Understanding the Client

UNDERSTANDING THE CLIENT: MID + PRIMAVERA

UNDERSTANDING THE CLIENT MID + PRIMAVERA

© 2012

Meghan Conley

Charles H Lee

Andrew ahn

Copyright © 2012 by Andrew Cameron Zahn Illustrations / Photography copyright © 2012 by Charles Lee, Holly Betz, Nicholas Coia, Jonas Milder, Meghan Conley, and Andrew Cameron Zahn

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced–mechanically, electronically, or by any other means, including photocopying–without written permission of the publisher.

Cover design by Andrew Cameron Zahn Book design by Andrew Cameron Zahn Masters of Industrial Design at The University of the Arts 212 South Broad Street, 5th Floor Philadelphia, PA 19102 First printing April 2012

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

PAGE 4

METHODOLOGY

PAGE 10

RESEARCH / SYNTHESIS

PAGE 20

PRESENTATIONS / DELIVERABLES

PAGE 50

SUMMARY / NEXT STEPS

PAGE 58

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INTRODUCTION

“A TEAM MEMBER IS AN INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTOR”

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ABOUT US

We are user centered designers / facilitators of conversation who use the design process to establish opportunities and solutions. We use design tools such as; brainstorming, mind mapping, affinity diagramming, shadowing, ethnographic research and rapid ideation. Our process is the most important thing for the way we design.

Clockwise from top left: Charles Lee, Holly Betz, Nicholas Coia, Jonas Milder, Meghan Conley, and Andrew Cameron Zahn

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ABOUT ORACLE

P R I MAV E R A

Primavera is a local software company that was established in 1983. Primavera produces Project Management Software for large industries like oil and gas, transportation, and construction. Their P3 software, which launched in 1994, pushed them to the forefront of the industry. Currently, P6 is their core software line. In 2008, Primavera was acquired by Oracle. Oracle is a multinational computer software company.

Members of the Primavera team

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DESIGN BRIEF

The University of the Arts MID design team was collaborated with Oracle/Primavera in early September, 2011. They asked us to provide a design approach to help them better understand their internal perspective of the Primavera user through the defined user roles. The “user” is a customer who interacts with the P3 and P6 products during project management. P3 and P6 are the core products that Primavera produces for their clients.

The central roles of Primavera’s users: • Project Manager • Resource Manager • Team Member

Cherie Hinson during Doodle It

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METHODOLOGY

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“IF YOU SAY TO A CLIENT, ‘RESOURCE MANAGER,’ THEY WILL LOOK AT YOU LIKE A DEER IN HEADLIGHTS”

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INTERVIEW PLAN

INTERVIEW STRUCTURE

PM TM

We interviewed employees from five different departments within the company; Design and development, Sales, Support, Testing, and Consultant. Through these interviews, our goals were to gain insights into the internal understanding of the Primavera user while also understanding the relationships between departments.

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RM

Interview questions were carefully designed into four different sections.

- Individual - Company - About User - Knowledge on 3 different roles (Project manager, Resource manager, and Team member) The idea behind this breakdown, to focus first on the individual and their role before moving into questions regarding the company culture followed by the relationship with the various users.

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS Individual

5 minutes

#

What is your current role and what other positions have you held with at Primavera?

How long have you been an employee?

Individual

Can tell us more about your responsibilities, daily routines, etc?

What is your typical work flow? Directed/Self guided?

What level of communication do you have with other teams?

Company

10 minutes

Can you describe the environment or Primavera?

Company

Do you feel this environment has changed since being acquired by Oracle?

Can you define the P6 product?

Product/Client Interaction

15 minutes

Can you describe the typical Primavera client?

Product/Client Interaction

In what industries do they come from?

What level of contact do you have with these clients?

Are you familiar with the roles: Resource Manager, Team Member/Contributor, Project Manager?

Client Roles

15 minutes

How would you define these roles?

How would these roles interact with P6?

Client Roles

Do you feel these categories are accurate?

Is there anything else that you would want to say, or something that I didn’t ask?

Name: Dept / Title:

Time:

:

am/pm

Interview Local

workspace conference room

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The interview was separated into three stages, Frame it, Ask it and Doodle it. At the beginning of each interview we asked the interviewee to select a frame in which to have their photo taken.

They had several frames to choose from ranging from very basic to quite ornate. This selection was a way to incorporate a fun element and also allow for the design team to gauge an understanding of each individual’s personality. Each photograph that was taken was used later during the synthesis process to help to team create an employee profile.

