Socrata was a tech startup in Seattle, WA focused on open data in government; a civic movement that scaled up under the Obama administration, one of the company’s first customers. I, however, joined in 2017 as they were in their late stages as a product. The focus at that time was to
1) launch an enterprise platform in the next year
2) build up a UX program and
3) develop best practices for a product organization.
2) build up a UX program and
3) develop best practices for a product organization.
I led the product design team paired with directors in engineering and product management.
Planning
![We worked as a cross functional team including engineering managers, product managers, and product designers. I worked with one of our engineering managers to introduce the process of User Story Mapping, which ultimately led to a mapping of a theoretical product that unified the different tools Socrata had created over the past 10 years](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/6eac92e59acd1b45e813ee90abd90006/9ca78026-a974-43d5-8c4c-becae5da87f1_rw_1920.jpg?h=10a91d80018f8a64505572d207ba1317)
We worked as a cross functional team including engineering managers, product managers, and product designers. I worked with one of our engineering managers to introduce the process of User Story Mapping, which ultimately led to a mapping of a theoretical product that unified the different tools Socrata had created over the past 10 years
![A key challenge we faced in launching our product was placement into a wide range of tools available to government IT for data work](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/6eac92e59acd1b45e813ee90abd90006/9a13fb6a-08b0-4feb-9395-0ce7d4eae814_rw_1920.jpg?h=8942eb7d30de8880359d02440b39d5ec)
A key challenge we faced in launching our product was placement into a wide range of tools available to government IT for data work
![A key practice we built our MVP around were government programs that could provide a scenario with data analysis as it's key function. Here is an example based on FAST, a USDOT progrogram to support investment in transportation infrastructure.](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/6eac92e59acd1b45e813ee90abd90006/12122f0f-d9c7-4572-b66d-0f33085f82b0_rw_1920.jpg?h=c89c4aa8d926584e3fc0939566d67aba)
A key practice we built our MVP around were government programs that could provide a scenario with data analysis as it's key function. Here is an example based on FAST, a USDOT progrogram to support investment in transportation infrastructure.
![With an existing suite of products around open data, SCGC required the mapping of a workflow "between" experiences that would follow the logical flow of a data science process. Here we modeled that experience in order to better comprehend the "story" of how a connected platform could bring together disparate data work](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/6eac92e59acd1b45e813ee90abd90006/4ba11ce3-1725-4fde-965b-1c1e40987465_rw_1920.jpg?h=48296fc04cc87d9913b4f4b4f3a54ffe)
With an existing suite of products around open data, SCGC required the mapping of a workflow "between" experiences that would follow the logical flow of a data science process. Here we modeled that experience in order to better comprehend the "story" of how a connected platform could bring together disparate data work
![After we identified a core story to the product, we outlined a set of stories that would integrate 4 products into a single platform. I worked with the director of product and director of engineering to create a process we could follow as a prodev organization. We decided to create a physical board to keep the whole story unified. It was matched with a JIRA board to help us work down the backlog and phsycially see the progress toward an MVP](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/6eac92e59acd1b45e813ee90abd90006/3dea14da-55d6-4775-bfa2-277941b3b837_rw_1920.jpg?h=7e111c9068748db7dc575d0432a59640)
After we identified a core story to the product, we outlined a set of stories that would integrate 4 products into a single platform. I worked with the director of product and director of engineering to create a process we could follow as a prodev organization. We decided to create a physical board to keep the whole story unified. It was matched with a JIRA board to help us work down the backlog and phsycially see the progress toward an MVP
