Service Design for Work Order Tracking Systems

A SaaS CMMS system, design system creation enabling speedier feature delivery, many agile squads, very few UX members, and a mission to connect the teams with their product’s end-users.

Product example:

Maintenance Manager

Company:

Dude Solutions (Now Brightly Software, part of Siemens)

Industries:

Government Buildings, Warehouses, Manufacturing, Education Facilities and Campuses, Vehicles, Construction Equipment, and Event Spaces

#voiceofthecustomer #fieldvisits #USER #designsystem #UX #UXUI #printersupport #SaaS #FRONT-ENDdevelopment #CMMS #DEVELOPMENT #Compontents #WCAG #accessibility #Analytics #customers #customeradvocate #workorders #preventativemaintenance #geocoordinate #buildingmaintenance #roadmaintenance #eventspaces #maintenance

Some of the most interesting challenges to think through

The Product and its State

I was coming in as a Senior UX Architect/Designer into a new environment. Agile, entirely embracing their version of the Spotify model. There were significantly more squads than I had ever seen, and only 2 UX-focussed professionals, plus our manager.

This required an entirely new approach.

New environment as it was, the challenges and needs were much the same. Inconsistent and confusing in-product patterns were causing unnecessary training and support call volumes, new product features experienced the UX team as a bottleneck, and more.

FINDINGS

The software was not compliant with accessibility standards.
End-Users were incredibly diverse. Many did not speak English.
Wayfinding improvements needed all over the place!
Form-Entry was the #1 utilization of the system
High Turn-over of prior design members created a situation where there were multiple design patterns in the product, creating a confusing experience for end-users.
Each row of form items were ‘closer’ to a form field than the label which was intended for a form, creating work-order entry confusion, with content being entered into incorrect fields.
Work orders were passed out by non-digital means – printed on paper.
Feature releases experienced by customers prior to support staff’s exposure to the new features.
Clear signs among squad development team members that there was a disconnect between the feature’s end-goal vs. the agile squad’s understanding of the user’s environments.
Maintenance locations / sources were challenging to identify in-system due to multi-site, multi-building, multi-floor selection and identification.
No mobile compatibility, despite many end-users (supervisors) needing around-the-clock access.
Work Order Entry, for many, was a non-mouse situation, requiring keyboard-tabbing logic.
No known SSOT (Single-Source of Truth) to define SQA’s Definition of Done (DoD) workflow.

UX Patterns Chapter discussions took coordination with UX, Product management, and Engineering

UX Patterns discussions lead to flexible symbols library for all UX members to pull from

Expanded functionality enabling mobile access and printable work orders

Onsite visits drive strong feature enhancements which need fewer updates upon release

A Unique Environment Calls for Unique Approaches

The rapid nature of a true agile environment calls for an entirely different process and approach than that which is traditionally employed by UX and Product Design professionals.

Strategy & Contributions

Pitched and Initiated the UX Patterns chapter

This group was a cross-functional group incorporating UX team members and representatives from the Front-End Development, SQA, and Product Management chapters to enable full-scope alignment
Focus included breaking up work, pitching ‘next areas of focus’, and fitting that work into the feature roadmaps.
Working Hand/Hand with Product Owners and Front-End Developers was essential.
Many discussions among the UX Team occurred, ensuring focus on components which worked with strong flexibility across all known and upcoming feature work.
Strong Flexible symbols libraries were designed for the use of all UX Teams
Front-End Development teams created a common directory of completed components which could be easily pulled into future feature work, enabling speedier implementation without the costly need of rebuilding the same things, as they had been doing in the past.

Unique Customer Connections

The rapid pace of development combined with low UX staffing proved to be challenging when a User Experience Professional’s key requirement is the ability to bring the end-user’s voice into the product feature discussions.

The solutions

A multi-faceted approach.

After requesting it, I was introduced to the customer support team’s manager, who happily enabled me to shadow call center representatives.
- As the UX team grew, I introduced this to new team members.
Identifying the gap in a cross-functional group meeting, this provided clarity, inspiring to push for on-site visits. This was recognized and our product management team sponsored several on-sites, enabling feature development clarity for months after.
After learning that one of our customers was less than a block away (Koka Booth Amphitheater), I pitched an on-site which was approved, gained customer contact and scheduled a product team field trip, where we had the pleasure of learning first-hand how our system was used at this event space.
I had the pleasure of connecting with our sales team and learned a great deal about what potential customers ask for and what drives them towards competitor products. ( 𓅪 Boy did they have opinions about the Agile style of roadmap.)
OUTCOME FROM THIS:
- Gained access to the customer pitch recording software, tagging specific customer needs by context.
- Live recorded customer needs were brought into the feature conversations when topics aligned.
Support Team aids, positively impacting CSAT scores:
- Incorporating support members in unique usability conversations mid-process prior to implementation, giving support staff insights ahead of releases.
- As our releases occurred every-other-week, I would record walk-through videos which would be sent to the support team, ensuring they gained insights into product features which enabled them to better support customers calling for help.
Post-production testing, combining call-center insights, customer feedback channels, and utilizing usage and analytics data provided by Pendo integrated in-product.
- This is one of the more uncomfortable terms to live as a UX professional.
Lastly, A new customer usability testing program was started. We scheduled time with customers, performing qualitative remote testing when introducing complex / new features.