Designing WFM Software

Introduction

In my role as the Product Owner (PO) at Stratex, a scale-up business specializing in Workforce Management, I had the opportunity to lead the redesign of one of the key dashboards, called Forecast. The primary objective of this dashboard was to accurately predict the upcoming demand within a company, enabling efficient staffing and capacity management. To achieve this, I focused on incorporating cyclical data patterns from the past year and integrating "drivers" – factors that explain deviations from the predicted path, such as surges or dips in demand.

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About the vision piece

To provide a clear vision for the software development team, I created a high-fidelity mock-up of the redesigned Forecast dashboard. This prototype showcased the desired enhancements and features. In order to develop this mock-up, I conducted in-depth interviews with various stakeholders, including the existing Product Owner, algorithm experts, former employees from competing software providers, and current users of the dashboard. Through these interviews, I gained insights into their workflows, identified pain points, and gathered their wishes for improvements. I translated these findings into actionable User Stories, which formed the basis of our backlog.

Features

The click-through mock-up that I created encompassed several key features and functionalities. It included a welcome screen that facilitated quick access to previously worked-on forecasts, a dashboard for opening and saving specific forecasts, a panel for importing data, a user interface for managing graph displays, a data optimization panel that guided users through anomaly detection and suggested corrective actions, a baseline pattern prediction UI, a tool for suggesting drivers (influencing factors), and a driver settings panel.

Reception by the Management Team

Upon presenting the vision mock-up to the Management Team, it was well-received. However, due to financial and organizational constraints, only a fraction of the envisioned features could be implemented. Nevertheless, I take pride in the design work, as it successfully simplified a highly complex workflow, transforming it into a user-friendly and intuitive process.

Personal thought

Overall, my role as the PO in redesigning the Forecast dashboard for Stratex involved extensive research, collaboration with key stakeholders, and the creation of a comprehensive mock-up. Despite the limitations faced during implementation, I am proud of the outcome, as it streamlined a critical workflow, making it more accessible and efficient for users.

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