Waitlist - 04 - Discussion Guide

Waitlist Data Management & Burden Improvement

Discussion Guide

Waitlist Data Management and Burden Improvement

Discussion Guide for Concept Testing Conversations

Discussion Outline

Introductory script 2

1.0 General background 3

1.1 Building rapport 3

2.0 Concept testing 3

2.1 Describe the concept back to us 3

2.2 Likes & dislikes 3

2.3 Changes & additions 4

2.4 Overall impressions 4

3.0 Closeout 4

3.1 Other resources 4

It is not the intent to ask participants a standardized set of questions. Instead, participants will engage in a loosely guided conversation with facilitators in which they will be asked to share their lived experiences and opinions related to a series of concepts developed by the HUD Customer Experience team designed to show how the waitlist experience could be improved. Specific question phrasing and areas of deeper exploration will be determined on an ad hoc basis by facilitators during the conversation. The questions below represent the types of things a facilitator may ask the participant.

These sessions will be timed to ensure they do not exceed 60 minutes. The facilitator will be responsible for ensuring that they leave adequate time to wrap up the conversation before the end of the session within the allotted time.

Introductory script

8 mins

Thank you for taking the time to speak with us today.

HUD is exploring how they can support local partners and housing agencies to help improve the experience of individuals and families finding affordable housing through waitlists. To better understand the needs, HUD is starting by talking to a variety of customers including, public housing agencies, housing providers, families, and others.

The goal of these conversations is to gain an understanding of the affordable housing waitlist experience. We have already conducted some initial conversations to learn about the waitlist experience, and we are hoping to use this time together to gather feedback on some ideas we have developed that may improve the experience of affordable housing waitlists.

Throughout this conversation, we urge you to share your honest, candid feedback. We’ll be showing you some of our ideas, and we’d love for you to “think out loud” as we move through this conversation.

I’m also required to read the following statement:

[Share screen showing this language and read aloud]

A Federal agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, nor shall a person be subject to a penalty for failure to comply with an information collection subject to the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 unless the information collection has a currently valid OMB Control Number. The approved OMB Control Number for this information collection is 2511-0001. The expiration date for this Control Number is 09/30/2024. Without this approval, we could not conduct this interview. Public reporting for this information collection is estimated to be approximately 60 minutes per response. All responses to this information collection are voluntary. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this information collection, including suggestions for reducing this burden to the HUD Customer Experience Team at [email protected].

[Remind them of the consent form]

1.0 Build rapport

2 mins

• Tell me a little about yourself.

2.0 Concept testing

39 mins, divided across all concepts relevant to the participant type

[We would begin this section by reading a statement about the concept, such as “We want to understand whether this idea would help improve the affordable housing waitlist experience.” We will show (e.g., a storyboard, a process map, a sample application) and describe the concept as a whole and then will ‘zoom into’ each part of the concept, describing as we go.]

2.1 Describe the concept back to us

• From your perspective, what is this idea trying to accomplish?

• Tell us how you would envision yourself as a [participant type] in this idea.

  • What would be the steps you would take if this were reality?

  • How would your reality change if this idea were put into practice?

  • If this idea were implemented, how would it affect the next step in the process?

• Who else would this idea impact? How so?

2.2 Likes & dislikes

• What do you like about this idea?

  • What about it would make things easier or simpler?

  • What about it would decrease your burden or effort?

  • What catches your attention in a good way?

• What don’t you like about this idea?

  • What about it would make things harder or more complicated?

  • What about it would increase your burden or effort?

  • Is anything confusing?

2.3 Changes & additions

• What would you change about this idea to make it better?

  • What changes would make it better for you?

  • What changes would make it better for others?

• What is missing from this idea?

  • What additions would make it better for you?

  • What additions would make it better for others?

• What else would you want to be considered?

2.4 Overall impressions

• How does this idea differ from how the affordable housing waitlist process works now?

• What are your overall thoughts on this idea?

[Repeat Section 2.0 for concepts relevant to this type of participant]

3.0 Ranking activity

8 mins

[Show all concepts presented during the session and have them rank these concepts from least favorite to most favorite. After ranking, ask the following.]

• Why did you rank these concepts the way you did?

• If money/effort/time were no object, would you rank them differently?

4.0 Closeout

3 mins

• If you had a magic wand, what would you change about the waitlist experience for yourself and for others?

[Thank the participant for participating in this session and that we appreciate their thoughts and time.]

HUD Customer Experience | Draft – For discussion Purposes Only [email protected] 4