Field Interviews – Information Gathering

I interviewed more than a dozen people across different job functions in the commercial and residential construction vertical market. I was aiming for two specific criteria – Roles in the business and User experiences within those roles. I met with:

• Business owners – ultimate stakeholder
• Project managers/Coordinators (interchangeable roles in some companies)
• Foreman – the source of field data
• Engineers
• Architects
• Subcontractors

The interviews yielded some interesting facts:

• All prefer enough information but not too much. Qualified information that is appropriate to the task at hand. EG: Foreman needs to know if something is 1/2″ rebar or 3/8″ OR the PM needs the whole engineering list of metal in the structure.

Observation: I was able to break the users into two groups from the interviews. Office and Field. Field prefers and needs spot information, Office needs detail and context.

• Field personnel – while necessary tracking job information in the form of: resources, crew hours, cub contractor questions, scheduling, etc are time consuming

Observation: The app modules that are used by field personnel must be efficient, fast and easy to use in a short amount of time. Consider using drag and drop or sliders whenever possible.

• Administrative, Management and Stakeholders want different levels and types of information

Observation: Create tiered classes within the app UI that can be adjusted based on role. so hours only are routed to payroll, job roll up to stakeholder and all to Project Managers (in a tiered fashion).

Research

In the course of my research into the field I discovered there are two systems at work with two very distinct types of user groups

Field Personnel – Hands free

This group spends their day doing. If they are on their phone or using a laptop its usually in response to change or communications. The ideal amount of time spent using technology for business is less then 10% of their day.

Management

This group is responsible for keeping the business running, managing communications, estimating, tracking and planning. They spend most of their day making sure what’s been envisioned gets done by the field personnel.

How to serve both groups

After spending time discovering what was most important and essential to each group of stakeholders, I began to develop an initial concept for the app to provide a lighter weight solution for small and mid-sized businesses. Something office and field personnel could use. As I investigated further, I realized that this would not serve both groups best.

Pivot

The best solution for both groups would be to allow office personnel to use the project management software they are using and incorporate data from the field app through XML. This would allow each group to capture and track information in a way that suits their individual requirements.