HP

Project Overview

The project aimed to design and develop a web suite application for HP Inc.’s CS NA, located in Costa Rica.

The primary goal was to create new applications and enhance and unify the existing collection of solutions to provide better customer service and reduce operational costs.

My Contributions

As the Product designer and Business Analytics Developer, I designed and developed the unified web suite, conducted user-centered research, created wireframes and prototypes, automated processes, integrated real-time reporting, facilitated user testing, and gathered feedback to ensure the project’s success and efficiency.

The Organization

Costa Rica’s Customer Service North America is an HP Inc. organization dedicated to addressing customer inquiries and issues, ensuring satisfaction, and fostering positive relationships through efficient, responsive support and problem resolution.

The main goal of this organization is to repair HP hardware, including computers and printers, by efficiently managing the process from customer calls to on-site repair.

The primary roles within this organization include:

• Field engineers, physically located in North America, handle on-site hardware repairs for customers.
• Dispatchers are responsible for answering calls, creating cases, and managing parts to ensure quick repairs.
• Supervisors manage key performance indicators (KPIs), oversee the performance of dispatchers, and continuously work to improve processes.

Background

The organization needed someone to automate manual tasks and improve the solutions dispatchers created to make their lives easier.

I started a tool called Discovery Event Management to mitigate data delays and other issues. Working closely with subject matter experts, I identified numerous unmet needs and manual processes that required automation.

I have designed and created several software solutions, but these many solutions became problematic. Multiple users complained about the number of tools they had to use, which led me to develop a responsive web application suite following a User-Centered Design approach to address these issues.

The primary objective was to design a solution that unified various tools and processes, reducing redundancy and operational inefficiencies. Specific goals included:

• Improving operational efficiency by unifying the case creation processes for the East and West teams.
• Designing a tool for easy case creation in a local database.
• Reducing duplicate information and tasks.
• Implementing smart case assignment and optimal dispatch routing.

Research and Analysis

• Conducted 5 user interviews per feature to understand pain points and needs.
• Performed a competitive analysis to identify best practices.
• Using a System Usability Scale (SUS) I gathered user feedback through a detailed questionnaire. I analyzed open-ended responses to identify areas for improvement and new requirements.
• Mapped the existing processes and identified areas for automation and improvement.

Design

• Created wireframes on a whiteboard, during brainstorming sessions and focus groups. These groups included end users, subject matter experts, and stakeholders.
• Enhanced the wireframes and converted them into digital format.
• Collected feedback and, once approved, developed functional prototypes. Then, end users tested them to gather more feedback before moving on to the development phase.
• Developed a design system adhering to HP’s style guide to save time and effort designing and developing the product while keeping it consistent.

• Unified five tools into a single application, significantly improving user experience and satisfaction.
• Reduced case creation time from 12 to 5 minutes, enhancing efficiency. It means reducing a 41.6% call centers’ average handle time KPI.
• Removed 100% local data error versus the CRM data thanks to automating the case creation and eliminating the copy/paste step of every case field from the call center.
• Data is centralized in a SQL database instead of scattered in different tools like Excel, Sharepoint, or Google Forms. It improves accessibility and scalability for future features.
• Improved real-time reporting capabilities, reducing NPS impacts and enhancing customer support and satisfaction. One of the reports saved over $9M per year in waste because of the data analytics and insights it provides and how easy it is to access and understand.
• Achieved 100% user satisfaction with the Event Management feature.
• Delivered continuous improvements based on user feedback, leading to substantial cost savings and operational enhancements.
• Evergreen achieved 0 process errors because some people followed the established process and regularly checked the tool for any process updates. However, other people made some mistakes because they did not  check the tool for process changes or did not adhere to all steps of the process.
• Smart Dispatch created a more intelligent way of sending field engineers to repair cases by grouping cases by calculating the minimum travel distances, suggesting possible parts needed to reduce the number of trips to the part pickup points, and suggesting shorter routes in time, distance, and cost. This solution increased a 22% the repair interventions per day, reduced a 55% the average travel time, reduced a 63% the maximum travel distance, and saved $3 M.
• The project was so successful that I even presented the product and its results to the HP EMEA (Europe Middle East Africa) director, who considered implementing the tool and the process.