Client:

Vodafone
(In collaboration with
Google Cloud Platform)

Brief:

To create a self governance platform for data owners to help with moving 600 Hadoop servers across 11 countries, supporting 226 different revenue models, with a combined total of 17PBs of data to Google Cloud.

Product Name:

Neuron

Location:

Paddington, London

Product Duration:

Oct 2019 - March 2020 (BC - Before Covid)

My Role

Lead UI/UX/Product Designer

Point Of Contact:

Head of Big Data & Cloud Analytics (Vodafone)

Team Size:

Vodafone + Google: 125+

Personal Contributions:

Collaborating with two giants of technology companies, with both remote and in-office resources across 11 countries required a constant evolving skills set in order to keep the ball moving.

  • Heuristics Evaluation
  • Stakeholder Management
  • User Interviews
  • Affinity Mapping
  • Competitive & Comparative Analysis
  • Feature Prioritisation
  • Information Architecture
  • Site Mapping
  • User Flows
  • Usability Testing
  • Wire-framing
  • Rapid Prototyping

Problem/Goal:

Problem:

Simon Harris, Vodafone’s Head of Big Data and Cloud Analytics told an audience at Google Cloud Next that a staggering 2,730PB of data had been transferred over its network in the past financial year. And “it’s not going to get smaller, because with 5G around the corner, it’s going to get even bigger … and bigger … and bigger.”

https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/customers/vodafone-calls-for-digital-transformation-with-the-help-of-google-cloud

Vodafone’s on-premises group data platform relied on Hadoop architecture that didn’t do “bigger.” In fact, it’s questionable whether it even did “big.” The platform creaked, data was siloed or duplicated, and governance wasn’t great.

Goal:

Consolidate Vodafone’s global data into a single data ‘ocean’ for advanced analytics and business intelligence (BI) using Google Cloud Platform instead of on-premises Hadoop clusters.

To make a self serving platform to eliminate manual, costly and time inefficient data governance.

Reducing costs, increasing security and increasing accessibility to big data.

Design Process:

Empathise:

Observe and conduct research to identify and understand Vodafone/Google’s problems/concerns.

Also known as ‘Requirements Gathering’.

Prototype:

Build realistic representations of the ideas generated from research. Being very careful to remove bias and to re-validate any assumptions. 

Define:

Combine all research and identify the key problem across various platforms/systems. Arrange the problems in an order of priority entered on the key users’ needs.

Understand:

Test with users as fast possible. Then, reiterate until a certain standard has been achieved. From here, modify, further validate assumptions and then release the product.

Ideate:

Generate a range of creative but practical solutions to address the user’s needs.

User Personas:

End user primarily consisted of 3 main user personas.

  1. OpCo Admin
  2. Program Admin
  3. Central Admin

OpCo Admin:

Operations managers are based in countries and act as a gateway into the specific OpCo. They are usually tasked with setting up local environments and providing support to the program admins.

They have admin rights over program admins and can give them access to various templates when requested.

Program Admin:

Program managers are given access by OpCo Admins and have the ability to assign a team to their specific templates.

They run the day to day environments and help run campaigns that require environments to be span up for a certain amounts of time.

They have a much larger workload than others and need the system to help them perform to the best of their ability.

Central Admin:

A Central Admin opens up ‘Operating Countries (OpCo)’ and adds the various Opco admins required. They also have the ability to add, edit and remove users and user groups.

Central admins are the system super admins and delegate to the specific country admins when they spin up. This operation happens sporadically therefore the design must follow a UCD approach.

Must Haves:

The following are the must have features in the product

  1. Request Approvals
  2. Project Provisioning 
  3. Permissions Management
  4. User & Group Management

Information Architecture / Architecture Mapping

With this available, it becomes significantly easier to make key decisions for new features and implementations, to understand timelines for product changes, and to follow user behavior through multiple processes.

Prototypes:

As you can imagine, I am unable to showcase the entire prototype due legal reasons.

