Challenge

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) mandate that each member must carry out 35 hours of CPD in ten specific areas of architecture every year or they will lose their membership. If you are not a member of RIBA, then it can be difficult to practice as an architect.

The challenge for RIBA was there was no easy online way of enabling members to submit and prove the CPD they had carried out and members were frustrated with this experience, especially if they were in the 5% of 28,000 members that were audited each year.

The old system was clunky, built in house, dated both visually and technologically, did not connect to their CRM and was a constant pain point for both users and administrators especially when it would frequently break down. They were continually having to beg members to submit their CPD and had a desire to be able to audit 100% of members at the touch of a button. It was all manual, time consuming and frustrating on both sides.

Solution

We worked with RIBA to co-design the user journeys and platform for a member to easily record the CPD they had completed. We created an algorithm that allowed the user to identify the impact of the CPD they had consumed, so allocating different levels of points according to the value of that CPD to them. We also included a reflective log.

The administrative platform was also significantly important to RIBA so we developed the ability for RIBA to easily view the progress of any member. They could also view members in bands of CPD hours completion and had the option of sending groups of members highly personalised encouragement or warning emails to prompt them to complete their CPD. RIBA can now audit 100% of members and all of the above works on any smart device making it easy for members to submit their CPD.

Impact

It has made a massive difference as we have better member engagement and usage, better user experience and it is much easier to administer saving us months of time we can now spend more proactively. Every time we send out an encouragement e-mail we get another 500–1,000 users of CPD within weeks. This is important for evidence of competence, but also for professional upskilling.

Feedback has been super positive, and members report that they find it easier and quicker to use and they love being able to record anything at the of any type of session on the go on any device. This is significant as the sooner they record and reflect on their CPD the sooner it is embedded. They also love visualisations and dashboards. This has improved our reputation and brand.