Opposite: Paula Hamilton during Frame It

FRAME IT

Lou Troila during Frame It

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Ask it was the second stage were we conducted the actual interview. The first part focused on the interviewee, asking questions such as “How long have you worked at the company?” and “What are your roles?” This gave the interviewee a chance to feel comfortable and open up to interviewer. The second part focused on the company as a whole asking about the work environment. The third part asked about their

relationship with the users. Lastly, we asked question their knowledge on the three identified roles; Team members, Resource manager, and Project manager.

ASK IT

While we had a structured plan for each interview, the process became more organic towards the end as we began to build trust with each person.

Andrew Zahn and Lou Troila during Ask It

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April Pugh and Holly Betz during Ask It

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April Pugh working on Doodle It

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DOODLE IT

To conclude the interview on a playful, positive note, we ask the interviewee to doodle a representation of themselves. This activity helped us to further understand each individual’s personality.

Paula Hamilton working of Doodle It

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RESEARCH / SYNTHESIS

“THE ROLE OF PROJECT MANAGER CAN BE VERY DIFFERENT DEPENDING ON THE ORGANIZATION THEY ARE IN...”

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INTERVIEWS

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Holly Betz, Meghan Conley, Andrew Zahn, Charles Lee, and Cherie Hinson during an early interview

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INTERVIEWS

Our research process consisted of various interviews across departments at Primavera. These interviews were conducted at both the main office and over the phone. We thought it was important to observe people in their work environments in order to gain a better understanding of their daily routines. Some of the participants were more comfortable speaking away from their desks and preferred to meet in a closed conference room. Since some employees were located off site, several interviews were conducted over the phone. We learned a lot of valuable information through the phone interviews but lacked the opportunity to experience the participants in their work environments. The initial project goal was twenty to twenty-five interviews, but due to last minute cancellations and difficulty coordinating meeting times, the team was limited to twelve interviews.

Charles Lee and Holy Betz during an interview

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INDIVIDUAL SYNTHESIS

Charles Lee and Meghan Conley scheduling interviews

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Andrew Zahn transcribing interview data

Once the MiD group had collect the data from the various interviews we began a process of sense making called synthesis. The first step in our synthesis process was to individually review the recorded interviews and extract key themes and statements from those interviews. Making this information visual is a key aspect of the synthe-

sis process. Mapping out a mental model helps to create a user profile and tell the story of that particular employee at Primavera. These models later informed our group synthesis as we began to connect the individual themes together and create collaborative profiles. Figures 1 through 12 show examples of these mental models.

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GROUP SYNTHESIS

Individual Interview Synthesis: Figure 1.

Individual Interview Synthesis: Figure 2.

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Individual Interview Synthesis: Figure 3.

Individual Interview Synthesis: Figure 4.

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Individual Interview Synthesis: Figure 5.

Individual Interview Synthesis: Figure 6.

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Individual Interview Synthesis: Figure 7.

Individual Interview Synthesis: Figure 8.

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Individual Interview Synthesis: Figure 9.

Individual Interview Synthesis: Figure 10.

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Individual Interview Synthesis: Figure 11.

Individual Interview Synthesis: Figure 12.

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INTERVIEW RESULTS

Synthesized information from previous 6 pages.

What level of Communication do you have with other teams?

Design / Development

Very little contact with other departments

Support

Casual weekly contact in regards to training and internal support

Sales

High level of communication with all other teams

Quality Assurance

Communicates across multiple teams

PM/Consultant

High level of communication with other departments: Support, Strategy & Development

Can you define the P6 product?: Research Design / Development

Easy to input data but hard to extract it

Support

Current focus is on making it more user friendly but in turn created too many features that make it very complicated to use

Sales

Pieced together product; some users actually interact with P6 or maybe just get reports from it.

Some use other tools like Excel.

Quality Assurance

Geared towards project managers, working on a product entrepreneurial level

PM/Consultant

Product centered and not customer driven, lacks some of the key features of P3, and “focused on the fluff and not usability in the ‘trenches’”

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What level of communication do you have with Primavera Users?

