Scouts I Terrain

The team aimed for Scouts I Terrain to be a tool that Scouts Youth will use throughout their week, not just at Scout nights or at activities. As it becomes a part of their scouting life, it will serve as both a pathfinder through the program and a keepsake of their journey so far.

Product review phase

First, a product review of the current Youth Program was undertaken to understand the method and goals. The Two Bulls team visited units running the program and met with Scouts Australia staff and volunteers. Next, the needs of our stakeholders were broken down with a number of activities as appropriate for the goal. For example, Product Development Explorations, Identification of User Segments and Success Metric(s) for each Segment.

During this phase, The Bain & Company’s “Elements of Value” were utilised as a method to test design against the desires of users. Doing this ensures that the process results in a product that users feel enriched by and can achieve adoption, use, and dependency. In Scout I Terrain's example, the team looked into time savings, risk reduction, and user empowerment. The team balances these values with the functional requirements set out by Scouts Australia.

Product delivery phase

For delivery, Two Bulls formed a small multi-disciplinary Agile team to deliver increments of working software against a backlog developed in the initial review. Over a fixed timeline, teams deliver the most valuable work first, delivering working versions of the product early, testing, iterating and keeping stakeholders in the picture.

The outcome

Scouts | Terrain launched in 2020 and revolutionised personal progression tracking and programming for 21st century Scouting. Thousands of Scouts were empowered to take charge of their journey in Scouting. Each month, over 30,000 users login to update their Scouting journey, and this keeps growing!

Two Bulls built functionality and tools that digitally supports the delivery and maintenance, and on-going implementation of the youth program:

• Two Bulls designed a flexible, intuitive user experience that ‘grows’ with the stages of each Scout’s journey as they record their personal development in the program
• The Scouts I Terrain platform helps create, support, and manage program activities and events, especially those organised by groups of young people
• It helps young people engage with the youth program, as individuals, Patrols, Units and Groups
• It helps adults in Scouting manage their roles and responsibilities in relation to aggregate reporting for Districts, Regions and Branches

Two Bulls leveraged our expertise in creating engaging children’s digital experiences. Combining engineering and product consulting capabilities, the team created a digital tool that is fun and intuitive for people from every background, age group and experience, while delivering to Scouts Australia’s goals.

Every Scouting journey is unique. Two Bulls built a tool that accommodates a high degree of personalisation. The platform features Basecamp, a hub where Scouts can view calendars, track their personal progress, and see their updated achievements. They can easily and intuitively follow their own Achievement Pathways and upload photos and videos to record their progress. When Scouts need another Scout or adult leader to assess their skills or knowledge, they can request approval within the app instead of having to physically locate a person.

The whole system is designed to empower young people to take control of their experience with Scouts Australia while providing relevant and appropriate parental access, as well as effective reporting to help adult leaders continue to grow Scouting in the future. The team also ensured to make the app accessible offline, so Scouts and adult leaders can view activities while at campouts or other outdoor events, one of the key pillars of the Scouts Youth Program. This digital transparency also means that leaders have a real-time view of participation. They get a complete view of achievements and progress and means to measure program quality. In turn, this visibility is helped Scouts Australia leaders improve the quality of programs.

For over 110 years young Scouts have used a paper book-based system to record their progress. Terrain changes this by making the recording of their progress automatic- thanks to Terrain's innovative event tracking and calendaring functions, they just need to be marked present at a camp or activity to earn their progression credit. And when their skills or knowledge need to be assessed by another Scout or an adult leader, they can request approval within the app.

Previously, the Scouting organisation had no visibility of the engagement young people had with the program. Now, at a national, state and local level, they can see exactly how many Scouts are attending nights, activities and camps. They can see which parts of the program have the highest engagement, and which activities need better promotion or support. For the first time, they have a real-time view of participation, a metric that has never been visible to the organisation.

The creation of Scouts I Terrain kickstarted a transformative moment and laid a foundation for innovation within the Scouts organisation. With Two Bulls as a digital partner, Scouts Australia continues to enhance Scouts | Terrain, with features designed to improve application efficiency. The positive effects of this process continue to spark inspiration about what else could be achieved!