Sprink
Empowering union office admin with a modern & streamlined workflow.
Web app
Background
Local Union 669 is a pipe fitters union with 13,00 members. Admin in the office were using an AS400 from the 1980s to manage the members causing data errors, duplicative work, and user & member frustration. We conducted a discovery process to uncover crucial user needs and lay the groundwork for the Sprink MVP.
Role
Lead Product Design, User Interview Facilitation, Product Strategy
Team
Shannon Hosmer, Creative Director
Justin Bend, Product Owner
and more at Mindgrub
Client
Local Union 669
Year
2023 & 2024
Challenge
I needed to "download" a wealth of historical knowledge from an immensely complex and edge-case heavy office process with 10 unique user types, understand how they incorporated an AS400 into that process for the past 40 years, and learn the ins and outs of the AS400 system. My task was to establish the vision of the new product based on required parity functionality and user needs and pain points for product enhancements.
Discovery
I utilized the following research tools to build foundational knowledge:
Jobs to be done
Site map (80+ screens in the AS400!)
Competitor analysis
User interviews with 10 office admin
A fraction of the AS400 chaos sitemap.
User Interview Findings
Pain Points | Needs | Solutions |
|---|---|---|
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Solution
By simply introducing modern paradigms and functionality, the product would streamline users' workflows and ease frustration. I used the culmination of my knowledge from the discovery work to create a new sitemap and preliminary wireframes demonstrating what the tool could be.
Users could work from a single centralized location whether a table, a member's profile, or a contractor's profile instead of navigating through 10+ screens to find information they needed throughout the AS400.
Information in one part of the system like Funds and Payments would be reflected in another part of the system like the Member Profile funds and payments, instead of requiring isolated data entry into both locations.
The client was elated with the potential of how much easier their lives would be with the new product. They signed a contract to move forward with the MVP.
MVP Phase
At the beginning of the MVP phase, I assisted in user story creation because of my uniquely close understanding of the current AS400 system and user workflows.
Near the end of the MVP design work, I was brought back onto the project to design the dashboard experience, non-member and unemployment workflows, as well as re-designed the funds & payments in the member profile to make it easier to understand a member's standing at-a-glance.
The design system was robust at this point in the project, so I leveraged it to move directly to high-fidelity designs and bypass low-fidelity wireframes.
The dashboard would feed the user information they currently needed to seek out through numerous reports down cumbersome workflows. The new functionality would save users hours of time per week.
