Redesigning
Grassroots Cricket
Market Research
Business Design
Digital Product Design
CLIENT
Cricket Australia
LOCATION
Australia
Chief Design Officer, Lead Service Designer, Lead Business Designer, Digital Designer, Visual Designer, Project Manager
TEAM
Once the cornerstone of the local community, cricket clubs – like many sporting codes across Australia – have felt the effects of declining participation rates and high volunteer churn. Determined to buck the trend, Cricket Australia partnered with Kinlab to better understand and transform the grassroots cricket experience, for everyone.
Insight Services
Design Services
Sport system analysis
Stakeholder research
Customer research
Customer persona & journey mapping
Governance modelling
Digital concept design
User testing
Stakeholder engagement
Through the volunteers' eyes
Over four weeks, Kinlab immersed in club and association environments across three states. We observed and interviewed more than 60 cricket volunteers performing a broad range of roles, as well as state and league administrators.
Our approach was informal and conversational. We sought to understand the unique world of community cricket through the eyes of volunteers and participants, uncovering insights into their lived experience.
The research approach also included an extensive literature review of relevant work and projects inside and outside of cricket.
The real skill Kinlab bring is their method. I really like the way they understand the lived experiences of people by shadowing them, by getting into deep conversation with them, by observing them.
Kieran McMillian
Head of Customer Experience, Cricket Australia
Bringing community cricket together
Kinlab brought Cricket Australia staff together with grassroots administrators, volunteers and participants for two co-design workshops. With our research insights guiding them, together people from all facets of community cricket designed and iterated a new national operating model.
Based on the field research, Kinlab also designed a digital learning and knowledge hub for community cricket clubs and associations and tested it in the field. The concept vision for the hub is a connected online community of local clubs and associations, learning from each other and collectively building capability.
Strategic shifts to enable the ‘hub’ concept
| Current | Future |
|---|---|
| Australian Cricket organisations produce and disseminate information, tools and resources to guide clubs and associations. | Clubs and association produce and publish information and resources. |
| Australian Cricket organisations determines best practice. | Community cricket organisations determine best practice. |
| The success of clubs and associations are dependant on individual knowledge and experience and internal knowledge sharing mechanisms. | Knowledge is open sourced and publicly available, allowing volunteers to learn from a national network. |
| Skills and training is limited to coaching and umpiring roles and relies on prior experience to build the capability of a club. | Skills and training goes beyond a compliance requirement and extends to administrative roles in order to assist clubs in building capability. |
| Resources are difficult to find and exist across a number of platforms. | Information is timely and resources are easily accessible from a single platform. |
The Outcomes
The operating model and product concept were endorsed by executive stakeholders and are being rolled out. The project also highlighted to Cricket Australia the importance of getting into the field to better understand the needs and behaviours of their customers.
Milestones
Successfully engaged all State Cricket Associations in the design process
End-to-end project delivery in12 weeks
Governance model has become a blueprint for success in the industry
Delivered
Cricket Volunteer Journey Map
National Community Cricket Operating Model
Digital product concept
Implementation roadmap
Kinlab &
Cricket Australia
est. 2019
Our partnership with Cricket Australia kicked off in 2019, when we collaborated with their digital team to co-design a whole-of-cricket digital transformation strategy. Undertaken in Dubai, U.A.E, the project was a partnership with the International Cricket Council, English Cricket Board, Cricket New Zealand and Cricket Ireland. Since then, together we have tackled a smorgasbord of challenges across community cricket, Big Bash League and high performance.
Community cricket digital transformation strategy design
Community cricket platform design
Big Bash Leagues digital experience strategy design
Big Bash Leagues digital product design
Australian Cricket women and girls strategy design
The future community cricket club design
Cricket high performance pathway review
Multi-cultural funding strategy and government submission
Cricket Blast youth product performance review
Cricket Blast product re-design
Let's innovate the future of sport
Let's innovate the future of sport
Whatever your challenge, you don’t have to solve it on your own. Let’s talk about it, then let’s tackle it together.