Role: Lead Designer
Timeline: May – August 2020
Client: ANZ Railway & Logistics organization
Team: Product manager, Technical architect, Client-side stakeholders
The problem
The organization had disconnected legacy systems for capturing employee ideas. No single source of truth. No visibility into what happened after you submitted something. Field workers couldn't even access the platforms easily. Good ideas were getting lost.
The goal
One place where anyone—from office staff to field workers—could share, track, and collaborate on improvements. A platform that made ideas visible and gave them a fair shot at becoming real.
Life throws a curveball…
We were supposed to fly to Australia on March 25, 2020. Visas stamped, bags packed, ready to run a three-week design thinking workshop in person. Then the world locked down—three days before departure.
After a few weeks of sorting logistics across time zones, we kicked off entirely remote. My first time facilitating a full engagement without being in the room.
I spent time learning how to keep people engaged virtually—shorter sessions, tighter structure, and a lot more preparation.
What I did
- Facilitated discovery and ideation workshops remotely via Miro
- Led 12 user interviews solo across challenging time zones
- Synthesized research into personas, flows, and key insights
- Designed and tested low-fidelity prototypes
- Delivered high-fidelity designs for MVP development
Discovery
I ran a 90-minute remote session with 12 stakeholders from across the organization. The Global HR Head joined as decision-maker—critical for keeping alignment tight.
Participants had 3 minutes per question to add inputs. We discussed, voted, and prioritized together.
Synthesis
I synthesized everything from the discovery session into a Business Model Canvas and validated it in a playback session the next day.
Research
We planned for 20 interviews but landed on 12 due to scheduling conflicts. I started my days at 5am to accommodate participants in Australia.
My PM was supposed to join for note-taking, but a personal emergency pulled him away. So I recorded sessions and played them back later to capture notes. Tedious—but it worked.
Analysis
I reviewed all my interview notes and used Miro to organize the raw data. Grouping similar data into clusters, patterns started to emerge.
Key Insights
Four themes emerged from the research:
- Process & Governance - The existing process felt inflexible. People wanted more transparency in how decisions were made.
- Information Discoverability - Surfacing the right information at the right time would improve productivity across the board.
- Accessibility - Sharing and getting feedback from disconnected platforms was tedious, especially for field workers.
- Collaboration - Working with peers and experts on an idea leads to better outcomes.
Personas
I synthesized the research into two primary personas representing the majority of the employee base. Each had distinct needs, frustrations, and goals around sharing ideas.
User Flows
From the research insights, I mapped out critical user flows for the platform.
Ideation
13 users joined a participatory design session—a mix of business stakeholders and end-users. I structured it as a 120-minute workshop with regular breaks to manage screen fatigue.
The session generated strong ideas and helped bridge the gap between what leadership wanted and what employees actually needed.
Wireframes and testing.
I created low-fidelity wireframes in Figma for the critical user flows. I prefer this approach early on—it keeps people focused on content and functionality rather than visual polish.
We tested with participants from earlier research, observed them completing tasks, and iterated until they were satisfied with the experience.
Final designs
After sign-off on user journeys and prototype, I moved into high-fidelity design. Developers started building from approved wireframes while I refined the visuals.
Two-week deadline. Hit it without issues.
Impact
The MVP launched on August 20, 2020—four months from kickoff to production.
- 200% increase in platform adoption over 2 months.
- 15% ideas became cost-saving initiatives
- 7000+ employees onboarded.
Reflection
This project taught me that remote doesn't mean lesser. Running workshops, interviews, and ideation sessions across time zones—often solo—pushed me to be more intentional about structure, clarity, and engagement.
The 5am sessions were rough. But hearing field workers genuinely excited about finally having a voice made it worth it.