Leadership approached our team with an ask:
how might we create a tool to assess how things are going within product teams across Ford?
how might we create a tool to assess how things are going within product teams across Ford?
Discovery
Our team (myself as product designer, a product manager, and two software engineers) began by collecting data on the existing research done in this problem space. How were teams currently evaluating themselves, if at all? Were they keeping track of whether things were improving, worsening, or staying the same, and how?
I drafted research plans around our assumptions and questions, and conducted discovery interviews with 10 teams across departments, including AV, D-Ford, GDIA, and others.
From this, we learned a few things:
(1) Some teams were using existing tools in creative, yet inefficient ways to evaluate how they were doing
(2) Some teams weren't measuring at all
(3) Teams that were measuring weren't confident they were getting good data
(4) Trust is hard to build and keep among team members
(5) Individuals fear misuse or misrepresentation of data and feedback
(6) Overall, there was a desire for something to allow open communication and alignment on ways to improve both sentiment and productivity
Goals
We decided on a few goals for our product:
(1) Create a tool to measure team health
(2) Enable psychological safety
(3) Allow for capture of action items
(4) Make it fun and easy to use
Additional Research
We did some competitive analysis with six existing tools in this problem space to identify what worked well, what was missing, and how we could create something better for less cost.
After Many Iterations...
I conducted extensive usability testing, contextual inquiry, and input from 28 teams across 14 organizations and 3 countries. These lead to numerous iterations based on user feedback. I designed this product mobile-first, as the primary use case would be on mobile phones in an office setting to preserve privacy, with a primary desktop screen shared for discussion in the room.
Today
Today, Vibez is a popular tool still used regularly by 500+ teams in 12 countries across Ford.