a solution to defining the Space Tasking Cycle for CSPOC leadership
About.
The Space Tasking Cycle is a group of apps meant to work together helping to modernize Space Force within the Department of Defense. The challenge here is guidance is given from leadership without clarity of association, execution or completion. Relay Analytics is the first step in closing the feedback loop changing how strategy is made and disseminated.
Product Designer, in a pair
2021/2022
Space Programs, Kobayashi Maru
Closing the loop.
Relay Analytics will pull information from all the apps in the Space Tasking Cycle to paint a full picture for leadership. We worked side by side with the teams on these applications, taking the first steps in integrating the Relay Suite.
Beginnings.
Before jumping in we held multiple interviews with stakeholders to get the first sense of what this project could look like, what it would mean, and what it would change. These first sketches were born out of these conversations, and were referred back to thoughout the iterative process.
One of the biggest challenges we faced was figuring out how to compare multiple sources of information against each other that have different timelines, execution windows, and levels of clearance. In comes “The snapshot”.
Timing is everything.
Circumstances and making it work.
This project was lean, and we worked in an agile environment, so getting progress in front of users from the beginning was a huge priority. The trouble in this was that the concept was being built for high level government leadership with little time available, and little knowledge of our process.
We worked to build relationships, and through that trust in the team and what we were doing. Even though we were working with dummy data, and limited exposure to such a small user base there were also some big learnings and some big wins.
The pivot.
Because we were building in parallel to the finishing of the other apps in the cycle this meant that not all of the data we needed for the big picture was yet available.
This meant that in order to give leadership value we decided to focus on what we did have, associations.
Showing how ground level tasks planned and associated to higher lever objectives gives leadership insight, confirmation, and potential red flags to needed change.
Bias, colors and prototypes
When the potential for change can come from perspective it’s crucial that data is represented accurately and without bias allowing users to come to their own conclusions.
