Developing a Product Management Feature
The Context: I worked on this project during my time as a Senior Design Researcher and Strategist for a venture studio. The core enterprise software product, was designed to help civil engineers expedite and centralize the process of evaluating and protecting complex water systems.
Prior to this project, I collaborated with the venture team to define the MVP by researching complex technical workflows. This effort led to the acquisition of the first customer, a major environmental consulting firm in Texas.
The Problem: For this project, the product team needed insights to guide the next major product management feature set rollout, emphasizing the needs of the first customer and co-development partner.
The Objective: As Research Lead, I was tasked with gathering information to actionably inform the development of the new feature set.
Outcomes: The insights from this research were prototyped and tested for usability. This feature set was rated as highly valuable by 74% of surveyed users and, on average, will enable users to complete certain project management tasks 22% faster once launched.
This feature set is currently still in development as of August 2024.
Project Type
Enterprise Software
Client
Environmental Consulting Firm
Company
NAX
Methods
Diary Study
Virtual Walkthrough
Role
Lead Researcher
Timeline
8 weeks; May-July 2024
Context
Leading up to this project, I played a key role in defining the venture MVP, which contributed to the successful acquisition of the product's first customer.
A multinational insurance client engaged our innovation consulting firm to develop a product that enhances the evaluation and protection of complex water systems.
The team conducted interviews with water resource and civil engineers to identify common pain points in their workflows. These insights were then paired with proposed value propositions and features, which were validated and ranked at scale using a Willingness to Adopt/Willingness to Pay survey.
Since understanding water-related risks emerged as the most critical pain point, the team prioritized this feature set for development. I was tasked with determining which risk aspects to showcase, considering both desirability and technical feasibility.
To gauge desirability, I collaborated with experienced civil engineers to identify the most valuable risk factors to understand quickly and easily. I then led a task flow analysis to map out the processes for generating each risk insight.
With a clear understanding of manual risk generation, I identified which risks were technically feasible for the engineering team to produce.
This approach resulted in a clear plan for generating three key risk insights, significantly reducing the time civil engineers spent on their workflows and forming the foundation for the MVP.
Following the successful MVP launch, which led to the conversion of a first customer—a major environmental consulting firm based in Texas—I was tasked with providing insights to guide the next major feature rollout, focusing on the project management needs of our new customer and co-development partner.
I worked collaboratively with civil engineers in Miro and Google Sheets to map their manual process of generating insights.
The result of this work was the ability to generate three, high-quality risk insights; saving civil engineers hours of work.
Survey design for Willingness to Adopt/Willingness to Pay survey.
Timeline
The project was executed in two phases over an 8-week period.
Phase 1: Diary Study
Aligning with the Team, Study Design, Budget Setting : 1 week
Recruiting: 1 week
Conducting, Synthesis, and Analysis: 2 weeks
Phase 2: Virtual Walkthrough
Aligning with the Team, Study Design, Budget Setting : 1 week
Recruiting: 1 week
Conducting, Synthesis, and Analysis: 2 weeks
Research Team
Although I was the sole researcher on this project, members of the product and engineering teams participated in the virtual walkthrough sessions.
My Responsibilities:
Development of research plan
Setting of timeline and budget
Study design and execution
Analysis and share out of study insights and recommended next steps
Determining Research Goals and Methods
I worked closely with the product team to align on research goals and questions best addressed using qualitative methods.
The Willingness to Adopt/Willingness to Pay Survey indicated that users valued improvements in their project management workflows, but it did not provide details on the specific challenges they faced.
To proceed with development, the team needed clarity on which aspects of project management were most problematic for civil engineers and how current tools fell short of their needs.
Research Questions:
Which specific aspects of project management are the greatest challenges for civil engineers?
How do current project management tools fail to meet the needs of civil engineers?
To address these questions, I chose a combination of qualitative methods, complementing the quantitative insights we had already gathered.
A diary study would reveal the aspects of project management that cause the most difficulty for civil engineers.
A virtual walkthrough would provide a detailed understanding of how to actionably improve these challenging aspects.
I conducted the diary study with civil engineers from the current client.
Participants spent 10 minutes at the end of each day completing the study and were instructed to submit supporting visuals when applicable.
Participants: 6 civil engineers working for an environmental consulting firm
Screening Criteria: Must be the primary individual in charge of project management for a current project dealing with assessing the feasibility of site construction or expansion.
Recruitment Method: As an existing client, the firm allowed us to coordinate directly with our contact there to recruit and schedule participants.
Compensation: $75 per participant
Length of Study: 1 week
Study Platform: Typeform
Analysis: I analyzed the study by using Typeform's data visualization tool for quantitative responses and by importing qualitative responses into Miro to group and theme them, drawing actionable insights from both sources.
Diary study logic in Typeform
Participant submitted visual of current project management workflow
Diary Study Insights
Insights from the diary study were encapsulated in a research report, providing the team with the confidence to concentrate on the collaborative aspects of project management.
For the research question, Which specific aspects of project management are the greatest challenges for civil engineers?, I was able to draw the following insights from the diary study:
Civil engineers had the most difficulty with aspects of project management involving the storage and sharing of project information with internal and external stakeholders.
"It happens way too often that someone won't remember something that was said or when something is due…we have no centralized source for task tracking and it can make accountability and sticking to timelines difficult."
"All of the info and activities for a single project is generally scattered across multiple sources…it can get really disorganized."
Conducting and Analyzing the Virtual Walkthroughs
I conducted virtual walkthroughs of the internal tools currently used by civil engineers for project information storage and sharing to identify opportunities for differentiation.
Participants: 6 civil engineers working for an environmental consulting firm
Screening Criteria: Must be the primary individual in charge of project management for a current project dealing with assessing the feasibility of site construction or expansion.
Recruitment Method: As an existing client, the firm allowed us to coordinate directly with our contact there to recruit and schedule participants.
Compensation: $50 per session
Length of Session: 45 minutes
Session Platform: Google Meet
Analysis: I analyzed the virtual walkthroughs by tagging and theming the session recordings in Dovetail. Some tags included Customization Needs, Collaboration Challenges, and Data Management.
Conducting a virtual walkthrough session with civil engineers
Analyzing and synthesizing an interview recording in Dovetail
Virtual Walkthrough Insights
Insights from the virtual walkthrough sessions were compiled into a detailed research report and disseminated to the broader team.
For the research question, How do current project management tools fail to meet the needs of civil engineers?, I was able to draw the following insights from the virtual walkthroughs:
Aspects of the current internal tools that made project information storage and sharing difficult
Limitations in accepted formats for materials
Information architecture unintuitive and confusing
Delayed error state notifications
No ability to update project contributors of updates as they happened, leading to gaps in knowledge over time
No ability to connect relevant materials with relevant physical touch points leading to confusion across the team
Outcomes and Impact
Our product designer leveraged this information to rapidly create high-fidelity designs for usability testing with civil engineers.
I collaborated closely with the product designer in a "How Might We" workshop to tackle complex challenges, such as addressing user frustration with the inability to bridge the gap between relevant materials and physical touchpoints.
Following the workshop, I conducted usability testing on the resulting designs. The final feature set, known as the project management hub, was successfully implemented at scale and rated as highly valuable by 64% of surveyed users. On average, it enabled users to complete specific project management tasks 15% faster.
Insights generated from virtual walkthroughs were used to generate a high fidelity prototype for testing
Insights generated from virtual walkthroughs were used to generate a high fidelity prototype for testing