Tech Scout is a Social Network Platform for Government & Industry Leaders

OVERVIEW

Tech Scout is a social-network platform where government and industry leaders can freely exchange emerging technology solutions to complex problems.

My team consisted of designers, developers, and a project manager. We met multiple times weekly to collaborate, create artifacts, and critique our work.

PROBLEM

A lack of collaboration between government and industry hinders the free flow of information, stifling emerging technologies' adoption and growth.

Government Leaders

Prevented from solving complex problems because of lack of time and resources
Waste time searching for the wrong technology solutions
Unable to benefit from new technologies in the industry
Limited by the current structure, which impedes innovation

Industry Professionals

Encounter frequent barriers to entry into government, which prevents sharing of technologies, skills, and capabilities
Waste time chasing the wrong buyers who aren’t ready or interested
Unable to benefit from ample opportunities in government
Limited by the current structure, which impedes innovation

Design Process

Research & Understanding

This project required a lot of user research due to the complexity of the domain. Interviewing subject matter experts and collaborating as a team was crucial and enabled us to create various artifacts to further our understanding.

Discovering Users

Before beginning the design process, the first step was researching the users and understanding their goals.

Tech Scouts

Government personnel that seek out new technologies to benefit the DoD.

Goals:

Discover innovative technologies
Make connections
Share technologies within DoD

Technology Holders

Small Businesses that develop technologies to sell to the DoD.

Goals:

Promote technologies
Make connections
Find partnerships

Interviews

Once I understood the end users and their goals, it was time to dig deeper.

We met weekly with a Tech Scout to elicit information about his day-to-day workflow and take note of the pain points. Understanding the flaws in his current workflow helped us think of possible feature ideas to support his needs.

As a team, we had collaboration sessions multiple times weekly to debrief these interviews and develop new questions. We also created various artifacts to help aid the conversations and fill in the gaps in our understanding.

Scenario Timelines

Scenario timelines were one of the first artifacts I helped create. The timelines were from the Tech Scout perspective and the Small Business perspective. Understanding each step in their workflow helped us understand how the tool will fit in and how it will benefit the current process.

Personas

After getting feedback on the scenarios and confirming that they were accurate, we moved on to Personas to record each user's goals, pain points, and room for improvement.

Identifying Key Features

After having a background knowledge of the users and their needs, we identified the critical features needed to support them.

Connections

Make it easy for Tech Scouts and other government users to find innovative technologies and connect with small businesses.

Advertising

Give small businesses a platform to promote their technologies to the DoD.

Sharing

Enable small businesses and government users to share technologies inside and outside the tool.

Sketches & Wireframes

After the problem, roles, workflow, and critical features were defined, we could move on to the ideation phase.

It took many rounds of sketching and ideating for each page. Sketching primarily in lower fidelity allowed us to get feedback on our work faster before moving into high-fidelity prototypes.

User Flows

Once all the pages were identified, I created user flows to help communicate with the developers. Below is a sample of a user flow I created for onboarding.