Case Studies

About Me

Resume

Case Studies

About Me

Resume

Case Studies

About Me

Resume

PC Upgrade Process Portal

Revamped the PC upgrade portal that helps employees transition to a new PC.

Reducing Email correspondances and decressing ticket numbers by 20%

My Contribution

User Research

User Flow

Iteration with stakeholders

Final Designs

Tools

Figma

Microsoft Teams

Miro

Fig Jam

Jira

Balsamiq

Timeline

11 Months

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

Background

Northrop grumman

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.

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. Thus, the initiative to enhance the PC Upgrade program began. The aim was to introduce a new method for employees to participate in the PC upgrade process and to improve communication with them regarding their participation.

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.

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

Solution

A website portal onboarding experience that allows employees to decline participation, edit shipping addresses, and return old PCs.

Image of the Home Dashboard

Image of the Ticket Home

Impact

After rolling out the first three months, we saw a positive increase in using this self-service solution.

After passing my design solution to the developer, we initiated a small-scale beta testing phase with a smaller group of employees before eventually launching it to the entire employee audience. Even after the initial launch, we concluded that we would continue to iterate on the solution, improving it over time with new interactions. When we fully rolled out the new process to 53K employees, the metrics below are what we found out in the first two months:

20%

Ticket Numbers Decreased

20%

increase in cost saving

15%

CSAT Increased by

User Research

User Interview

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.

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

Interviews Key Takeaways:

PC upgrade process is tedious.

Current experience requires existing employees to go through up to 10+ corresponding emails with the technical teams to change, decline, or return their old PCs and stay up to date on the PC transition.

Time- consuming.

Employees expect the transitions 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 PC replacement process and delivery date but did not receive details on how to change their address or cancel their participation.

What employees are feeling

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

— Employee 1

"Lack of clear communication makes the entire PC upgrade process confusing and frustrating to be a part of."

— Employee 2

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

— Employee 3

Define

How might we….

I used “How Might We” questions to reframe the main pain points into opportunities for innovation. By asking these questions, I can target specific design solutions that address real-time data needs and reduce the reliance on email threads.

How might we design a self-service portal that reduces support tickets, lowers operational costs, and improves employee satisfaction with the PC Upgrade program?

service blueprint

Understanding the current steps in the PC Upgarde Process

Before taking any action, I wanted to understand the broader context from the people involved in the entire process. So, I developed a Service blueprint aimed to serve as an avenue to understand where the current PC upgrade process needs improvement.

Image of Service Blueprint

User Flow

Finding Key Moments in the Journey

We held a collaborative workshop session with the PC refresh team to work together and figure out what we can do to solve the pain points that employees had.

What I discovered:

I discovered with the PM and PC refresh team that the onboarding process does not involve employees until the pick-up and return phases. To include them at all times, I worked with the PC refresh team to create a new process involving them.

Image of the include employee workflow

While collaborating with the PC upgrade team, here are the key User flow aspects we added:

Select a new PC
Confirm new PC
(Optional) PC replacement denial
Confirm Address / Change Address
Order Status
Transition New PC
Return old PC

Design Guide

Style and Component Design Guide for NG

As the sole designer of the project, I created the designs using the established NG guidelines. I developed colors and existing typography to improve the PC upgrade process experience. Following this guideline was essential, as the compliance team had to approve the final design of the new process experience.

Color

While working on this project, I added a few new colors to the design that were outside the NG guidelines. I partnered with the compliance team and took an accessibility course to create color matches. The color contrast is also accessible, passing the AA and AAA standards when matched with black as the text. I made an additional color palette to give a more prominent status to the employees' PC upgrade participation.

Image of colors and primary and secondary buttons

Typography

Headings: Arial bold
Secondary Content: Arial Regular

This combination created a cohesive look and feel with well-matched font groupings. Using 16pt as the body text was a good starting point, as it matched best practices for conforming to WCAG guidelines.

Image of Fonts and font size

Final Design

Introducing the MVP version of the PC Upgrade process

After completing the research and collaborating with the PC upgrade technical team, I worked closely with the project manager, PC upgrade team, and engineers to design and deliver the MVP dashboard shown below:

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

Image of the Home Dashboard

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

Image of the Ticket Home

Confirm current PC Portal: A streamlined confirmation portal allows employees to confirm, reschedule, and decline participation of the PC upgrade wave, significantly reduce email ticket creation and encouraging employee to immediately take action.

Image of the 1st stage of the process

Impact

After rolling out the first three months, we saw a positive increase in using this self-service solution.

20%

Ticket Numbers Decreased

20%

increase in cost saving

15%

CSAT Increased by

Reflections

This was my inaugural project at Atos and an enjoyable experience. It provided me with insights into the dynamics of an actual company project. Initially, I was concerned about being unable to solve the problem due to limited employee access. However, it taught me the importance of overcoming obstacles and finding alternative solutions. As a result, I engaged directly with the individuals involved in the PC refresh process, which proved to be a precious asset.