MARAM Maturity Model

We engaged a diverse group of nine participants for our co-design process. These people represented more than 20 different Victorian service types at different levels of responsibility. We had CEOs, managers, compliance people, policy people and front-facing practitioners working with families affected by family violence. Overall, there were 32 user engagements (interviews, workshops and feedback rounds).

In the end, we delivered a MARAM Maturity Toolkit. The toolkit included three different products: The Maturity Model, the six-poster Roadmap and the interactive Self-Assessment spreadsheet.

The Maturity Model was a simple plan-on-a-page. It was a top-level summary of the MARAM maturity levels and their characteristics – presented in simple language.

The Roadmap was a series of six posters outlining the journey to improving MARAM alignment. These included more detail on implementation steps.

The Self-Assessment spreadsheet was the tool with the most detail. It enabled users to self-assess their organisations across multiple internal functions and operations. It generated a bespoke action plan for the user’s organisation based on the input information.

Because we co-designed with real users who were accountable for implementing MARAM policies, the design process was really responsive to their system work needs. We chose formats that worked for our participants.

A single-page summary is very helpful for executives. The roadmap posters were really good for managers handling strategic planning processes. The spreadsheet tool was how compliance people told us they wanted to work. There was a focus on reducing jargon in all of these products.

We tested and rejected some prototypes throughout the co-design process. We tested a quiz, a spider-gram and a few other tools. None of these tested well with the participants. They wanted simple tools.

The three artefacts we produced are well integrated. Together they work holistically. The chart, roadmaps and spreadsheet all contain the same information but at different levels of detail.

The remit of MARAM is extremely broad. There are roughly 8000 prescribed organisations under MARAM, but every employer in Victoria has duty-of-care obligations related to this framework. This research uncovered the level of community confusion around MARAM. The products PG created are simple and practical.

This approach of multi-tiered tools for policy design is a highly impactful solution and could be used as a repeatable model for other complex compliance and regulation spaces.

We were also committed to a first-principles approach to solution design and didn’t presuppose the solution. We worked with the end-users and designed something that is consumable for them. It was important that we created a set of tools that eased the administrative strain of implementing MARAM. These organisations are already stretched and told us how important it was for simple tools that illuminated clear short pathways to action.

The co-design approach led us to quite a pragmatic, low-tech design solution. As part of the project’s conception, and through prototype testing we had hypothesised a web assessment calculator or guided quiz. But participants were clear that they wanted workable tools that fit with their everyday working style. They directed us towards interactive spreadsheets.

The MARAM Maturity Model spreadsheet is the most interactive tool. The beauty of this tool is that it caters for the fact that many organisations have teams and personnel with different levels of MARAM obligation. (eg. counsellor compared to a soccer coach.)

In the spreadsheet, users do an initial overall assessment where you tick boxes that describe your organisation’s level of action. Users then can complete a service-by-service assessment based on more granular implementation prompts. Based on the formulas written in the boxes you ticked, the spreadsheet loads bespoke responses for your organisation into the results and the action plan. Users can find both an overall MARAM maturity score and a breakdown of which teams need more work to bring them up to speed.

A spreadsheet was the most useful format for our users, especially for those working in compliance. This way, users also have access to the back end of the spreadsheet. If they don’t like the way we’ve set up the front interface, they aren’t limited. They have access to all the data, and can take the building blocks of the tool and rearrange it to align to their own processes.

With this spirit of customisation and interaction in mind, we designed all three of our products for Family Safety Victoria to include contact details and direct avenues for feedback. We encouraged Family Safety Victoria to empower the users of the tool to become active collaborators in improving MARAM.

In Australia, we are in a family violence crisis, and there is an urgent mounting public expectation for more action. Victoria’s MARAM framework is a leading and well-formulated framework for government-regulated response. Its focus on information sharing and intersectional risk assessment is important for addressing the needs and barriers of victim-survivors.

The Victorian Government made a large investment in creating the MARAM framework. However, challenges for services in interpreting MARAM’s details have meant that the framework hasn’t been as effective as it could have been. This project sought to create a clear connection between abstract policy and practical, concrete actions for organisations and the people who work within them.

We worked with the end-users and designed something that is consumable for them. It was important that we created a set of tools that eased the administrative strain of implementing MARAM. These organisations are already stretched and told us how important it was for them to have simple tools that illuminated clear short pathways to action.
Ultimately, these tools will help more organisations implement MARAM, improve information sharing and their risk management approach, and, in turn, improve Victorian services for victim-survivors.