EAMS / MAESTRO
Improving cell tower build-out project management
UX Lead | Aug 2016 - Feb 2017
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Ericsson suffered from quality issues with work done through contract workers and companies who were ultimately responsible for tower work
Problem to solve
Ericsson sought to improve the quality of their cell tower builds and implemented numerous quality assurance mechanisms. These activities and deliverables were managed in a custom-built tool called EAMS.
EAMS suffered from technical debt from a long run of "quick win" development and "just barely good enough" mentality on quality. Business-driven requirements focused only around reporting needs and driving KPIs but not the users or customers.
Ericsson sought to improve the quality of their cell tower builds
I suspected tech and design debt was contributing to a bad experience and that was impacting the usage of the tool and in turn impacting the accuracy of the KPIs.
I proposed an initial discovery and insight gathering to inform a product strategy proposal.
My Involvment
- Product Strategy and Vision
- Stakeholder meetings and workshops facilitation
- User Research & Testing
- Process Analysis and Journey Mapping
- Site Taxonomy
- User Stories and User Map
- Lo-Fi Sketching, Designs and Prototypes
Getting the feedback loops started
The first step was to implement a feedback mechanism inside the application enabling active on-the-spot feedback from users while using the tool
Further feedback gathering through surveys
In addition, I planned out a series of feedback surveys.
I crafted a role-based series of surveys, asking general and specific questions about things like problem areas, feature opportunities and poling their experience while using the application.
Communicated the findings to leadership and stakeholders
Feedback results and data were summarized into a storytelling deck for a leadership roadshow to articulate the findings.
In this case, extra attention was given to the visual impact and design of the deck to stand among the crowd
After effectively articulating the results of the insight-gathering phase along with my own UX assessment, I successfully proposed a project vision-casting and discovery period for a new application to met the business and user needs.
I tentatively assigned the codename Maestro to this initiative, distinguishing it from the ongoing EAMS development.
Codename:
Maestro
Vision and Goal Setting Exercises
User & Task Mapping
Process & System Mapping
Leadership Review
Facilitated multiple Strategic Workshops
What better way to build empathy for your users than to see them in action? Given safety restrictions, visiting a live tower site wasn’t possible, so I opted for the next best option: visiting the training facility where the primary users of the tool learn their job.
I had hands-on experience with the equipment they use, focusing on the context and environment in which they operate the software.
One notable experience was climbing a cell tower while wired for safety, using a cell phone.
Field Research
Created System Architecture diagrams to articulate the proposed combination of large business processes
Collaborated through task flows to ensure we were planning the correct features to match business requirements
With the initial research complete and a list of core users tasks and matched features I was able to start playing around with page flows to map out scenarios and page flows.
The focus here is to streamline primary tasks and features to reduce friction and time to task. They were first done on white boards with key stakeholders to get live collaborative feedback and validation, then moved to more formal deliverable documents like this.
Page flows start exposing the user experience you can walk through with stakeholders
System Architecture
For this project, to meet the product vision, business and user goals ,a complete re-thinking of architecture was proposed.
To accomplish this I partnered with key developers, getting them highly involved with input and influence. A sense of ownership in the product.
Digital sketching through various iterations, always testing and validating with users
Extensive clickable prototypes allowed for in-depth testing and validation we were achieving or core functional goals and users were able to achieve their tasks with minimal effort.
With high-fidelity designs, the project and program requirements were wrapped up into a MVP proposal, effort estimates were established and timelines projected.
All that was left was final approval and the green like to start development.
Unexpected direction change from Global
Ericsson Global informed the team it would be mandating all divisions of Ericsson to use a standardized project management tool, and they had chosen a 3rd party vendor tool from IBM
My focus immediately shifted to ensure the best possible carry over the validated feature requirements and UI elements were translated as best that could be to the 3rd party platform
- Validating and Invalidating many users' assumptions, slimming the requirements, saving money on needless development.
- Showing the value of the design and UX process inside of Ericsson in identifying key users needs. This buy-in and acceptance throughout leadership and product teams meant more design involvement in future initiatives.
- Navigating around corporate dogma and pushing for a true user-first approach to product development.
- influencing the global tool team with wireframes and prototypes and other UX outputs.
- Creating clear communication of solid informed design decisions to the engineering team
The Initiative was successful in
Results
The Prototype Reviews with users and stakeholders showed was successful in
- Actual excitement over vastly improved interactions, particularly in the tough and dangerous situations.
- Increased awareness of workload and problem areas with dashboards and call to-actions
- Improved efficiencies in daily tasks including the potential for saving hours in a week with bulk features and automation of redundant tasks.
- Reduced cognitive load and time to tasks.
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The conceptualization and vision casting was a wild success, getting eager buy-in from both product and executive leadership at Ericsson North America. Unfortunately, before coding could start, Ericsson Global, informed the team they were implementing their own tool initiative, enforcing adoption and using a 3rd party tool from IBM.
All findings during this initiative were used to drive requirements on the global tool, influencing design choices and even the business processes however the UI and interaction design were severely limited due to it being a 3rd party tool.
My work pivoted towards articulating UI patterns and workflows which I had validated and prioritized with users and the team.
Unexpected direction change from Global