Department of Defense

DesignOps across 11 offices

//Research, design, empower

Launch 2 business intelligence platforms for financial analysis and order and message management within a year, and develop a DesignOps framework across the department to remove usability roadblocks and raise UX maturity.

Role: Product Manager & Lead UX Strategist
Engagement: 1.5 years engagement

Process

Inverse user focus

To understand how to improve adoption rate, interviewed developers within 60 product teams stationed across 11 offices across the world.
Conducted information user interviews to understand UX maturity and level of support needed.
Conducted heuristic evaluation of existing products.
Created user personas and a prioritization matrix.

Identify gaps

Created an affinity map of all feedback to synthesize in MS Whiteboard.
Identified 10 insights through 800+ data points.
Built a strategy identifying high-priority / high-impact to low-effort wins for the team.

Prioritize & focus

Activated hands-on projects ranging from user research to UX design embedding within 4 product teams to provide immediate support.
Created dashboard prototypes and mockups for apps built in Qlik and Tableau.
Provided personalized training to ensure continued success for the team after close-out.

Deliver value

Created templates, how-to guides, facilitated hand-offs, and over 5 training workshops for engineering teams across the department.
Created style guides and platform-agnostic UX best practices for internal teams.
Facilitated workshops for external UX teams illustrating lessons learned and winning scenarios to expand reach and influence.

60+ user interviews11 offices across the worldUnder 40% product adoption at startLaunched 6 products

Impact

Saved through research: under $1M
Teams supported: 60+ across 11 offices
Products launched: 6

Product adoption and democratization of UX across the department.
Increased UX maturity across 60 product teams.
Improved accessibility and team visibility and effectiveness.