Case Study

Frontline Understand

A north-star understand project exploring how Workplace might be utilised by the 1bn+ frontline workers around the world.

This work was conducted around the world over an incredibly short two month period. Spoiler alert, the project resulted in Frontline becoming an integral part of the Workplace offering within a matter of months.

Year

2018

Team

Andy

Design

Tara

Research

Sabrina

PMM

Tools

Sketch, Photoshop, Keynote

International research

We conducted in-person research in 7 countries: UK, USA, India, Japan, Brazil, Singapore and Australia.

Quick turnaround

The project ran between August and October 2018. Design output was around 372 final screens in three languages.

Two personas

We identified two important roles: Frontline Searchers and Demanding Leaders.

Legal complexity

Unions, rules and regulations vary from city to state to country. It was a minefield!

The People Problem

Frontline Searchers form the backbone of many of the world’s largest industries. Unlike Knowledge Workers, they work away from a desk, often remotely from HQ, and in silo to the rest of their organisation.

Their needs to connect and collaborate efficiently with the rest of their organisation are underserved, because most SaaS is built for a fundamentally different type of user, i.e. the Knowledge Worker sitting at their desk.

The brief —

“Understand the opportunity for Facebook to further support the needs of the Frontline Searchers by streamlining processes for every day tasks.”

The Approach

Focus on four key themes:

People management
Tasks and processes
Communication and messaging
Knowledge sharing and learning

Industries selected based on Gartner data for the highest concentration of Frontline Searchers were: Automotive, Hospitality and Retail.

Remote Research

We partnered with an external research agency to help us cover all of the markets around the world in such a short period of time

To help us feel like we were there and observing workers in their environments, we had daily VC’s with the team and had them take photos and videos on site to share key findings from the field.

During the feedback sessions we were able to identify recurring issues and gaps in their existing tools and processes, directly impacting the direction of the product features.

1BN+ global audience
There’s a huge global audience of over 1BN Frontline Workers.
Established markets
The largest established markets are US, Japan and Germany.
Emerging markets
The largest emerging markets are Brazil, India and Mexico.
Ghost IT
Frontline Workers often use old, unvetted tools to get work done.

Workplace Frontline angled device render

Design Goals

Create a design framework that would easily span industries, locales and languages. Designs should be lightweight, intuitive and quick and easy to use. Address all of the pain points highlighted in the research and leverage Facebook’s “special sauce”. Translate into Portuguese and Japanese. Build on existing Facebook assets and design patterns.

Problems:

Use of mobile devices on the shop floor.
Accessing work content outside of work hours.
Legal issues with exceeding overtime limits.

Workplace Frontline iPad Manager app screenshot

People Management

The management of Frontline is dependent on the scheduling of shifts. The tools used to manage the shifts aren’t always fit for purpose. Management have to deal with a lacklustre workforce. This creates great pressure and demand on workers to be even more efficient. Currently people management processes require significant contact with HR.

The solution:

Scheduling and shifts
Clocking in and out
Training and onboarding

Scheduling & shifts

Clocking in & out

Training & onboarding

Tasks & Processes

The workforce is expected to conduct their daily ad-hoc activities independently and correctly without much assistance. Routine activities are not posted anywhere that is visible to the Frontline Searchers. Tasks that deviate from the norm are often shared via messaging apps, a team notebook or post-it notes. Demanding Leaders want high level visibility over the tasks performed by Frontline Searchers.

The solution:

Task creation and tracking tool
KPI tracking

TASK CREATION & TRACKING TOOL

KPI TRACKING

Communication & Messaging

Majority of communication is informal and face-to-face during working hours. Groups are set up in messaging apps so workers can communicate with each other about task status and shifts. All are using their personal mobile phones for work communication. As a result of this, consumer apps are used for communicating with colleagues and completing tasks.

The solution: