Application staging - Rita Tomé

Overview

The Problem

Automate the continuous delivery process of the customers, making the delivery of a change more predictable, repeatable and auditable. Process delivery automation reduces human error while speeding up the delivery pace.

Key challenge

This was still one of the first projects involved in the creation of a new product, ODC. However, the major challenges faced had to do with understanding how we could be better aligned with industry standards while still providing a low code experience.

My role

Lead a group of UXers (Product Designer, Content Designer and UX/UI Designer) during the execution of this project.

Shared all my product and technical knowledge with the team, which was especially important because none of these UXers had a technical background (necessary to understand what we were designing).

UX Process

🔍

Problem definition

Guided the team through research activities and fine-tuned the initiative with the PM.

Interviewed DevOps experts and Product Managemers to clarify the initiative goals, understand industry standards and define use cases.
Guided the preparation of customer interviews to understand current customer needs regarding the delivery process.
Supported the team and the PM through the creation of an Opportunity-Solution Tree to represent our knowledge and explore solutions.
Conducted desk research including community forums, support tickets, and user feedback
Worked with the PM to refine the scope of the initiative, splitting it into smaller deliveries.

✏️

UX concept

Collaborated with peers to define concepts and create early UX explorations.

Defined set of concepts: identified the relevant concepts for the vision (debugging, troubleshooting, staging, etc.)
Low-fidelity mockups: worked with the team to create early UX explorations to facilitate stakeholder discussions.

🚀

Solution design & delivery

Adapted design according to technical limitations and guided the team through high-fidelity prototyping.

Supported the team in understanding how we could adapt the design according to technical limitations.
Worked with team to define user flows for configuration stages.
Guided team through iterative design process
Ensured design consistency across the broader product vision.
Supported the team in the creation of high-fidelity prototypes and doing usability testing.

Design evolution

Early wireframes and concept explorations that helped align stakeholders on the vision and approach.

Concepts diagram

Affinity diagram

Final design

Key learnings

Effective communication of conceptual models: the approach of communicating conceptual models to ensure alignment with all stakeholders before moving to detailed design was a success.
Strategic tooling is crucial: for detailed design work, Figma should be consistently used for all future initiatives. While design phase in Miro was initially faster, the long-term benefits in terms of clarity, component variation management, and Design System adherence justify the adoption.
Positive collaboration: despite the tooling challenges, there was good feedback and collaboration with the dev teams, who provided valuable input and proposed changes.

Application staging console