Project Overview
The Challenge
A team was preparing to rewrite the front-end of the progress trail in the incident management module as part of an architectural transition. To ensure the redesign would truly serve users, we needed to deeply understand how operators, application managers, and consultants currently use the progress trail and identify opportunities for improvement.
Note: This project was completed in collaboration with team members. The research and design work represents a collaborative effort.
Research Process
I employed a mixed-methods approach to gain comprehensive insights into how users interact with the incident card throughout their workflow.
Planning & Scoping
Defined research questions and recruited 10 participants including operators, application managers, and consultants.
Semi-Structured Interviews
Conducted 10 online sessions to understand current workflows, pain points, and workarounds users have developed.
Affinity Mapping
Synthesized interview data using Condens to tag quotes and organize insights into thematic clusters.
Jobs-to-be-Done Mapping
Mapped user jobs across the incident lifecycle to understand context and identify pain points.
Opportunity Identification
Synthesized findings into 7 prioritized design opportunities with supporting evidence.
Journey Mapping
Created detailed journey maps showing user actions, pain points, and opportunities across 4 key phases.
Research Scoping & User Feedback
We conducted initial scoping to understand the problem space and gather user feedback on current pain points:
Initial scoping phase showing user feedback clustering and research workflow mapping
Research Synthesis
I used multiple synthesis methods to organize and make sense of the qualitative data from interviews:
Affinity Mapping: Clustering Findings
After tagging interview quotes in Condens, I organized them into thematic clusters to identify patterns:
Affinity clusters showing thematic organization of interview insights
Jobs-to-be-Done Mapping
Mapped user jobs across the four phases of incident management:
JTBD mapping showing user tasks organized by incident lifecycle phases
Comprehensive Opportunity Board
The complete synthesis board showing actions, needs/pains, touchpoints, actionable insights, and opportunities across the journey:
Full opportunity board synthesizing research into actionable insights (lightbulbs indicate key opportunities)
Key Findings
User Journey Map
I mapped the complete incident management journey, identifying critical pain points and opportunities in each phase:
Journey map showing actions, pain points, and opportunities across the incident lifecycle
Design Opportunities
Based on research findings, I identified seven key opportunities to improve the progress trail experience:
Contextual Caller Information
Make caller history easily available within the incident card to reduce context switching and improve efficiency when handling incidents.
Non-Obtrusive KI Integration
Incorporate KIs, standard solutions, and suggestions in a way that doesn't block the progress trail or disrupt the user's workflow.
Enhanced Progress Trail
Improve navigation for internal vs. external communication with better filtering, cursor position memory, and visual organization.
Advanced Flagging System
Enable multiple flag colors or pinning capabilities to help users mark different types of important information distinctly.
Improved Default Stamps
Enable language switching and expand beyond 9 texts to accommodate diverse user needs and multilingual support requirements.
Streamlined KI Creation
Simplify post-incident knowledge capture with templates, pre-filled information, and selective flagging specifically for KI creation.
Post-Incident Documentation
Add structured resolution information and summary capabilities to help operators efficiently document learnings and solutions.
Impact & Recommendations
Research Deliverables
- Comprehensive research report with journey maps, pain points, and opportunities
- Affinity mapping boards in Condens with tagged interview insights and thematic clusters
- Jobs-to-be-done maps covering all 4 phases of incident management
- Opportunity board synthesizing insights into actionable design directions
- Prioritized list of 7 design opportunities with supporting evidence from user research
- Current system documentation with screenshots illustrating key pain points
Recommended Next Steps
- Prioritization Workshop: Collaborate with the team to prioritize opportunities based on user impact and implementation effort
- Concept Testing: Create lo-fi prototypes of top 3 opportunities and test with users to validate solutions
- Analytics Implementation: Set up metrics to measure progress trail usage, KI widget interaction, and caller history access patterns
- Iterative Design: Work closely with design team to incorporate insights into the architectural transition
Research Reflections
What Went Well
Comprehensive synthesis process: Using multiple synthesis methods (affinity mapping, JTBD, opportunity mapping) revealed different layers of insights and ensured nothing was missed.
Visual research artifacts: The opportunity board with sticky notes and lightbulbs made it easy for stakeholders to understand the research narrative and see the evidence trail.
Diverse participant recruitment: Including operators, application managers, and consultants provided comprehensive perspectives on how different user types interact with the system.
What I'd Do Differently
Earlier stakeholder engagement: Involving designers and product managers in the affinity mapping sessions could have accelerated alignment and buy-in for the recommendations.
Workflow observations: Adding contextual inquiry sessions would have revealed workflow details and edge cases that might not surface in interviews alone.
Quantitative validation: Implementing analytics earlier would have provided data to validate the frequency and severity of identified pain points.
Key Learnings
Workarounds signal opportunity: Users editing dates to "pin" entries revealed both creativity and a critical missing feature. These workarounds are gold for researchers.
Visual synthesis matters: The colorful sticky note boards were more effective at communicating findings to stakeholders than text-heavy reports.
Jobs-to-be-done adds context: Mapping jobs across the lifecycle helped stakeholders understand not just what was broken, but why it mattered to users' broader workflow.