Goals
Process
I led the Service Design team's efforts to evaluate and provide recommendations for improving this critical touchpoint. From start to finish, this initiative took four weeks to complete.
Created the research plan and conversation guide
Conducted 1:1 moderated research sessions with four platform teams, representing a range of experience with the Design Intent process.
Invited participants from various roles, including Product Managers, Tech Leads, Designers, Researchers, and Content Strategists.
Planned and led synthesis sessions with the Service Design team to map user journeys, identify shared and role-specific pain points, and aggregate improvement recommendations.
Result
Study Findings
Although documentation for Design Intent already existed, the process felt scattered across multiple tools (GitHub, Slack, Calendly), which increased cognitive load
Many teams saw Design Intent as intimidating or redundant until they participated and learned that it was friendly and collaborative
Teams valued feedback but wanted clearer expectations and simpler steps upfront
What We Delivered
Journey maps: Individual journey maps per level of experience, and a journey map for shared attributes
Synthesized challenges and insights
Actionable recommendations
A readout deck to brief stakeholders and socialize findings with other VA.gov Platform teams
Impact
Our insights directly informed improvements to the Design Intent and Staging Review processes. The Governance team responded quickly to implement changes based on our findings.
Shared Insights user journey in progress