[Redacted Project Name; CUI]
The Challenge:
The current state of our military communications systems is not equipped to handle modern global warfare. When our warfighters outpace our ability to perform seamless C2, wars are lost before they are even fought. As long as our technology is holding us back, we sacrifice multi-domain operational success and increase warfighter fatality.
The Solution:
[Redacted] is a government-orchestrated commercial solution architecture that enables instant and efficient interaction, transcends geographical barriers, fosters collaboration, and fortifies security between the US and its partner nations from enterprise to the edge. Key features of the capability are that it has a resilient and self-healing communications architect, coalition partner interoperability solutions, and Coalition Cyber Capacity.
Where I Came In:
The product had already been designed and deployed by the client, so rather than contribute to the design process, my role was mainly to ensure that the product and its capability was being socialized efficiently and correctly around the command due to its complex nature (mostly developing marketing material and designing the project’s SharePoint webpage (client sensitive, not for public view).
Discovery & Defining
As mentioned, the product was designed without UX integration along the way, so a lot of my focus up until this point has been retroactively playing catchup with the User/audience and their experience with the product up until this point. The research so far has informed the kind of marketing and user training content we should be focusing on that would give the Commend the confidence they’d require in order to invest in our product.
Current status: further user research is underway, as well as scheduling usability testing and reviews.
Development
Prior to my onboarding, the marketing, training, and information collateral regarding the product was extraordinarily niche and technical. This caused a lot of confusion among command leadership and stakeholders, resulting in product distrust and rejection. This ultimately led to a massive stalling in product interest and therefore sales.
My goal is to find ways to translate an extremely complex technical concept into more accessible language so that our product gained trust and confidence in military leadership. Ideally, any warfighter could understand the concept and mission, regardless of their education or background, and that requires further user research, which is currently in progress.
Current status: we are in the process of onboarding a Graphic Artist to redesign the technical diagrams in a more accessible format, and continuing to build out marketing collateral language.
