Summary
Providing information to public transit riders is complex. The information needs to be consistent across touchpoints and channels. Like many old, large organization ours is defined by its silos. When information is inconsistent across channels and touchpoints our organizational silos become apparent. More importantly, inconsistent information causes confusion for transit riders. While we can't stop maintaining and improving the information in our 'silos,' we build bridges across them so that riders get consistent information. This approach requires us to be intentional and patient.
Key Insights
-
•
Riders often receive inaccurate or overly broad alerts due to disconnected internal and public-facing teams.
-
•
Transit agencies’ products and information channels are fragmented, complicating a consistent user experience.
-
•
Operations staff and riders have different perspectives, priorities, and information needs.
-
•
Organizational structures and siloed teams unintentionally create barriers and confusion for users.
-
•
No transit trip or disruption is alike, increasing complexity in designing effective communications.
-
•
Embedding product-agnostic roles can help connect dots across teams and user journeys.
-
•
Leaders must give teams permission to address problems holistically beyond their product slice.
-
•
Frequent, transparent connection rituals (e.g., design standups, onboarding coffee chats) improve cross-team awareness.
-
•
Accurate real-time information remains the most critical and challenging aspect to improve for transit riders.
-
•
Systemic change requires patience, experimentation, and willingness to tackle organizational norms, not just products.
Notable Quotes
"The alert Julie received didn’t apply to her and didn’t affect her morning commute."
"No two transit riders are alike. No two transit trips are alike. No two service disruptions are alike."
"A service must not unnecessarily expose a user to the internal structures of the organization providing the service."
"Teams are structured around products instead of experiences or processes, which makes delivering a consistent service difficult."
"If we avoid how we work together, we create disjointed experiences and cause confusion and frustration for riders."
"Being a formal leader is harder in many ways, but you have more leverage to make change."
"Make a case to hire people who are product agnostic to connect where products intersect in the rider journey."
"Give teams permission to think about the whole service and solve the problem holistically."
"We have to look at how we are organized and ask if that is causing an unnecessary burden to the public."
"Approach organizational challenges with the same design process you would apply to a product: research, iterate, align, and adjust."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Screen readers let us jump from one heading to another, replicating the experience of skimming a page visually."
Sam ProulxSUS: A System Unusable for Twenty Percent of the Population
December 9, 2021
"The biggest bottleneck is the bureaucracy, like the Paperwork Reduction Act, we have to creatively navigate that."
Michael LandEstablishing Design Operations in Government
February 18, 2021
"The rebrand caused our NPS to plummet and freaked out our executives — that was the trigger to get serious."
Shipra KayanHow we Built a VoC (Voice of the Customer) Practice at Upwork from the Ground Up
September 30, 2021
"A workshop helps people map their skills, identify gaps, and make specific goals for career jumps."
Ian SwinsonDesigning and Driving UX Careers
June 8, 2016
"The chief of staff serves as a bridge between the design program managers, executive assistants, and other ux and product chiefs of staff."
Isaac HeyveldExpand DesignOps Leadership as a Chief of Staff
September 8, 2022
"Change is messy and it can be uncomfortable, much like baking bread—it’s hard to imagine sticky dough turning into a perfect loaf."
Amy EvansHow to Create Change
September 25, 2024
"We’re powering a 300 plus organization of designers, researchers, program managers, and strategists."
Kate Koch Prateek KalliFlex Your Super Powers: When a Design Ops Team Scales to Power CX
September 30, 2021
"You lie to yourself more than anyone else; the lie is that you are completely rational and objective."
Dave GrayLiminal Thinking: Sense-making for systems in large organizations
May 14, 2015
"Standalone insights destroy the researcher’s ability to storytelling and engagement."
Matt DuignanAtomizing Research: Trend or Trap
March 30, 2020
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
How does a knowledge management system help design teams adapt to rapid political and organizational changes in government?
How does the Directive Disruptor leadership style affect team morale and culture?
Is it effective to evaluate entire multi-turn chatbot sessions or individual steps? What is recommended?