The company was developing new business reasons to continue the 20+ year program effort. Due to challenges with the aging software architecture and antiquated interface, we were up against an insurmountable challenge. I volunteered to get in front of the users...in Afghanistan. I was welcomed with open arms by the people serving there. They knew I was there to help our program team understand their challenges. The two software engineers and I interviewed countless users and logged hundreds of heuristic hours on the system. Every day I sent issue logs back to our technical team in Alabama. Upon returning, my recommendations and user concepts kept the program running. It also sent the application in a new direction, receiving hundreds of millions in new funding from the customer. Three of my direct reports had new UI work that lasted for years.
First day in Afhanistan
Personas overview
Awaiting user availability
Users and roles identified
Daily field work
User work environment
Adverse field conditions
User concepts captured