Here are some snippets of the screens in action that showcase the end product.

Product Set Up:

  1. Getting Started Page

2. Creating OpCo

3. Create OpCo Admin Group

4. Assign OPCO Admins

5. Assign Programs to OpCo

6. Create Program Admins

7. Assign Program Admins

8. Assign Program Admin’s Groups’

9. Complete Set Up

Requirement 1: Request Approvals

Requirement 2: Project Provisioning

Requirement 3: Permissions Management

Requirement 4: User & Group Management

A Big Win:

Cost Savings:

Average spend at Vodafone was around £10-12 million per year on analytics, and it has reduced costs to about £4 million per year by moving to Google Cloud Platform. That translates to about 60% savings. Neuron helped transition the move along side other internal software.

Quote:

According to Simon Harris, Group Head of Big Data Delivery at Vodafone, Neuron will become the driver for AI and business intelligence for all of Vodafone globally. 

“Neuron serves as the foundation for Vodafone’s data ocean and the brains of our business as we transform ourselves into a digital tech company. Not only will we be able to gain real-time analytics capabilities across Vodafone products and services, it will also allow us to arrive at insights faster, which can then be used to offer more personalized product offerings to customers and to raise the bar on service.” 

Neuron was demonstrated at Google Cloud Next ‘19 – London, UK. “How Vodafone Built a Data Platform on Google Cloud”

Key Takeaways:

As a hands on designer:

  • Balancing technical complexities with user needs: The project involved intricate technical considerations for migrating 600+ servers and integrating with Google Cloud. To overcome this, I employed a user-centered design approach, ensuring the platform remained intuitive and efficient for diverse data owners despite the technical complexities involved.

  • Ensuring data security and compliance across borders: Stringent data security and compliance regulations were present in each of the 11 countries involved. I collaborated closely with legal and security teams to ensure the platform adhered to all relevant regulations and maintained robust data security.

  • Facilitating user adoption in diverse geographic and cultural contexts: The platform needed to cater to users with varying levels of technical expertise and cultural backgrounds across 11 countries. I conducted user research and implemented internationalization best practices to ensure the platform was user-friendly and culturally inclusive.

  • Managing stakeholder expectations and navigating diverse priorities: Stakeholders from both Google and Vodafone had different priorities and expectations for the project. I fostered open communication, actively managed expectations, and presented data-driven design decisions to ensure alignment and project success.

  • Adapting to evolving requirements and unforeseen challenges: The project scope and technical requirements could change unexpectedly. I maintained a flexible approach, embraced iterative design processes, and readily adapted the platform to accommodate changing needs and unforeseen challenges.

As a designer leader/director

  • Leading and motivating a cross-functional team: The project required collaboration with diverse teams from Vodafone, Google, and various internal departments. I employed strong leadership and communication skills to build trust, delegate effectively, and motivate team members to work towards a common goal.

  • Bridging the gap between design and engineering: Ensuring smooth collaboration between design and engineering teams is crucial. I fostered open communication channels, facilitated workshops to bridge the knowledge gap, and participated in technical discussions to ensure design decisions were feasible and aligned with engineering capabilities.

  • Balancing strategic vision with execution: As a director, it's essential to translate strategic vision into actionable steps. I actively participated in defining project goals and objectives, then broke them down into manageable tasks, ensuring the team remained focused and delivered on strategic initiatives.

  • Measuring design impact and demonstrating value: Quantifying the impact of design decisions can be challenging. I advocated for data-driven design, implemented user testing and analytics tools, and presented data-driven insights to stakeholders to demonstrate the positive impact of design on the project's success.

  • Navigating complex stakeholder relationships: This large-scale project involved diverse stakeholders from Google, Vodafone, and various internal departments, each with varying viewpoints and priorities. I employed effective communication strategies, actively managed expectations, and fostered collaboration to ensure stakeholder alignment and project success. This demonstrates your ability to navigate complex interpersonal dynamics and lead effectively in a high-stakes environment.