Design / Development

No user contact

Support

Phone & email based user contact. The service request feature is directed towards support

Sales

Direct user contact to understand the users business challenges

Quality Assurance

Indirect contact, at least one layer of separation between QA and Strategy

PM/Consultant

Were previously users, now support users with direct contact

How would you define the roles ‘Project Manager,’ ‘Resource Manager’ & ‘Team Member?’: Research Design / Development

Should be Executive, Manager, Team Member and Admin

Support

The Project Manager is charge of overseeing everything

Sales

The Resource Manager determines resources needed & appropriates people, materials & equipment to work

Quality Assurance

The Team Member is an individual contributor interested in one project at a time; finishes and then move on

PM/Consultant

Roles interact with P6 differently depending on size of project

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MULTIPLE LEVELS OF UNDERSTANDING: SYNTHESIS

Resource Manager Role Defined

“If you say to the client, ‘Resource Manager,’ they will look at you like a deer in headlights.”

-Sales

“Resource Managers do some staffing [and] work at the highest level of strategy. Knowing if we do this kind of project we’ll need these resources and we don’t have them.”

-Sales

Team Member Role Defined

“A Team Member is an individual contributor” -Testing

“Interested in one project at a time, finish and then move on.”

-Testing 36

Project Manager Role Defined

“Interested in how the overall project is going” -Testing

“The role of project manager can be very different depending on the organization they are in... But typically has the overall accountability for the project, it’s the question of how much data entry they are doing, and that’s dependent on the industry.”

-Sales

Research Summary

Disparate understanding of user

Little collaboration between groups on direction of P6

P6 is robust yet complex

Products released with bugs on quick turnaround

P6 is not very user friendly

No end-to-end user testing

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GROUP SYNTHESIS

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Andrew Zahn, Meghan Conley , Nicholas Coia, and Charles Less during group synthesis

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GROUP SYNTHESIS

Dev Dev

Strategy Strategy User User

Strategy Strategy

User User

P3 P3 As we created the group profiles and collaborative mental models of each interviewee, we started to see patterns in the responses. These identified patterns were very important in framing our overall understanding of the problems that existed within Primavera. One discovery is illustrated in the two diagrams above. The diagram on the left

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P6 demonstrates the balance of influence between the user, the strategy department and the development group in the creation of the original project management software, P3. The second shows how that influence shifted in the more recent, less successful P6 product.

Dev Dev

MINOR COMMUNICATION BETWEEN TEAMS

ENVIRONMENTAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EACH DEPARTMENT

TELECOMMUTING TOP DOWN

DELIVERS FOCUS TO INDIVIDUAL DEPARTMENTS

An important aspect that we learned was the lack of communication between departments.

Direction on product releases comes from a team of VP’s referred to as the S1 team. They inform the CEO’s of the various departments on the company direction which then gets filtered

down to employees. There was ver y lit tle evidence of inter-depar tment meetings and regular cross-team collaboration. This lack of communication lead to very desperate understanding of direction and knowledge of the end user.

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GROUP SYNTHESIS

Once we had created the profiles of each employee, our next step was to do a side by side comparison in order to find common phrases and themes. The diagram on the right shows an example of this comparison and the highlighted themes identified. These themes were important in framing our problem statements.

The three statements that emerged from this portion of synthesis were: “The push to meet deadlines on a complicated product is decreasing the quality of the product and essentially hindering Primavera’s growth” “Primavera is currently not incorporating endto-end testing of the client interaction for developers/designers and therefore is not user focused.”

“There is an established culture of top-down micro-management of filtered informations/direction

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Identifying these two statements was an important step for the team, and after we were able to frame the problems, we were then able to start working towards possible solutions.

White board showing group synthesis of individual interviews

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MENTAL MODEL: SYNTHESIS

PRATHIBA

APRIL

PAULA

RON

Tester 13+ years Team member

Tester 4 years Team member

Tester 4 years Team member

Support 4 years Team member

Good user environment

Loss of freedom Incentives taken away Everything filtered from

Frustration Too many Micro-managers

Office is “DEAD” Supports risk analysis software

Upper management “Major assumptions are in place”

Quality has gone down/ more complicated

Acquired by Primavera

Info is filtered down through support BA’s want more contract with customers

Perception is filtered down Wants more testing + feedback No trust since merger.

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Good managers need to understand team Members Everything gets pushed aside Wants end to end testing

So looks different + easier to use

Synthesis of individual interviews

SARYN

DENNIS

CHERIE

LOU

Support 5 years Team members

Support 8 years Manager

UXA 18 months x 2 Independent

Director, Sales Enablment 20 + years Manager

Casual/relaxed Environment

Started with Oracle

Push down environment

Employees reluctant to accept that they “Are Oracle”

Customers tutorial

want

video

Casual / Relaxed Environment Seems very removed from the corporate Environment

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Nicholas Coia, Charles Less and Meghan Conley during group synthesis

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FORMULATED PROBLEM STATEMENTS

THE PUSH TO MEET DEADLINES ON A COMPLICATED PRODUCT IS DECREASING THE QUALITY OF THE PRODUCT AND ESSENTIALLY HINDERING PRIMAVERA’S GROWTH.

