A Statistic Based Analysis System Hits a Home Run

Prepared for the Pittsburgh Pirates:

The Challenge

Provide the Pittsburgh Pirates front-office, Baseball Operations, a more accommodating user experience for their internal efforts; scouting, drafting, trades, archives, and aggregated search experiences. Currently, all team members must locate a IT specialist/developer to run search queries upon making decisions (sometimes immediately) which creates a bottleneck for the Pirates, who are losing their competitive advantage in MLB.

We challenged the Pittsburgh Pirates to generalize domain-knowledge, making it more accessible throughout the organization, enabling for better communication and decision support. We Devised a highly usable drag-and-drop experience to write the lengthiest (and most complex) search query... with absolutely no prior experience. The result was a cutting-edge platform to better support the scouts while on the road, collecting/building and reviewing future-player profiles, ensuring the Pirates are making the most informed, and timely decision in pursuit of their next championship title.

The Results

As a result of understanding the user and business, our team was able to provide a successful self-checkout experience that led to

35%

Reduced Reduced customer checkout time checkout time

Yearly revenue increase with shorter wait times

42%

Reduced workforce resources cost for customer service/support during the self-checkout process

The Team

Product Sponsor/Manager - Informatics

UX Lead

UX Designer

Senior Architect

Senior Developer

Developer

Project Manager

Business Stakeholder(s)

Deliverables

Use Case Analysis & Information Architecture

Mobile Player Interface

Custom Query Generator

The Process

Discovery & Observation

Understand the Business

We hold in-person kickoff meetings to learn the history of the product, and what they know about the problem space and their user base.

Business Goal Identification

Remove Bottlenecks

Users must be able to access and discover information without involving the IT Group.

Easy As Pie

New hires should be able to pick up a tablet and query data like a pro.

Immediate Information

The data must be real-time to be able to negotiate confidently during meetings.

Understand the User

In order to gain insight into the customers needs, we visit business locations and ask users about their experiences.

User Insights & Feedback

Wants

Users desperately wanted a modern looking app that was as easy to use as a smart phone.

Pain Points

Inconsistent terminology in the current app caused confusion and communication issues.

Behaviors

Users were relying on outdated metrics instead of interacting with the current app.

Understand the Product Landscape

To better understand the existing product we document the information architecture, and evaluate the design.

Product Features Identification

Beautiful

Form was well behind function in the app, which made it feel that it was not user friendly.

Portable

A tool you don’t have with you is useless. The data was needed on the go, anywhere.

Prioritized

The application’s information hierarchy did not enable users to receive glanceable knowledge.

Refine the Findings

Utilizing our research, we refine and solidify the project’s focus to better align with business goals and user needs.

Refining Initial Insights

Clarity

Analyzing the current workflow gave insights to how users struggled to complete their goals.

Identification

Identifying roles that hadn’t been discussed prior to the workflow prevented costly rework.

Refinement

Eliminating steps within the information architecture offered users a faster journey.

Synthesize the Findings

Examining our findings with stakeholders provides an opportunity to redetermine business motivation vs. user goals.

Key Features to Design For

What Do They Want?

At the intersection of the desires, we saw the commonalities that everyone could agree to.

Why Do They Want It?

Discussing the “why” behind the asks led us to understand the rationale and the issues.

How Will We Do it?

Synthesizing our findings informed the methods that the solution would require.

Prioritize the Findings

Prioritizing features based on impact vs. cost/time further aligns the project and business teams for the project’s success.

Key Features to Design For

Query Generator

Stakeholders and users agreed that they needed a better method of finding the information they were after.

Mobile Optimization

Offering users the ability to carry around “the keys to the kingdom” in their pockets was wanted, but it had to be fully featured.

Notifications

Users sought notifications when something specific to their role occurred. Adding functionality to the queries could get us there.

Conceptualize the Design

We create rudimentary designs from the workflows and user journeys in order to understand what actions will be available on a screen-by-screen level.

Conceiving the Interface

Visualize

Fleshing out the layout on paper drove us to focus on interaction patterns, and gave us the added benefit of a speedy delivery.

Iterate

Rapidly iterating with paper was easier than a digital interface. Less time spent on drafting ideas meant more flexibility to experiment.

Converge

Bringing together our ideas by merging components of the app through a cut and tape routine collected the best solutions quickly.

Evaluate the Design

By utilizing wireframes within clickable prototypes, we begin to validate and refine what will become the final product.

Fail Fast to Gain Success

Identify Blockers

During our usability testing, we were able to uncover areas where the user was lost or unable to complete their tasks.

Forcing Focus

Not having any fonts or colors to detract from the central focus of the testing meant that we were able to achieve unbiased results.

Invoking Delight

Testing the final prototype yielded the results we were after, users achieved their goals and were delighted by the experience.

Formalize the Design

Adding a final layer of polish by selecting the proper colors and shapes within the interface further enables the users to easily navigate the product to achieve their goals.

Product Design

One of the most challenging aspects of the project lay within the Query Generator. Starting with the current application’s results and working backwards, we were able to understand ways of simplifying the workflow and bring more of a natural language aspect to the product.
‍
Relying on our user survey results, we were able to provide a single phrase or term to each of the attributes that a user may select, with a small collection of alternative terms to help them get adjusted, of course.

Results

10+

Minutes saved per average query

Major trade acquisitions made

65%

Increased scouting visibility

39%

Increase close rate on top-tier deals

* End metrics are considered ballpark/soft estimates being derived from baseline comparisons and computational averages.

A Statistic Based Analysis System Hits a Home Run

The Challenge

The Results

As a result of understanding the user and business, our team was able to provide a successful self-checkout experience that led to

The Team

Deliverables

The Process

Our Process

Discovery & Observation

Understand the Business

We hold in-person kickoff meetings to learn the history of the product, and what they know about the problem space and their user base.

Stakeholder Mapping & Interviews

Business Goal Identification

Understand the User

In order to gain insight into the customers needs, we visit business locations and ask users about their experiences.

User Interviews & Surveys

User Insights & Feedback

Understand the Product Landscape

To better understand the existing product we document the information architecture, and evaluate the design.

Heuristic Analysis

Product Features Identification

Analyze & Define

Refine the Findings

Utilizing our research, we refine and solidify the project’s focus to better align with business goals and user needs.

Workflow Analysis

Refining Initial Insights

Synthesize the Findings

Examining our findings with stakeholders provides an opportunity to redetermine business motivation vs. user goals.

Cause/Needs Analysis

Key Features to Design For

Prioritize the Findings

Prioritizing features based on impact vs. cost/time further aligns the project and business teams for the project’s success.

Cost vs. Impact Analysis

Key Features to Design For

Build & Test

Conceptualize the Design

We create rudimentary designs from the workflows and user journeys in order to understand what actions will be available on a screen-by-screen level.

Paper Prototypes

Conceiving the Interface

Evaluate the Design

By utilizing wireframes within clickable prototypes, we begin to validate and refine what will become the final product.

Usability Testing

Fail Fast to Gain Success

Formalize the Design

Adding a final layer of polish by selecting the proper colors and shapes within the interface further enables the users to easily navigate the product to achieve their goals.

UI Design

Dashboard Design

Mobile Optimization

Product Design

Results