M.W.T. Case Study
A task management and communication app for distributed work forces and teams.
M.W.T. Case Study
A task management and communication app for distributed work forces and teams.
Disclaimer: In order to comply with NDA guidelines this case study has been edited not to display any intellectual property or branding.
Goal
Help those who are in distributed, desk-less work spaces get things done and communicate with one another more effectively:
Enable remote employees to collaborate and communicate with each other.
Help managers of distributed teams assign tasks and keep track what gets done.
User Profiles and Scenarios
Owner / CEO - Bob
CEO/ Owner - Bob
Age: 50
Technical Proficiency: Average
Bob owns a franchise in Florida. He wants to build a larger and more successful franchise. He needs to connect and communicate with his decentralized workforce as well as access up to date performance
He uses the app to schedule a daily meeting with his top managers to track and analyze the performance of all his stores and employees, and review reports. He will use this information to motivate his top performing stores and employees and help ensure the continued success and growth of his business.
High level manager - Jane
High-level Manager - Jane
Age: 48
Technical Proficiency: Above Average
Jane is the high level Manager of the franchise. She has been delegated the responsibility to manage the day to day operations of the business. She wants to help the business succeed and perform the daily tasks efficiently.
She will use the app to set up the company profile, set up store locations, add employers, set up organization specific tasks, onboard existing locations, configure initial messaging, set up and view analytics for Bob, add/remove employers, configure global settings, and generate reports.
Mid level manager Jim
Mid-level Manager - Jim
Age: 28
Technical Proficiency: Average
Jim manages the locations in West Palm Beach.
He is highly motivated and wants to one day own his own store. In the meantime, he wants his stores and employees to be the best in the business. He often feels overwhelmed with the daily operations of the stores he manages. He needs a way to identify his highest performing employees as well as the means to motivate and retain them.
He uses the app to create store specific announcements, create and respond to messages, create and complete tasks, track employees, add and remove employees from the system, view location specific analytics and generate location specific reports.
Employee - Andrea
Employee - Andrea
Age: 19
Technical Proficiency: Above Average
Andrea works at stores #3501 and #4208 in West Palm Beach.
She is a highly motivated employee and would like an efficient way to check and monitor her tasks each day. She reads company announcements and responds to management. She doesn’t want to be just another employee, she wants to stand out and move up in the company.
She uses the app to read and respond to announcements, message her managers and coworkers, manage her assigned tasks, keep her profile updated, and monitor alerts.
Exploratory Ideation
Exploratory Ideation
Team Brainstorming Workshop
Brainstorming workshop with cross-functional team members to flush out ideas, elaborate them, and insure everyone is aligned.
Market Analysis
By identifying competitors in the market and analyzing their unique offering I was able to assess if there was a gap or opportunity in the market. For example, if most of the direct competitors are focused around a fully functional and highly technical offering I would be able to conclude that a more simplistic offering would have an opportunity to stand out in what appears to be a crowded market.
Competitive Analysis
By researching competitors as well as products that have similar types of functionality we were able to assess how other teams have solved similar design challenges and identified some options that we had not considered previously.
Synthesis - dialing in our MVP
Now that we were all informed we were able to make an educated decision about the specific direction we wanted to go with the product. We decided to focus the MVP around communication and the directory functionality since those would fulfill most of our goals within our projected goals. This was a controversial decision. It was obvious to everyone that the "Tasks" would be the most complex part of the app. However we needed to get something usable in the hands of our users not just for real world feedback but also to appease our stakeholders. As a team we felt confident that we could complete the messaging and directory fairly quickly which would please our stakeholders and give us feedback from real users. From there our plan was to focus on the remaining parts of app with less aggressive timelines and while using existing users to our advantage for testing purposes.
accommodating multiple use cases
We realized that the app would have to be fairly complex for the high level managers but at the same time simple for the regular employees. We realized that we could have an admin user(s) who would be able to adjust the permissions for all of the employees and managers in the app.
Admin Status | Manager Status | Employee Status
This would enable Admin users to set up the app in a way that would cover the various use cases.
Sitemap version 001
By creating a simple sitemap the team was able to clearly visualize how the various parts of the app related to each other.
User Journeys
From here we were able to work through all of the user tasks as each of the various users in both a new user and return user states. This process made the essential elements clear.
Updated Site Map
As a result of the user journey mapping I then created a detailed site map that included how to accommodate for various scenarios within the structure of the app.
Test, Iterate, Repeat.
Test, Iterate, Repeat.
Wireframing
Wireframes had been in development during the entire process. Now that we had everything else set I was able to build out higher fidelity versions.
Prototype Refinement
Once I had developed the various flows I was able to produce a clickable prototype. Once the prototype was produced there were a number a tweaks that became obvious which were implemented and then fixed in the following prototypes.
In person usability testing
Six in person usability sessions were completed. In these sessions users were given a task and used to app to complete them. The people tested had various ages, genders, ethnicities, and career fields. An overhead camera was used to record exactly what the user was doing while going through the app. This enabled me to identify minor usability issues as well as major ones.
High fidelity and Development
Once the testing results were shared among the team we were able to discuss and set a plan in motion for the completion of the MVP. The product is currently in development.