So, as we started to uncover all these obstacles – I continued to remind the team that we had to set a basic set of rules when either working with colleagues in or out of our UX teams. So we installed these collaborative and standardized rules as we partnered with cross functional teams and partnered clients: Always be present – Defer our judgements – Encourage wild ideas – Build on the ideas of others – Drive one conversation at a time – Be as visual as possible – Aim for quality – Stay focused on the topic. PS documentation and share outs were key here in our weekly research and discovery sections.

With these external joint sessions in place the vision within our definition and Ideation was starting to take place, with clear and transparent documentation, were we continuously involved our data and architectural engineers to be part of our methodologies and new processes to make sure this new vision could be realized but also be sustainable for other products to carry over as well

Once we had these structures organized, we then started to look at what the legacy would look like on a more simplified field or varied device based on the user. Reminder our legacy use case was handwritten sheets on the job site or manually documented excel spreadsheets which would then be manually written into a MS-DOS application.

Based off of these experiments we than expanded the work – “jobs to be done” within the product thinking itself and expanded on Intentionality within its users, with mobile experiences (mCrews) and also used a desktop model as a secondary level for specified users (Clerks – Manager).

Then we started to look at the broader MVP (Minimum viable product) how Operational would meet Data – which would start to shape how we would structure the following direction of the products that needed to pass data to and from the Integrated Worklists project sequence.

From here we took the automation in train management “masters” and framed it within our MVP double funnel structure – than weighed it with a ERAF map which provided us with a very efficient analysis to quickly have a holistic view with the change in the service plan system. Analyzing all the touch points – Entities, relationships, attributes and new directions of action to systematically examine and visually represent the attributes and sequences in Service plan destinations at scale.

All this growing the base understanding of how a selected sequence is created – Origins (beginning) – Middle Points – Destinations (end point) at scale in the Worklist environment at time of validation. In return providing a clear business picture for growth in Time and Effort into managing all these customized sequences with large to small locomotive teams.

Together we created these case scenarios based on the structures of selected origin and destination. Each scenario provides us a gradual scale in the customization and complexity to what the movements of a Worklist would need to be a responsive tool for customers. Mapping these routine scenarios allowed our cross functional teams to further understand the settings but also enable our team to start to prototype these movements within a simplified user experience.

We then started to allow our teams to think outside the box with a virtual activity to doubled down on a refined list of references targeted with the same type of actions and notifications (Domino’s pizza trackers + Shop app order in transit + E-commerce styled order trackers = Amazon + Home Depot) these examples would help blueprint our next step to provide interactive design states that would simplify these complex scenarios down to single notifications and actionable tabs.

Once we established how these structures made more logical sense to its everyday user-perspectives we were than able to get to prototyping and further delivering on these models and what the user interaction would show us in each use case.

Finally a lot of this work from a Design perspective is still being tested and putting into use from a design system perspective as we grow our Volt design Libraries but as we continue to expand how users interact with (trackers – Map Routes – complex sequence changes) we will continue to work with our internal and external partners to grow the strategies and services within the evolution of these legacy old experiences and platforms in which they change the landscape of the business and the scale in Design Management / impact on business needs, while making more enjoyable and structured design lead products.

Additionally, I would like to thank the team of Researchers, Developers, Interaction/Product Designers, Product Managers, and Clients with all the past and ongoing work, as a leader within this group I can now rave over what it is to overcome many legacy established blockers/hurdles. Felt the lows and the highs to what it takes to develop functional frameworks/rituals to introduce design thinking within the landscape of an agile lead organization, but also how sound leadership and structured ROI’s plays a huge role in design and valued product strategy and how small wins equal large payouts in the long run.