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Product Design

Digital Transformation

End-to-End

User Flows

Collaboration

Northrop Grumman’s PC Upgrade Process Portal

Revamped the PC upgrade portal that helps employees transition to a new PC — reducing email correspondence and cutting support tickets by 20%.

20%

fewer support tickets after rollout to 53K employees.

TIME LINE

11 Months

COLLABORATION

DTC Team

MY ROLE

Product Designer

SEGMENTS

Enterprise

Background

Northrop Grumman Corporation is a leading American aerospace and defense technology company headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia. With approximately 97,000 employees and annual revenues exceeding $40 billion, it ranks among the world’s largest defense contractors.

PROBLEM DEFINITION

Defining the challenge

What is the problem?

Employees often exchange multiple emails with technical teams, resulting in prolonged PC onboarding processes that cost NG a significant amount of money over time.

What did Northrop Grumman want to achieve?

Northrop Grumman experienced an increase in software usage and sought to introduce self-service portals for their employees. The initiative aimed to give employees a new way to participate in the PC upgrade process and to improve communication about their participation.

Disclaimer: This is not a real email from NG; it is a prototype email designed to illustrate what the email would look like.

Image of the Old PC Upgrade Process

HOW MIGHT WE

How might we design a self-service portal that reduces support tickets and improves communication with employees on the PC Upgrade program?

DISCOVERY & RESEARCH

Understanding employee pain points

To initiate this project, I collaborated with the project’s PM to interview a small number of employees to understand their pain points when participating in the PC upgrade program.

What employees are feeling

“Dealing with the constant back-and-forth email ticket responses to the technical team is overwhelming.”

— Employee 1

“I expected the process to take 2 weeks, but it took so long that I almost forgot I was part of it.”

— Employee 2

Why do some employees talk to technical teams when transitioning to a new PC?

Tedious process

The current experience requires employees to go through 10+ emails with technical teams to change, decline, or return old PCs and stay up to date on the transition.

Time-consuming

Employees expect the transition to take up to 2 weeks, while in reality it takes on average 1 month to complete.

Lack of communication

Employees received an email about the replacement process and delivery date but no details on how to change their address or cancel their participation.

PROCESS & RATIONALE

From insight to structure

Understanding the current steps in the PC upgrade process

Before taking any action, I wanted to understand the broader context from everyone involved. So I developed a Journey Map to understand where the current PC upgrade process needed improvement.

Image of Employee Journey Map

Finding key moments in the journey

We held a collaborative workshop with the PC refresh team to address employees' pain points. I discovered that the onboarding process did not involve employees until the pick-up and return phases. To include them throughout, I worked with the team to create a new process that involved them at every stage.

Image of the high-level User flow

Due to NDAs, I can’t show the full Employee Journey map and user flow. However, I can share the high-level flow of the main interactions.

SOLUTION

Designing the new experience

With potentially 50 high-fidelity screens in the project, I needed a streamlined approach to prototyping. I developed a style guide using Northrop Grumman’s guidelines to expedite the process and keep the compliance team aligned.

Color

I partnered with the compliance team and took an accessibility course to create color matches. The contrast passes AA and AAA standards against black text. I also added a status palette to give more prominence to employees’ PC upgrade participation.

Typography

Headings use Arial Bold and secondary content uses Arial Regular, creating a cohesive, well-matched pairing. 16pt body text served as a strong starting point, matching best practices for WCAG compliance.

Final design — MVP PC upgrade process

PC Upgrade Dashboard: Upon entering the new portal, employees are welcomed by an intuitive dashboard that provides a clear summary of their upgrade status, letting them quickly confirm the correct PC is being sent.

Ticket Home Portal: A streamlined home portal lets employees track their progress in the PC upgrade process, significantly reducing the burden on technical teams and keeping employees informed about their onboarding status.

Due to NDAs, not all of the new onboarding process can be shared publicly. I’d be happy to discuss the project in depth — feel free to reach out.

OUTCOME & REFLECTION

Measurable impact

After a small-scale beta with a smaller group of employees, we launched to the entire audience and continued to iterate. When we fully rolled out the new process to 53K employees, these are the metrics from the first two months.

20%

Support ticket numbers decreased across the PC upgrade program.

25%

Increase in cost saving through reduced manual coordination.

15%

CSAT increased, reflecting higher satisfaction with the new experience.

Reflections

This was my inaugural project at Atos and an enjoyable experience. Initially I was concerned about being unable to solve the problem due to limited employee access, but it taught me the importance of finding alternative solutions. Engaging directly with the people involved in the PC refresh process proved to be a precious asset.

Next steps

After passing my design solution to the developer, we concluded that we would continue to iterate on the solution over time, improving it with new interactions informed by ongoing employee feedback.

Next Work

Carrier's PC Upgrade Program Dashboard

Introduced a dashboard that allows executives to monitor over 53K employees’ PC upgrade process.

Product Design

Digital Transformation

End- to End

20%

Increase in Cost Saving

25%

Visibility Increase

View Case Study

Let’s Work Together

Currently open to new opportunities. Feel free to reach out!

Get In Touch

Let’s Work Together

Currently open to new opportunities. Feel free to reach out!

Get In Touch

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