PRIMAVERA IS CURRENTLY NOT INCORPORATING END-TO-END TESTING OF CLIENT INTERACTION FOR DEVELOPERS / DESIGNERS AND THEREFORE IS NOT USER FOCUSED.

THERE IS AN ESTABLISHED CULTURE OF TOP-DOWN MICRO-MANAGMENT OF FILTERED INFORMATION / DIRECTED TO AN UN-TRUSTED GROUP OF EMPLOYEES.

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GROUP SYNTHESIS

It became more and more obvious through our synthesis of the data that there was little to no contact between the development group and the end user. This created a disconnect with the development of products. The diagram on the right demonstrates the life cycle of the P6 product. The strategy department determines the needs for any product enhancements and upgrades. They then direct the development department on production specs, the development team then designs and builds the new product.

That product is tested in house to determine bugs. Once bugs are found, they have the op-

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tion to fix those bugs or there is a work around on that particular problem in order to meet the predetermined release date. The product is releases and the user then elicits feedback on the performance directly back to the Strategy department. This information is then filtered as it is passed onto the Development department.

There is never any direct contact between the group that designs the product and the group that uses it.

Design Software

Build

Des/Dev

Test

Determine Bugs

Direction

Bug Work Around?

Feedback Strategy

User

Y

N

Defer Bug

Fix Bug

V.x.x Released

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PRESENTATIONS / DELIVERABLES

“IT GET’S ME WORRIED THAT WE DON’T KNOW WHO OUR CUSTOMER IS THROUGHOUT THE ORGANIZATION”

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STEP, JUMP, LEAP

After the MiD team completed our synthesis of the information gathered through our research we formulated three final recommendations incorporating a user centered approach. These findings would be presented to the senior leaders within the Development group.

The design solutions were broken down into three stages; step, jump and leap. The Step, would be the implementation of user surveys.

Surveys prove an excellent resource for receiving feedback directly from various user groups and can cover several aspects regarding a product. The surveys would be easy to implement and provide almost instant feedback.

The second stage, the Jump, would be to include end user testing prior to the release of each new product. This affords the ability to ascertain information regarding usability of digital interfaces.

This testing could include eye and mouse tracking, navigation analysis, along with user and end goal analysis.

The Step and Jump phases would allow for an opportunity for facilitated collaboration across various departments within Primavera. Bringing

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these different groups together to synthesize the data and brainstorm discussions around stragetic planning would produce a more unified product.

The third stage, the Leap, would incorporate user studies through shadowing and direct observation in the work environment. This affords a unique perspective and understanding of how the user interacts with the digital interface on a daily basis.

USER SURVEYS DESIGN OPPORTUNITY Surveys prove an excellent resource to aggregate baseline information on the users focus Most & least used features Navigational opportunities • Years of product use • Top goals during product use • Comfort using product • Available for future user testing?

• •

STEP JUMP

User Survey

LEAP

End User T Testin g

Implement Feedback

Facilitated Meeting

User Study

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END USER TESTING OPPORTUNITY: DESIGN End user testing affords the ability to ascertain information regarding the usability of digital interfaces • Eye & mouse tracking • Navigation analysis • Understand use hierarchy • User goal analysis • User needs analysis

STEP JUMP

User Survey

LEAP

End User Testing

Implement Feedback

Facilitated Meeting

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User Study

FACILITATED COLLABORATION OPPORTUNITY: DESIGN Using design to bring departments together in a collaborative manner by facilitating: • Research & Synthesis of Data • Brainstorming Discussions • Mapping Strategic Plan • Direction on User Feedback

STEP JUMP

User Survey

LEAP

End User Testing

Implement Feedback

Facilitated Meeting

User Study

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USER STUDIES OPPORTUNITY: DESIGN Through shadowing and observing, designers can gain a unique perspective and understanding of how the user works.

• Understand user roles • Client interaction with P6?

• What are the users wants and needs?

• Users workspace and process?

• What problems does the user encounter?

