HYBRID HAUL TRUCK ANALYTICS for TRIAL MANAGER
PRODUCT DEFINITION
Analytics dashboard focuses on operation optimization of Hybrid Electric Mining Haul Truck.
SYNOPSIS
COMPANY / CLIENT
First Mode
ROLE
Lead User Researcher
CROSS FUNCTIONAL TEAMS
Product Management | Software Product Development | Project Management
BACKGROUND & CONTEXT
Video by ©Camille Woodthorpe
First Mode is a decarbonization company focusing on aiding the Mining Industry to cut down fossil fuel use. The company is proposing a HEV Trial Development Program on customer site that converts existing diesel haul trucks to utilize hybrid diesel-electric power instead. The resulting truck becomes a Hybrid Electric Vehicle, often referred to as HEV.
Given this will be the first time the mine is co-developing with a product company like First Mode on a Beta Product Trial Program, we will need a tool to help us monitor its Performance & improve the Product itself.
Help define what are the various factors that First Mode’s Trial Manager needs to monitor in order to ensure the Hybrid Truck is performing its Haul Operations just like its diesel counterpart.
Tool for Trial Program Improvement services so the HEV truck will have the initial kinks worked out
Main interface connecting Customers and their feedback to Product Design.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
CHALLENGES & CONCERNS
1. WHAT ARE THE USE CASE SCENARIOS?
Which truck functionalities are going to be affected by our retrofit hybrid kit?
2. WHO ARE THE STAKEHOLDERS / USERS
Who are the major stakeholders that will help ensure the trial truck hit its operational targets?
3. WHAT ARE THE SOLUTION CONCEPTS?
What are the procedures that needs to be in place to ensure Trial Truck remains operational?
APPROACH
Influenced by Design Thinking methodology of the Double Diamond Model, the approach is simply:
HYPOTHESIZE > PROCESS > TOOLS > ENGAGE & TEST
In this case, we’ll be taking our preliminary understanding of Personas, Journey Maps, Mockups and verifying them with users.
Much like the hypothesis, I often do a pre-audit of existing knowledge & then compose preliminary drafts of research target collateral just so there is a framework as we proceed with interviews & other research methodologies.
PRELIMINARY DRAFTS
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Understand and empathize with the user, looking into typical traits & approaches to their responsibilities
Their context will help us understand how receptive & appropriate the various solutions are.
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Visually outline the activities the User goes through.
Representation of Day | Week | Month in the life of User is like.
Provides conversation background to overlay various Hypothetical Solutions & simulate its effectiveness.
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Illustrations help make proposed approaches more relate-able,
Show elements previously not considered
Individual moveable icons empowers audience to revise & come up with their own POV.
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Visually mockup dialog topics to facilitate quicker understanding.
Elements can be moved digitally to represent User's priority of features. Exercise is similar to Card Sorting.
The main truck functionalities to monitor are the following; the analytics dashboard should reflect these as metrics to monitor
Digital Data Telemetry // Thermal Management // Control System // Maintenance/Service
FINDINGS & ANALYSIS
ON MINE SITE
Maintenance + Service
Shift Supervisor
Major stakeholders breaks down to two groups:
FIRST MODE DEVELOPMENT HQ
Product Development Engineer - Hardware
Product + Services Designer - Digital
There are already procedures, Failure Collection & Root Cause Analysis, outlined by First Mode Engineers to record service & repair related feedback.
IMPACT
CUSTOMER
Feels reassured that the customer support of trial program is being addressed; lack of customer support has been a historical fail point with past 3rd party venders.
SITE TRIAL MANAGEMENT - First Mode
Enriched road-map of the necessary stakeholders and processes necessary for a successful Trial Program.
SITE SUPPORT PERSONNEL - Customer
Glad trial program details are being worked out this early on. Past experience is that new technologies have been forcibly introduced without much warning.
RESEARCH
The newly identified Users Needs helps in defining the next phase of the Research Plan & action items.
Since there were many stakeholders and processes uncovered, I worked with the Site Trial Manager to devise next steps.
ACTION ITEMS
IMMEDIATE
Use Case Scenario Diagram
illustrate real world situations
identify issues that needs resolution
highlight gaps that are tailor-made for Digital Product resolution
NEAR-TERM
Evolve Digital Products
As we gain more user input, how does the Digital Products & UI evolve to resolve new issues and challenges.
Though the research was straight forward, we did discover an essential need for Stakeholder Alignment through story boarding. It was great to have product development teammates understand that align on the use case scenario is key, prior to designing (Digital) resolutions.
