Space T

Why Space T?

In today’s climate of accelerating digitalisation, technological innovation, and changing socio-economic imperatives, the need to adapt and transform talent development has become urgent. As the Tomas project has already identified, the current talent ecosystem in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Region suffers from a talent shortage and mismatch in supply and demand, similar to other innovation hotspots around the world. In sectors such as IT, technology, education and healthcare, the right talent is in short supply and demand is only expected to increase in the future with automation and the energy transition. Covid-19 has only reinforced these trends by pushing learning and working in virtual spaces, posing limitations while also opening up new possibilities. 

The trainees at DSS were given the challenge to support the efforts of Tomas and help innovate the talent development ecosystem in Amsterdam with fresh ideas and interventions. The initial design challenge was the following:

“How might vraaghetTomas.nl engage the triple helix to foster collaboration and provide a high-quality triple helix customer experience?”

Space T is meant to be a response to the need for a better connected talent ecosystem, in which parties of the Triple Helix – companies, schools and academies and the government – can work together more efficiently and collaboratively to solve these challenges. 

What is Space T?

Effective talent development depends on the collaboration of the different actors working on its many components. These are:

• companies seeking new employees with the right skills,
• nontraditional talent development initiatives (TDIs) training people in transition from one sector to the next and teaching them new skills, and
• the local government searching for an overview of the ecosystem for a better allocation of funds and support.  

Space T (T stands for ‘Tomas’, ‘talent’ and ‘toekomst’, meaning ‘future’ in Dutch)’ is a virtual environment where these parties can come together, form new connections, reflect on the state of the talent ecosystem and discuss some of their challenges. The space consists of three main areas:

1) the exhibition hall showcasing informational and activist materials to provide visibility and raise awareness;
2) a co-creation space with a rich collection of ideas and practices for better collaboration;
3) a meeting point where visitors of the space can gather to get to know each other.

The first version of our virtual gallery

The trainee process

Following the design methodology of DSS, we embarked on a transformation design journey that weaved personal development with the SCREAM methodology. It is based upon the premise that “transforming yourself is the first step of transforming the world”, and so the process began with playful methods of getting to know one another, the project team, the clients and DSS. 

The SCREAM methodology uses the well-known agile development framework, SCRUM, as a basis but complements it with design thinking principles and practices. Accordingly, teams work in short, iterative periods of 3 weeks called sprints, which begin with sprint plannings and end with sprint reviews and reflections. At DSS, trainees follow a succession of five sprints, each with a different theme and focus, using the design method toolkit and engaging in hands-on co-creation sessions. 

Sprint 1 was about getting to know the team and meeting our clients for the first time. In this Empathy sprint, we dedicated much of our time first cultivating empathy towards each other and our circumstances. Setting up a hybrid workflow was inevitable, given the continuing corona restrictions, and we engaged in team-building exercises to get to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses, quirks and preferences. We also reached out to the Tomas team for a chat about their assessment of the challenge and personal priorities when it comes to the solution. I recall being positively surprised by the youthful openness of our partners who work in various positions at the municipality of Amsterdam. Our initial expectation of government employees as conservative, somewhat rusty and grumpy office clerks was luckily disproven.

Team drinks in early October

In mid-October, we started Sprint 2 – the research phase of our project. While the initial mist around the talent development context at hand was clearing up, we still had many questions. For instance, what exactly are ‘talent development initiatives’ (TDIs)? And what do they expect from the Tomas platform? Since the previous trainee team had companies as their target audience, we decided to collect more information about those nontraditional learning hubs that are training future talents and teaching those very skills in high demand on the market. Learning the perspective of TDIs was a key part of understanding the overall challenge and defining the angle of our solution.

With two exploratory sprints behind us, it was time to get into co-creation mode. Sprint 3 was all about Ideation, or new idea creation. As prompted by our coach, we tried to adopt a beginner’s mindset and allow the craziest ideas and solution seedlings to be put on the table for serious consideration. There was no bad idea or ‘yes, but…’, only ‘yes, and…’, we were told. And so we began brainstorming with different methods, building impromptu prototypes out of scrap paper or riffing off word associations in post-it races. We diverged and diverged even further, temporarily forgetting the pressure to choose or live up to any expectation. It was fun.

The result of Ideation sprint

The Christmas holiday was closing in as we transitioned to Sprint 4. On top of the usual end-of-year madness, we were faced with the ungrateful task of killing our darlings. There was no other way around it: we had to pick a maximum of two ideas out of ten. Sadly, as Covid was still wreaking havoc, organising in-person events had to be off the table and we reached for our digital solutions. Finally, our collective decision landed on creating hybrid materials that can support a movement in talent development, presented by a virtual exhibition and co-creation space. This meant that we began creating posters using our research findings, and our techies began working with Unity, a 3D gaming engine, to create a virtual gallery and meeting space. 

By this point, our time at DSS was running out and the nerve-wrecking countdown until the showcase began. As Sprint 4 gave way to Sprint 5 and we awoke in January from our brief winter slumber, there was no more time to waste and a lot of ground to cover. While this sprint was supposed to be all about testing and improving our prototype, there were many other promotional duties, like making videos or updating our webpage. At the time of writing this piece, we have exactly 6 days, 19 hours and 20 minutes to go until the final presentation. We are so excited and almost can’t wait to start the show.

Are you curious about our digital solution Space T? Join our showcase Wednesday the 19th of January from 16:00 (CET) ➡️ register and check out all the info here https://bit.ly/337PfpT