Background

Who: an international, Fortune 500 construction equipment company (NDA)

What: A brand new digital back-office tool, gathering remote data from construction equipment

Product Goal: Incorporate safety data into a productivity data-focused tool

Initial Questions: Who will use this tool? What is needed? How will we solve user needs? Is this even valuable? How do users even comprehend safety data?

I played the roles of lead researcher, interview moderator, and data analyst. I conducted virtual interviews with users based all over the world, and provided a report out that worked as the foundation for the ongoing development of the safety tool.

Note: Many details of this project are concealed behind an NDA agreement. I’d be happy to talk about my work here in more detail! Just send me a message.

Method & Goals

Research Goals:

develop a safety persona
understand mental models regarding safety data
understand user expectations and tool requirements
continually meet with users over the course of a year

Research Method: virtual interviews with international users

recurring interviews with users in a variety of roles kept engagement fresh and allowed for continual opportunities as other questions came up in the development process
those recurring interviews also allowed for a building rapport with the users, allowing for much more nuanced and forthcoming data

Tools: Microsoft Teams (for interviews), Figma (for prototypes), Google Forms (for surveys), Excel (for managing qualitative & quantitative data across the team)

Research Takeaways & Impact

Users understand safety data to include: data coming from machines (seatbelt compliance, over-speeds, etc), slip & fall event data, safety meeting data, etc.

Takeaway

Communicated the need to stakeholders that users expect more than just machine data; they’re expecting a tool that collects and synthesizes relevant data from multiple sources.

Impact

Safety data is fundamentally different than productivity data (eg: one single piece of safety data has far more weight than one of productivity. Both are helpful in a larger context to understand general trends, but safety data can involve a person’s life).

Takeaway

Impact

Pushed stakeholders to consider safety data as a “sibling” to productivity data, rather than a twin.

Different roles within an organization interact with safety data in different ways, but everyone touches upon it to some capacity.

Takeaway

Developed a new persona for the digital tool: Safety Professional. Further added safety responsibilities to existing personas such as Foreman and Jobsite Supervisor.

Impact

Data needs to be actionable. Numbers in a spreadsheet do nothing to impact change.

Takeaway

Developed an information architecture structure and data presentation method to be as actionable as possible, supporting culture improvement and business decisions.

Impact

Overall Impact

This research set the foundation for the organization’s expansion into safety tools. The voice of the user created the bedrock for growth.

Stakeholders at multiple levels of the client’s organization expressed the value of this research and particularly my contributions and analysis.

With the recurring cadence, ongoing research with an expanded user group is in the works.

It was my honor to support such a large organization lay the groundwork for safer construction sites.

Have any further questions about this project? I’m happy to elaborate on my methods and experience. Please reach out!