Dispatchr Web

Background

Dispatchr is the world’s most sophisticated grid resilience software, providing predictive analytics, mobile fleet management, and integrated weather, vegetation and grid impact analysis for the electrical utility industry.

The Project

One of the core tools for managing workorders is the Dispatchr web app. A place to see progress made, distribute work orders, view data and alerts, and so much more.

The Problem

Provide a way for customers to  easily track and report on operations

My Role & The Team

Lead designer working alongside 1 PM and 6 engineers from 2015-2017

Background

Dispatchr is the world ’s most sophisticated grid resilience software, providing predictive analytics, mobile feet management, and weather analysis for the electrical utility industry.
Dispatchr's software sits on both desktops and mobile devices. The desktop application at the time of joining, lacked critical functionality such as seeing progress or managing projects in detail.

Problems facing

When we kicked off efforts to improve the core application,  we first defined a few key areas that the product should be able to support and scale from. These 3 topics are Resource allocation, Connecting Data, and removing human error as much as possible.

Resource allocation
Utilities struggle to keep track of their field workers. Especially during a storm, where it might take hours for the right person to arrive at the site, it’s essential to move people predictively to the right spot before the issues happen.
Unconnected data
Utilities make every effort to consolidate multiple data sources: internal, operational, and external. Retrieving and analyzing the data leaves gaps and teams fail to communicate with each other efficiently.
Human error
Utilities process data and resource allocation in time consuming and manual ways. Spreadsheets, emails, and pen-and-paper took the responsibility of managing thousands of people and tens of thousands of square miles of coverage area. Errors are rampant — and costly.

Exploration

Alongside helping define core problem areas to focus on, we also worked together to help define what issues exisit with current frontend architecture and how we can architect a solid foundation to scale from.

The biggest was how we can take assigning capabilites and also inject ways to view progress and editing data into a system that was already complex.

Rebuilding Assigning Capabilities

When we first started, the product was really only targeting one of these topics, Resource allocation. But even for resource allocation the capabilities were limited. You could only assign a entire power line/project to a crew member or company. This wasn't efficient given the needs communicated from the field as some lines or projects were so massive that most of the time multiple companies would be working simultaneously at different angles. As a result we went to the drawing board and looked at how we could allow for not just batch assigning but also the ability to assign very particular segments of a line or project.

Introducing Progress Tracking

One of the single biggest requests we got from clients was for the ability to track how teams and individual crew members were performing on a daily basis. Before Dispatchr this was all done via pen and paper in the field. Resulting in numerous false reports, and missed critical information.

So as a result we talked with the team leads about what really were they really wanting to track and keep tabs on. The two biggest requests we got were 1) how much has been completed in given timeframes, 2) what was the daily amount accomplished both at a macro and micro level, 3) When were teams taking time off, being overworked, and much more.

As a result we came up with a single dashboard that they could reference daily to see where things are at. From this daskk

Introducing Editing Capabilities

As we kept communicating with those working in the field and at headquarters, Another top request was the ability to have a single platform that they can not only assign and track work from, but also modify data easily. As a result we looked at how this could fit within the architecture easily. As a result we looked into leveraging how we were setting up assignment to also support editing information. This allowed for reduction of new interfaces as well as support additional ways to drill down.
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