Reworking A Workflow - A UX Case Study

The Brief & Background

The Global Marketing Communications (MarCom) department of VENTANA Medical systems, also known as Roche Tissue Diagnostics, had to adhere to FDA record keeping while supporting a new global dissemination website, internal tracking needs and an internal document review board. The issue was that each of these needs also had it’s own tracking system.

The workflow was made up of:

• The Action Tracker 1.0 – the old project tracking system
• Document Control Review (DRC) – a process with a corresponding form
• Print-on-Demand site – a site to be populated with approved marketing materials, a corresponding process that included a paper form and Google doc content handoff

Action Tracker 1.0 was built to produce project tracking numbers, a necessity for FDA and trademark compliance. Assigning team members to projects and tracking deadlines were other key functions of Action Tracker. Since Action Tracker was first put into place, two important process changes had been added to the workflow.

The first process change was the Document Review Control (DRC) process. The DRC process is a document review committee reviewing for trademarks, FDA compliances, and branding. After DRC approval, an appointed admin had to clear documents for public consumption which was done manually. A lawyer, regulatory member, content owner, designer, and a MarCom Manager all had to hand sign the same approval documentation which was then reviewed by the DRC admin and approved for dissemination.

The second process change was the addition of our print-on-demand vendor. Printing-on-demand provided access to international affiliates to customize documents for their regions, change document languages, trademark restrictions based on country, obtain new DRC approval, and print their pieces locally.

The existing workflow had massive amounts of duplicated input which was all hand-keyed information.

What I Did

I worked with James from IT and Suzanne, our print-on-demand internal coordinator, to consolidate, automate, and streamline these overlapping processes. We rebuilt, tested and fine-tuned a new project tracking system – Action Tracker 2.0.

I came up with the project to present to my manager and department head. Working as the project lead, I designed the information architecture, the UI skin, tested the experience with our department (the end users) and implemented the changes found during testing.

I designed an automated workflow change that allowed the DRC admin to notify the MarCom team (with one mouse click) that a file was approved for dissemination. I also redesigned the vendor workflow. Giving our vendors a custom view of Action Tracker 2.0 removed the need for duplicated input. Incorporating the vendor’s view was a big part of the information architecture design. I ensured that our file management was FDA compliant while providing the vendors with what they needed in keeping with our key goals.

I worked with Suzanne on the Action Tracker 1.0 site audit. We also audited the print-on-demand site. Through a series of mindmaps our department reviewed, edited and came to an approved navigation for the print-on-demand dissemination site. James taught Suzanne and I about the capabilities of the two Sharepoint versions which resulted in more automation. I gave presentations throughout the rebuild process, building trust with our department leadership team and subsequent buy-in. Suzanne and I provided training for Action Tracker 2.0 and the new version of Sharepoint.

Key Tools and Deliverables

• Sharepoint
• Google docs
• Microsoft Excel
• Freemind mindmapping
• Training
• Progress readout presentations
• UI/UX design and testing
• Action Tracker 2.0
• Print-on-demand site navigation
• Content owner meta-data collection form

The Team

Clients – Global Marketing Communications department
Print-on-demand coordinator – Suzanne Vorrie
IT developer and partner – James Campion
UI/UX designer and project lead representative – Gianna Biocca

 The Results

Action Tracker 2.0 was a streamlined project tracking system that eliminated the Vendor’s Google Docs information hand-off, the walking around with a paper DRC approval form, inputting duplicated hand-keyed information, and removed the errors that go along with hand-keyed information.

Fully automated action tracker numbers, email-able metadata forms, populating information, cascading project timelines, DRC approval notifications, dropdown print-on-demand navigation options, linking to the folder on the server and individually customizable dashboards completely changed the work-flows and gave back huge amounts of time to the Global Marketing and Communication department.

Testimonials

“Thank you Gianna! Excellent work in continuing to simplify and add accuracy through automation.”

– Department head

“Gianna displayed focus and passion, knowing that the value would be realized fully upon experiencing the solution. She saw the bigger picture and kept that in mind for everyone. Action Tracker 2.0 improved the efficiency and effectiveness of the team.”

– Manager