Problem

How might we support Amazonians through proactive measures so that an unexpected hardware failure can be avoided or mitigated.

Goal: Offer Amazonians a chance to take preemptive measures if problems are self-serviceable or navigate them to the proper help

Process

  1. We started off by understanding our problem space and the resources that we had at hand. Going in to the project, we knew we had access to a variety of computer telemetry data and had an initial idea of using that data to predict an issue a computer is having.
  2. We then conducted research with two user groups, IT support engineers and Amazonians, both through surveys and interviews. We found that Amazonians felt that a lot of their time was being wasted troubleshooting and not knowing whether an issue is self-serviceable or not. IT support engineers were frustrated because they had to meet handling quota, people coming in with issues that were self-serviceable, and needing to context gather on the spot.
  3. After our research, we began narrowing in on an idea of a prediction model that would take user device data and predict what is happening to their computer. This would mean that whenever a user is experiencing an issue, they would be able to press a button and run the prediction model. After the prediction comes out, users will be given a root cause prediction with articles to follow if the problem is self-serviceable or who to go to for help if the issue is not self-serviceable. We also were leaning towards a kiosk as our form factor which would host this interaction.
  4. We then had a meeting with our stakeholders and recognized that a Slack form factor may be more appropriate for our solution, as well as attempting to make a Slack bot that would send proactive messages regarding a potential issue a user may have.

My Contributions/Learnings

  • Help the discovery and scoping of our project through drafting user surveys and interview scripts, to then helping conduct interviews
  • Ideation regarding product form - creating digital mocks of what our product can look like on different form factors, mainly slack.
  • Navigate the team through completing capstone assignments, making sure that they meet the rubric.
  • Project direction and validation should come from testing

Team Contributions

  • Scoping the project skill wise to ensure everything was doable based on the skill set we have as a team.
  • Completing Capstone assignments
  • Meetings and presentations with stakeholders regarding capstone progress.

Takeaways

Validation is important throughout your whole design journey and prescribing a form factor too early may impede on your progress.

Next Steps

  1. Refine the user experience of our Slack MVP through user testing.
  2. Connect the front end with the back end and model to have a working product.

Keep in touch!