Research Project

Update by Joe, as of 14th October 2015

TEMP:

PPT - https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1CovhX6SBTKmvQsDJqF1WQEjRhF_NOO1RSVKmIOysYYQ/edit?usp=sharing

Video : https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/18928235/Joe_UCD_Video.divx



The Rules

The goal of the project is "...will undertake an analysis of a pre-existing, real system and propose a redesign of the system, describing how your chosen product-system was-is-and-should-be".

There are other things to consider, "You take the perspective of the technology product/project manager.  This will entail a report detailing the (1) usability of the current system and (2) a proposal to update, enhance, and/or redesign the system, using mock-ups or prototypes. Your proposal should consider aspects such as target users, market and competition, value, operational considerations, and feasibility.

Furthermore, I will "..choose a real-world system that contains a significant software component" So I need to select a technology which I am familiar. The question for me is if I select a technology product I am familiar with from my working life, or if I look at something like the AirBnB payments system or another aspect of a popular product. I will detail those thoughts here!

Introduction

There once was a successful FinTech company. This company started small and grew rapidly as success somewhat overwhelmed it. One of the areas which got left behind was a CRM system for the company. A clever solution was that a system was sourced from one of the largest cloud-based companies out there, Salesforce.Com. The decision was taken to take advantage of the Apex-based programming options that SalesForce provide to clients, to enable them customise their systems.

As the company grew, so too the amount of customization of the system. What was often lacking was someone asking why we were doing something a given way. We had a lot of badly thought out solutions to badly thought out problems. As such parts of the system began to resemble Frankenstein!

Eventually, the design and performance of the system was highlighted by a number of internal and external people, and as such we had to take some action.

The Project

I'm going to focus my project on looking at the effect of those customizations we made to our SalesForce system. Do we have a scenario where we have short-term gain, at the expense of long-term pain. This will require several kinds of analysis. We need to look at how the agents are using the system. We need to see how long their actions are taking, and compare them to industry metrics. We also should look at some of the process flows within the system, and see if that is optimal. We also need to examine what the cost of these customizations have been [if possible] and maybe compare that to using a more vanilla system.

So our process improvement journey starts with some solid analysis on what the problems are, a sneak peak of which are shown here :)

We furthermore need to look at the system performance. This shall also involve an analysis of the work done by agents on the system. When different agents are performing common actions, how long does it take? Are there choke points in the system which slows down things happening, and as such gives customers a bad experience.

We need to look at one more thing. That is when some things in the system have not worked, what was the result. At times we learn that we are not always agents what they require. A number of unintended workarounds are informally in place. This is a failure of both the system and of process. We need to conduct some analysis on these items, and see what recommendations we would make, in terms of preventing such things occurring in future.