Service Design & Development
Developing a Rapid Requirements Gathering Approach
My team and I developed and matured a rapid requirements gathering methodology that leveraged best practices from psychology, learning theory, flow theory, user experience, and the value of play. Cornerstone to this process was the iRise prototyping tool. The methodology was widely adopted throughout agencies within the US Government and other private clients as a pre-agile method that allowed business units to achieve consensus and deep understanding rapidly and accurately. Clients reported that utilizing this methodology allowed them to develop their products in 2/3 of the time they had planned with 50% or greater reduction in defects/rework.
Building and Launching an Enterprise Taxonomy
My organization was interested in improving the field experience of the sales team members, starting with improvements in reporting and access to data. I was selected to lead the cross-functional team to figure out how to make that happen. We soon realized that the root cause was lack of consistency in vocabulary and I proposed we tackle a taxonomy effort as a first step. I then led the effort to create and launch the organization’s first enterprise taxonomy which has been applied to numerous internal and externally-facing systems. That effort also spawned the organization’s first successful enterprise governance program for taxonomy management and has also overseen the development of additional metadata sets that further describe our business.
Designing and Launching Design Thinking Across the Enterprise - Virtually
Design Thinking is a powerful tool when applied properly. I had developed a Design Thinking methodology and was looking for opportunities to apply it within the organization to get people on board. When COVID started, the President and COO of the organization came to me with a challenge to think about how we could provide services differently. It was the perfect application for Design Thinking. I led the weeklong virtual effort that spawned 5 fantastic ideas that are now in various stages of development across the organization and launched 15 new design thinkers who are now educating their peers.
Creating Healthy Moments for Employees Using Music
Through Design Thinking, I partnered with a client to identify ways to increase health on their campus. We dove into the benefits of access to music as a way to decrease stress and improve concentration. We developed the “Music Moment” and won funding to bring it to life. The Music Moment was a periodic pop-up live musical performance provided by this client’s employees and vendors. Those on campus were invited to the Music Moment for a brief interlude by a talented performer as a way to get them up from their desks, moving around and de-stressing.