![The story map and roadmap became living documents that became "layered" with plans for research, prioritization, scoping, and prototyping. I created a concept of design spikes so that our UX process could work in sync with the engineering efforts and leverage the scrum language the team was familiar with](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/6eac92e59acd1b45e813ee90abd90006/e57c9407-aa98-4b13-ab67-5a3c951afa63_rw_1920.jpg?h=2f67c58405331551f8a0d0e113b53e30)
The story map and roadmap became living documents that became "layered" with plans for research, prioritization, scoping, and prototyping. I created a concept of design spikes so that our UX process could work in sync with the engineering efforts and leverage the scrum language the team was familiar with
![As we decomposed the plan into teams, we created a high-level board to track the general progress of an SCGC MVP and allow real-time iteration in person on the commitment. Each team could more granualrly work out (as a triad of design, PM, and engineering) where to cut the MVP from future business increments. THe temporary board helped identify team dependencies and shift projects without getting lost in a digital JIRA board. While maintaining the physical and digital boards was a lot of extra labor, it kept everyone up to speed as to where the project was and the office became a meeting cycle, where we could "walk the walls" to see how the MVP plan was evolving](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/6eac92e59acd1b45e813ee90abd90006/94cf51cf-a7f1-4e6d-a2c7-40d5e2d65c44_rw_1920.jpg?h=01b836ce4fe02f0a06a195c786db9f78)
As we decomposed the plan into teams, we created a high-level board to track the general progress of an SCGC MVP and allow real-time iteration in person on the commitment. Each team could more granualrly work out (as a triad of design, PM, and engineering) where to cut the MVP from future business increments. THe temporary board helped identify team dependencies and shift projects without getting lost in a digital JIRA board. While maintaining the physical and digital boards was a lot of extra labor, it kept everyone up to speed as to where the project was and the office became a meeting cycle, where we could "walk the walls" to see how the MVP plan was evolving
MVP Workflows
Flow 1: Getting Data in (Dataset Management Experience.. DMX)
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/6eac92e59acd1b45e813ee90abd90006/0d018f01-df12-46e7-9add-cd162efb5cd8_rw_1200.gif?h=cc57df42505ea4d3e9c928658b15364e)
Flow 2: Explore Data (New "Grid View"
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/6eac92e59acd1b45e813ee90abd90006/30d6018c-8b98-40ef-b24c-2b3c13e79d1e_rw_1920.png?h=aac6f935b36bb38bc6dd81980107287a)
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/6eac92e59acd1b45e813ee90abd90006/7be7fb47-1b0f-4082-aa40-003b07b489e3_rw_1920.png?h=2acb6bd042ac6096f6e58b36673bde46)
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/6eac92e59acd1b45e813ee90abd90006/ba7a3def-c4c8-42e2-9945-65a7401a89a6_rw_1920.png?h=cdb62d55b6b0cb66e5dd66c975e2eb4d)
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/6eac92e59acd1b45e813ee90abd90006/2e2bae61-55a8-443c-8d26-1fd80d39f1cc_rw_1920.png?h=d0323511d3fd9debd7dba698884cb6bd)
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/6eac92e59acd1b45e813ee90abd90006/71e77d4e-deb4-4b0f-a62b-ecaf34a1b14b_rw_1920.png?h=b53f3391308b3b80c6d0a0b2d5ce54be)
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/6eac92e59acd1b45e813ee90abd90006/c468f023-fd00-4650-a0ef-d5ef7f01d0f2_rw_1920.png?h=2d194c17daf620789eeeb1797d552ee8)
Flow 3: Visualize Insights (authoring Canvas)
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/6eac92e59acd1b45e813ee90abd90006/b78bcb10-fb2d-4a5c-9591-c53b29ddd73f_rw_1200.jpg?h=80bf8b2c43c7f65f8d0c26b171bcbcd1)
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/6eac92e59acd1b45e813ee90abd90006/17d608de-c377-4c70-9618-e40fc6074e4c_rw_1920.gif?h=b2ce7cec2a9c776db01e672b63de8f59)
Flow 4: Adding Context (Integration of our Perspective Product)
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/6eac92e59acd1b45e813ee90abd90006/e140b183-3e2d-49cd-9ee2-bbe6a8edd5ce_rw_1920.gif?h=9900bac38336210bd1b057712d6279a7)