitive design’s applications. This week, I took a look specifically at value scenarios, and composed one for a sounding board technology that prioritizes manager involvement over user autonomy/privacy.
Value Scenarios One common technique used in value-sensitive design is coming up with value scenarios that illustrate how particular technologies may support or obstruct certain values, and envisioning its potential effects (Nathan et al., 2007). Typically, value scenarios are applied to technologies that are used on a large scale over a long period of time, but for the purpose of this project I will be using them to illustrate the effects of a smaller-scale technology.
Value Scenario for a technology that prioritizes manager involvement over direct report’s privacy
Lilith is a junior digital marketer at Company X, and has recently started a coaching engagement through the Sounding Board Platform. Around the same time, her manager leaves, and the company hires a new external manager to fill the role. Lilith does not yet feel comfortable sharing sensitive details & insights from her coaching sessions with her new manager, as she has not known them for long enough to build trust in their relationship. However, because of the way the technology is configured, as well as her company’s policies around the coaching engagement, she feels pressure to bring her new manager into the coaching journey. Lilith begins to involve her new manager in the engagement, but now holds back on sharing her true feelings during her coaching sessions and maps fewer goals on her leadership roadmap. She is no longer getting as much value as a coachee as she used to, and feels as though she has less control over her leader development journey.
Sources
Friedman, B., Hendry, D. G., & Borning, A. (2017). A Survey of Value Sensitive Design Methods. Foundations and Trends® in Human–Computer Interaction, 11(2), 63–125. https://doi.org/10.1561/1100000015
Nathan, L. P., Klasnja, P. V., & Friedman, B. (2007). Value scenarios: A technique for envisioning systemic effects of new technologies. CHI ’07 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2585–2590. https://doi.org/10.1145/1240866.1241046