Uncovering the Flaws in the Original Solution

As the first UX designer assigned to a team tasked with building a daily job management solution for a specific type of manufacturing site, I quickly realized the project had serious issues. The business side was dictating the solutions, and the PM and developers were under pressure to create a product based on a PowerPoint document provided by the business team. My initial assignment was simply to "pretty up" the mockups they had created.

However, as soon as I reviewed the existing solution, I recognized it was fundamentally flawed. The UI design was poor and didn’t meet basic usability heuristics. More troubling, the solution was based on assumptions made by the business team—all former engineers from a single factory who assumed their processes were universal across all sites. To verify these assumptions, I requested a list of users at the primary testing site of the product suite and arranged virtual meetings with them, as they were not located in Seattle where I was based.

Proving the Solution Was Flawed

The business team's solution was created based on the assumption that team leads assigned jobs to members daily at the start of each shift. However, when I met with team leads at the site, I discovered that daily job management was not a significant part of their workflow. Instead, they held weekly planning sessions on Friday afternoons, where all team leads would collectively assign tasks for the upcoming week.

Through continued research, I mapped out the complete daily and weekly work processes at the site. I compiled these findings into a 13-page report, which I shared with the product team and stakeholders. I also presented the key highlights in a meeting, addressing questions and concerns. While some business team members were resistant to the idea that their solution might be wrong and reluctant to invest resources on the rework, I successfully persuaded the product lead to prioritize a complete redesign in the upcoming quarter, which I took the initiative to lead. This entire process, from research to shifting the project’s direction, took about 2-3 months.

Building the Right Solution

To ensure the new solution would be effective not only at the primary testing site but also at other sites globally, I extended my research to two additional sites, engaging with dozens of potential users across different shifts. The insights gained were transformed into features and user stories that guided our team of designers and developers in creating and refining the final solution. Due to NDA restrictions, I can't share further details or prototypes here, but feel free to reach out to me to learn more about the design process.

Delivering Business Impact

The solution we developed enables users to manage job schedules efficiently without needing external references and to assign engineers with the appropriate skillsets. Testing revealed that users could complete job planning at least 50% faster than with the previous solution. Furthermore, by eliminating the need for extra coordination and references, the new solution is projected to reduce planning time by 70% as more features are introduced. This improvement will significantly enhance productivity at factories, allowing team leads to focus on more valuable tasks such as improving production processes and training engineers and new hires, rather than being distracted by administrative work. Most importantly, the users loved it.

“This is much more user-friendly than our current planning method.”

“We all really appreciate your work. I can see myself getting planning done much quicker than using the current planning method.”

Professional Growth and Moving Forward

This project was a significant growth experience for me. I had the opportunity to mentor the business and product teams on user-centered design practices and witnessed a positive shift in their mindset. I also learned how to navigate a challenging work environment, build trust with stakeholders and team members with differing interests, and remain positive under pressure.

The solution was built in 2023 and released to the primary testing site in early 2024. Although I won’t see its official launch, as I’ve moved on to another exciting opportunity due to the success of this project, I’m proud of the impact this solution will have on the users and the company.