UX Requests

Owned by Rachael Mink
Jul 25, 2020
3 min read

Problem statements

  1. Requests come into the team in various ways and is disorganized

  2. Requests don’t have all the information

  3. Hard to see all the requests at the same time

  4. Not everyone’s on the same page with what happens next

  5. People are unclear of our turnaround times

  6. Priorities are not clear, they shift and it’s hard to keep track of them

  7. People are not sure where to put tickets that are on hold

  8. There’s not a good way to identify what tickets are roadblocked

  9. There’s an issue with the process but there’s no clear way to fix it on future projects

  10. It’s not clear where new projects should live

Receiving Requests

Current ways to submit a request

  • Drive-by

  • Email

  • IM

  • Request in comment in an existing ticket

  • Meeting

  • Teams call

  • Anything goes

New way to submit a request

  • Request form (solves problem 1)

Request Form

This is a test form that will be built out eventually in Service Now after we determine the correct questions and conditions for those questions. Review the test form here. (solves problem 2)

Request Flow Outline

  1. Product Owner or UX team member fills out form in Service Now and hits submit. (solves problem 1)

    1. Request becomes a ticket in Jira and goes into a backlog

    2. Fields of information are mapped between request and new ticket

    3. Notification gets sent to appropriate people on UX team

  2. Confirmation email is sent to requestor that includes a standard response time plus a list of expectations/next steps. (helps to solve problem 5)

  3. Laurie? has 1 business day? to review. (Maybe we have a recurring evening review time or morning review, or weekly for any new requests, create structure) (helps to solve problem 5)

  4. The request is prioritized/weighted amongst others in the backlog

  5. A project review meeting is scheduled to review the request with the requestor (includes researcher and designer depending on the work)

  6. A project plan document is created before the project meeting takes place in Confluence in the Team/UX Home/UX Projects folder. Information is taken from the request and placed into the project plan document. (solves problem 10)

  7. During the project review meeting the project plan document is reviewed and information is added to it. Initial epic and tickets are planned and timelines are established, touchpoints are scheduled. All of this information goes into the project plan document. (helps to solve problem 4 and 5)

  8. Initial tickets are created in Jira and added to a new or existing Epic

    1. This can be automated based on predetermined trigger

  9. Tickets are placed in the To Do area of the backlog when they are ready to be worked. Tickets in the To Do section are rearranged based on priority.

  10. When a Researcher or Designer is ready to begin work, he/she moves the ticket into the In Progress column on the Jira board. (helps to solve problem 5)

    1. A status update is required at least every 2 business days on each ticket to help keep everyone informed on the progress.

    2. If there is a Roadblock the ticket must be flagged and an explanation must be given. A person must be identified who is responsible for fixing the roadblock. An estimation of when the roadblock might be alleviated is posted to the ticket. (solves problem 8)

    3. If work is put On Hold for the unforeseeable future, the ticket should be placed back into the backlog and flagged with an explanation. If work is put On Hold temporarily, it should go back into the To Do column and flagged with an explanation. (solves problem 7)

  11. As time goes by and work is completed, pre-established touchpoint meetings should be occurring. (helps to solve problem 4)

    1. At the touchpoint meeting

      1. the project plan should be updated with any changes

      2. additional tasks should be identified and added to the project plan document

      3. additional tickets should be created and prioritized in the Jira backlog

      4. if the additional tickets in Jira are ready to be worked they should be placed in order of priority in the To Do section of the backlog

      5. the next touchpoint meeting should be determined and scheduled

  12. Depending on how often we find our priorities shifting, there should be a priority meeting taking place to review all work in the queue on a recurring basis (solves problem 3)

  13. Backlog grooming should also be taking place on a recurring basis (helps to solve problem 6)

  14. Once all work is complete, a retro is scheduled.

  15. After the retro is complete, any SOPs are updated with changes and processes are improved moving forward. (solves problem 9)