STEP JUMP

User Survey

LEAP

End User T Testin g

Implement Feedback

Facilitated Meeting

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User Study

STEP JUMP

User Survey

LEAP

End User Testing

Implement Feedback

Facilitated Meeting

User Study

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SUMMARY / NEXT STEPS

“WHEN YOU OPEN MICROSOFT WORD, YOU KNOW YOU ARE GOING TO WRITE A DOCUMENT. WHEN YOU OPEN EXCEL YOU KNOW YOU ARE GOING TO MAKE A SPREADSHEET. BUT WHEN YOU OPEN PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE, YOU ARE LIKE ‘WHAT THE HELL AM I GOING TO DO HERE?’”

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SUMMERY

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There was some initial concern that the Senior Leaders within the Development group would not be receptive to the delivery of this sensitive information, but the feedback from the presentation was quite positive. They were very receptive and not surprised to hear of our findings. The VP of the department agreed with the lack of user involvement with the development of P6 and the problems of a top down approach to design with a lack of overall communication throughout the organization. Our proposed next steps included presenting these findings to the S1 team and then working with the Development group to begin implementing the designed solutions.

We hope to continue our collaboration with Primavera in the future in order to help them implement the changes we have suggested.

Jonas Milder, Charles Lee, Andrew Zahn, and Nicholas Coia during the final client presentation

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GLOSSARY

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RESEARCH

Cultural Probes

Contextual Interview

Draw the experience

Extreme User Interview

Information gathering packages based around the principle of user participation via self-documentation that reveal perceptions and behaviors within or across cultures.

Asking participants to visualize an experience through drawing and diagramming which can debunk assumptions and reveal how people conceive of and order their experiences or activities.

Shadowing

Involves researchers immersing themselves in the lives of people in order to observe day-to-day routines, interactions and contexts.

Conducted in the environment, or context, in which the service process occurs allowing interviewer to both observe and probe the behavior they are interested in.

Identify individuals who are extremely familiar or completely unfamiliar with the product or system and ask them to evaluate their experience with it.

Secondary Research

Supportive information including published articles, papers and other pertinent documents to develop an informed point of view on design issues.

Activity Analysis Guided Tours

Asking participants to lead a guided tour of the project-relevant spaces and activities they experience to help them recall their intentions and values.

Cognitive Task Analysis

List and summarize all of a user’s sensory inputs, decision points and actions to identify potential bottlenecks where errors may occur.

Time Lapsed Video

Recording movements in a space over an extended period of time to be later viewed at an increased speed. This provides an objective, longitudinal view of activity within a context.

Studying in detail all tasks, actions, objects, performers and interactions involved in a process.

Personal Inventory

Document the things that people identify as important to them to catalog evidence of their lifestyles.

Unfocus Group

Assemble a diverse group of individuals to encourage rich, creative, and divergent .

Empathy Tools

Create tools that alter your experience to understand the abilities of different users.

Ethnography

A form of qualitative research that requires immersion in the natural contexts upon which work, play or culture are experienced.

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SYNTHESIS

Personas

Fictional profiles developed as a way of representing a particular group based on their shared interests.

Card Sort

Asking people to organize cards spatially, in ways that make sense to them, revealing expectations and priorities about intended functions.

Flow Diagramming

Visually representing the flow of information or activity through all phases of a system or process.

Social Network Mapping

Discovering different kinds of social relationships within a user group and map the network of their interactions.

Affinity Diagram

A method of data organization intended to define categories based on likeness of information.

Concept Map

Graphical method for organizing and representing knowledge supporting meaningful learning through associative and hierarchical connection forming.

Mental model

A cognitive representation and simplification of a complex system.

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Zoom Out

A method for understanding and visualizing the larger system of people, products, services and environments within which a particular design exists.

Customer Journey Map

A structured visualization of a users experience with a system.

Stakeholder Map

A visual or physical representation of the various groups involved with a particular service.

PROTOTYPE + TEST

Scenarios

Illustrate a story line describing the context of use for a product or service.

Experience Prototype

Simulation of the experience using the product revealing unanticipated issues or needs.

Role Playing

Identify the stakeholders involved in the design problem and assign those roles to members of the team for them to enact activities within a real or imagined context.

Storytelling

A method for sharing insights and new concepts through the use of compelling narratives.

Storyboarding

A series of drawing or pictures that visualize a particular sequence of events.

Co-creation

Engaging people with different backgrounds and roles to work collaboratively as part of the same team, in order to examine and innovate a given experience.

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