Objectives
Primary Objective - Control Tower
Create a series of dashboards to give open book visibility into the daily operations of three lines of business in the SOCC.
Secondary Objective - Team Brand
Create a Brand Guide for the SOCC analytics team.
Challenges
The Control tower
Visibility
Outdated Data
*Not real data, all fake information
The Players and Their Roles
The Users/ Stakeholders
The Senior Director of the SOCC had a vision for a control tower for 4 primary users: himself and 3 of his directors. This series of dashboards would also be visibile to anyone in those lines of business per open book management techniques.
The Team
Three specialists were brought in to help support the Analytics Team on this vision project. The additional talents included UX, a Data Specialist and a Tableau Master. The existing team had groups assigned to each line of business and were available subject matter experts and would be responsible for maintaining the final product.
Roles and Responsibilities
Insights and Data
Identify metrics
used to indicate the health of the business
at what level of responsibility they have the most impact
that drive positive change
Design for Tableau
Deliver the right insights
respective to the line of business
role within that business
navigate up to a higher level
drill down to investigate an issue
Test with Users
Evaluate usefulness
meet with managers at various levels
insure chosen metrics will
1) encourage behaviors that respect THD values
2) deliver the desired business results.
Scope and Constraints
We had three to four months to identify and design our solution with an unlimited budget. To achieve a level of success within our timeline, I was required to create a roadmap and prioritize data movement needed for higher level insights.
Working with the Analytics Coordinator, we made a plan that would deliver our primary objective on time, and laid a path to roll out future releases to the rest of the business. View Axure file with Roadmap and Planning.
Stakeholder Challenges
Limited Availability
Busy Business Leaders
Time with the Directors was optimized to maintain their full attention at every meeting.
Post meeting email detailing discussion points and action items to maintain transparency.
Updates and Artifacts
Complete Visibility
Our signed Product Canvas, Project Roadmap and evolving artifacts were pinned to my wall.
Anyone could stop by when they had time and I could give updates and answer questions.
Tribal Knowledge
Defining the Unknown
Call center associates and managers allowed me to shadow them during their daily work, often answering questions to clarify motivating factors and metrics that influence daily activities and future promotions.
Process
Secondary Objective
You didn’t forget about the Team Brand, Did you?
Adoption Risk
In my experience, I’ve seen guidelines that were created in a vacuum and upon delivery they were found to take too much time to implement and therefore were dismissed in a matter of weeks. I’m not a fan of forced adoption, so I chose to include the team in the process.
First I learned more about their specialization.
Researched dashboards, dashboard design, data visualizations and Tableau
Next I used our unlimited budget to host a lunch and learn to confirm my learnings and learn more about best practices in this specific industry.
After validating that I understood the team’s inherent value, we discussed what makes this team special. These discussions brought together the analysts from the different lines of business in a way that had not happened previously. We found data integrity and knowledge of the business were a point of pride.
To ensure ease of adoption I worked with members of the team to learn what could be built into Tableau as a template so that the styles could be used without cell by cell implementation.
Design within limitations
Vet the designs with the team for acceptance
After the Team defined that they are THE ANALYTICS TEAM, it was a unanimous decision to adopt the name “THE A TEAM”.
What does the A stand for?
The Analytics Team
The Atlanta Team
or even The Alpha Team - cause OBVIOUSLY!
Final Lunch and Learn where “the A Team” presented their Brand to their Director!
The A Team presented samples of their reports and presentations to their Director who was happy with the outcome.
Success includes the Hand Off
Control Tower
User acceptance and buy in was immediate thanks to using a research and test process that included associates at all levels.
Early on I identified the Analytics Coordinator to have the desire and ability to inherit the UX ownership. Therefore, I included her as often as possible in research and design explorations. At the end of my contract, she was able to own the roadmap and drive the future dashboard rollouts.
The a Team
The A Team created its name, team pride and adopted a visual identity.
Lesson learned: Using empathy and sympathy to understand the talents of the team, the team dynamic and the things that bring all the individuals into one will always generate a sense of cohesion and pride.
Curious for more details? Here’s the journal I kept to track this adventure.
Jessica joined my Analytics team and was charged to accelerate the UX and design strategy surrounding the team’s deliverables. She guided the approach to collect end-user needs and harmonize it with multiple stakeholders , a complex information architecture with multiple phases. Our analytics team knows the data and leaned on Jessica to plan, design and help the team deliver structured and easy to use dashboards and analytics work. Her design and thoughtful approach reduced complexity and increased effectiveness and usability. She has a dynamic personality and was well liked by a team.
Justin Moore - Senior Analytics Manager
I’ve had the pleasure working on a project with Jessica at The Home Depot for several months. We worked closely to design an executive level, multi user, clean dashboard with 46 data sources. Additionally, she developed a much needed style guide for our team to consistently use as part of our Analytics branding. Jessica’s outgoing personality & professional experience would be a great addition to any team.
Susie Osborne - Senior Business Analyst
Project Detail PAGES
THD Case Study | THD Journal | ACS Mobile App | ACS Event Sites