Helping Prostate Cancer UK to understand how they could improve their Online Community service offering
Project aims:
Common Collective and Inclusively partnered on this project to support Prostate Cancer UK to gather insights from men living with prostate cancer and their loved ones. The aim of this project was to better understand what support people really need and want from an online community and what Prostate Cancer UK could do to improve the experience of the current Online Community that was first set up in 2001.
We recruited a wide range of people with prostate cancer and their loved ones who were both users and non users of the Online Community through our recruitment partner and through Prostate Cancer UK's direct channels.
Our approach
We planned the research to include a mix of workshops, 1-1 chats and a survey to learn from a broad mix of people including people living with prostate cancer and loved ones supporting people with prostate cancer. We designed the research to be tailored to the different user groups in an inclusive, accessible and sensitive way.
The workshops and 1-1 chats focused on understanding people's journeys of finding support and where the Online Community might fit into this. We then focused on what support people are most looking for from an online community and then for current users of the Online Community we went through some of the key features of the Online Community and gathered their thoughts on those and what else could be improved.
Impact and outcomes:
This project helped to uncover some areas that could be improved to best meet the needs of people with prostate cancer and their loved ones when using the Online Community.
It also helped to showcase just how important and valued this service really is. Many people mentioned how useful it has been for them to be able to learn from other people's lived experience and to talk to other people in similar situations.
The Prostate Cancer UK team is now working through the insights and recommendations and working out what they might be able to improve going forward.
Thank you’s
Thank you to everyone who took part in this project, we really appreciated your time and for sharing your thoughts, insights and experiences with us. It was a pleasure and an honour to meet you all.
Thank you to the Prostate Cancer UK team for trusting us with this project, we loved having the chance to work with you and your community on such a valued and important support service.
“It was an absolute pleasure to work with Kat and Charley at Common Collective and Inclusively. From start to finish, they were incredibly organised, professional and engaging. Timelines, targets and overall communication was consistent and clear throughout. They fostered a positive environment for collaboration and I would highly recommend them to other organisations. Thank you Kat and Charley!”
- Payge McCusker, she/they, Peer Support Senior Officer (Online Community)
Team:
Prostate Cancer UK: Sally Dixon, Tiffany Osumah and Payge McCusker
Common Collective: Kat Jennings
Inclusively: Charley Pothecary