Federal Engagements
DATE
March 2018
EMPLOYER
Accenture Federal Services/Fjord
JUST AN FYI
All of my work at Accenture Federal Services/Fjord was government related and requires a variety of security clearances. Although I can not go into details of each project, I can give an overview of all my projects. I’d be happy to discuss any of these projects in more detail, just reach out to me!
ENGAGEMENT NAME
Navy Pilot
CLIENT
United States Navy
This project focused on reimaging how maintenance is performed on two major weapon systems onboard the Navy ships. My role on this project was to research existing processes and identify opportunities for improvement. This engagement lasted about six months and consisted of over a dozen working sessions with military personnel. We were able to identify common pain points such as reliance on paper binders to perform maintenance that could take a span of several days. As a final deliverable we delivered a tablet prototype that allowed personnel to perform maintenance with only a tablet. We also included technologies like VR and AR to help make the maintenance process more assisted and less reliant on personnel knowledge. This project resulted in the client choosing Accenture Federal Services for many of their other initiatives.
ENGAGEMENT NAME
PHIT
CLIENT
United States Armed Forces
This project looked at providing a more holistic view of a personnel’s military readiness. Currently, the military uses one metric to determine if any of their personnel is “ready” for battle. This initiative, spear headed by Generals within Accenture Federal Services, looked at trying to combine factors such as mental health, social media engagement, and others to determine a more holistic grade of readiness. My role on this project was to design the platform that would communicate the readiness and the factors that went into determining this grade. This project resulted in Accenture Federal Services applying for a patent which is currently pending.
ENGAGEMENT NAME
PCTE
CLIENT
United States Cyber Command
As part of the military wide Persistent Cyber Training Environment (PCTE) initiative, my team was asked to design a platform to plan, schedule, track and assess individual and collective cyber training to support and build Joint Cyber Readiness. This prototype was to be presented to US Military leadership as part of a Request for Proposal (RFP). I was brought onto the project midway to help push it over the finish line as we were working strict timeline. We were able to work with retired 3-star Generals and other military SMEs to understand the complexities of how cyber training for Joint Cyber Readiness works. We used the knowledge to deliver a Service Blueprint and design a clickable InVision prototype.
ENGAGEMENT NAME
FAFSA
CLIENT
Department of Education
As part of a Request For Proposal (RFP), we were asked to propose how we would reimagine the FAFSA application process for students and parents. We delivered a service blueprint accompanied by videos of interviews we completed of students and parents to understand their pain points, and a clickable prototype. As a result, we Accenture Federal Services won this opportunity and this project is currently still in progress.
ENGAGEMENT NAME
Shipyard of the Future
CLIENT
United States Navy
Given that the Accenture Federal Services’ DC Fjord office was relatively new, leadership wanted to do a project to build the studio portfolio. This project would be used to sell additional work and a show piece for when government agency leaders would visit. For this project, we focused on Navy shipyards; where they build and maintain ships. We decided to think about how we could create a shipyard of the future barring no technical or policy restrictions. We had several ideas but my focus was on improving transportation around the shipyard to help reduce time spent traveling. I created a voice activated prototype that interacted with users based on certain commands. The prototype would allow users to request an autonomous vehicle to transport them to a specific area of the shipyard, bring them a part from the warehouse, and other similar commands. Other ideas that were a result of this project included being able to use AR and VR technology to perform maintenance and using data to predict needed maintenance before it is too late.
ENGAGEMENT NAME
TITAN
CLIENT
Federal Reserve Bank of New York
This engagement was to redesign a financial system used by countries around the world to do transactions in the millions. I was the lead designer on this project and redesigned the existing system keeping in mind the unique edge cases users would face. As a result, Accenture LLP (the commercial side of Accenture) was contracted to build out this new platform. Due to unforeseen circumstances, after development had started, I rolled off the project but I ensured that the next designer had a seamless onboarding. Fun fact: we were in the basement of the Federal Reserve inside a physical vault because this project was of interest to another country, which has purchased the building across the street to be able to spy on projects!
ENGAGEMENT NAME
Online Tax Payer Experience
CLIENT
Internal Revenue Service
This engagement asked us to research how taxpayers use the online tax filing system and how it could be improved. We did a number of interviews with taxpayers and employees at the IRS and synthesized over 100 pages of research. Because of the success of our research, the IRS decided to discontinue the engagement with Accenture Federal Services and build out an internal team to tackle this.