1.1. Human Centric Design (HCD) Process- My Approach

I. Discovery Phase

First phase of the process was understanding the 

problem space, gathering insights from business stakeholders in a kick off workshop, identifying key user groups, and aligning stakeholders desired outcomes, expectations and assumptions. This helped us understand the problem scope.

A human centred design thinking methodology was employed with end user as the prime focus of the project. The user research started with exploring secondary research in the form of reports, customer query logs, and data analytics, followed by qualitative research which was done in two phases, 1) User interviews, and 2) Usability testing. The one on one, user interviews were conducted for all user groups across all Atlassian territories with a diverse group of users which helped us gather some key insights. Moreover, the usability test was a screen mirroring moderated method with a different set of end users, wherein the testers were asked to fill out the requisition tickets and their screens were recorded for analysis. They were given different hypothetical situations for filling out the Jira tickets. This gave me detailed behavioural insights about the process of onboarding the users.

Moreover, I conducted competitor analysis with a deep analysis of journey maps of competitor products like Oracle NetSuite, Coupa, SAP. This gave me additional insights into the limitations of Atlassian’s procurement processes.

The key insights were drafted and shared with the key stakeholders.

1.2. Qualitative Research Questions- ( End User Module)

The interview results uncovered many unnecessary steps with indefinite time schedules in between each. There was also a manual process of sending RFQ, onboarding users, creating requisition and purchase order tickets in JIRA, a tedious process to enrol suppliers to their master data system with extensive background checks and paperwork, with no way for the end user to track the procured goods.

II. Defining Phase

1.3. Persona (Three Modules)

There was a need to automate the process and reduce the duration of the process for greater in-house efficiency.

Based on the insights generated, personas were created for each user type (end user/ procurement officer/ Accounts officer etc.), and a current customer journey mapping was created to map out the touch points and their pertaining pain points in the user flow for each user group, which in turn helped with the evaluation of the problem and its analysis. Next the current service blue print was generated with detailed task and experience mapped across all the user groups of end users, suppliers, procurement and Accounts teams.

Moreover, empathy mapping (what the user says/does/thinks/feels) and storyboards were also mapped for all user groups, as part of the user behavioural analysis.

1.4. End User Empathy Map (End User Module)

User Stories And Requirement Mapping

After empathizing with the user and understanding their frustrations, I moved on to the product attribute chart, which enables us to map the user needs and their corresponding product attributes in a tabular form. User needs translated to user stories. User stories were

Next the user requirement specifications were gathered for the data end points of the app which was ascertained to be a web only app for three main user modules (Suppliers/ end users/ procurement team), since Atlassian gives its employees a free laptop while the use of phone for office work is optional.

Moreover, functional requirements of the system were mapped and segregated into four sections, that are as follows: communication, extends, includes, and generalizes. Next, the use cases were listed based on the specifications which gave a clear overview of the criteria and priority of the requirements.

III. Ideation Phase

1.5. Existing Customer Journey Map

IV. Prototyping Phase

Low/High Fidelity Prototyping And Usability Testing

This stage started with extensive paper sketching while constant involvement from representatives from each of the three groups throughout the prototyping stage, who helped co-create the prototypes with constant feedback about UI, navigation and functional requirements. Next I created low fidelity wireframes, and created a wireframe with complex user flows across all three modules -( end users, procurement team and suppliers). Once the wireframes were reviewed and validated by users and stakeholders, I moved on to design high fidelity mock ups in Figma using Atlassian’s material design component library.

1.8. Wireframes (Low Fidelity)

V. Testing Phase

To test UX of the designed screens I arranged a 30 min, moderated workflow test for the interactive prototype, with six users per module in a diverse and inclusive group spread across locations, age groups, job profiles, job hierarchy, different cognitive and physical abilities and devices.

I conducted a separate briefing session for each location and prepared them about regarding the tasks and functions that needed analysis and the test protocol. I did one-on-one sessions with each user while I recorded their interaction with the prototype module relevant to them. For testers with special needs, I used assistive technology for screen reading, speech recognition, screen magnification.

Result

The project is one of  Atlassian’s top solutions which has now been commercialised, also known as Checkout, which is its procurement and asset management tool, which is valued at over $10B USD, with millions of users across the globe.