Defining Cisco's flagship product through listening to users and cross-functional collaboration
How might we enable users to design and implement their networks in a streamlined process that fulfills a variety of their needs?
A series of design thinking workshops, interaction flows, and a prototype which was developed into a more intuitive product
This problem-solving framework was so successful, it was applied to other projects on other teams
The product itself was showcased to 250K people at 5 conferences, including the Smart Cities Expo Barcelona and Cisco Live
Role
Project Lead: Design thinking workshops to obtain insights, validation, and data synthesis
5 on immediate UX feature team, 50 on larger UX product team
2 years
Site Profiles is a part of the larger Cisco DNA Center, a computer networking management platform. When I started, SIte Profiles had been on-and-off for two years with no owner. Being Site Profiles owner meant I would change 60% of DNA Center, and involved almost every department on the 900-person DNA C team. During my time with the project, Site Profiles was so impactful that it became an example that lead DNA C into the current roadmap.
What is the aim and scope of the project?
Site Profiles aims to make it easier for network architects to do their biggest job. For almost two years, I created and iterated on how we could reimagine the computer networking process by combining secondary and primary research, stakeholder input (product management, engineering, etc), emerging technologies, products from acquisitions, and existing systems.
What were the constraints?
Lots of cooks in the kitchen; This project was large because it had to touch every part of the product. It was difficult to get buy-in or momentum
Coverage for user needs that was out of our bandwidth; System-wide needs, such as tools for collaboration, was owned by a different team. They often had different priorities
Technical limitations; A lot of concepts that are expected by the user from the consumer space are not yet developed in the Enterprise Networking space
Clients
This is an example of one of 14 flows separated by device and user action, each having ~30 steps (it is a slow process-- feel free to skip through)
Feedback from user testing and interviews:
No flexibility, transparency or context in steps
Not intuitive, and frustrating because they do not know what to do to move forward in performing the task. The GUI (graphical user interface) is the most helpful part
However...
Function is there, form needs development (more fluidity)
Opportunity to develop visual language to better match user’s mental model
Insights
Network architects take months to over a year to design and implement their networks. They are in charge of designing, implementing, and maintaining multiple sites across the world, with a range of devices that usually span in the high thousands. Majority of pain points; The process is currently highly manual, highly collaborative and involve a variety of disconnected tools, which is time-consuming and inefficient, costly and risky
Users typically don’t like starting with a blank canvas, but sometimes they have to because they have no reference for new types of networks. They would like to be guided by the product to complete their task
Opportunities
Leverage the functionally of our existing product to build a form that embodies these needs
Leverage the Cisco’s industry data & networking knowledge to create a system which can auto-generate configuration suggestions for more efficient site creation & implementation
Build a foundation for users so that they have bandwidth to think about how they need to consider customization
Utilize this as scenario to drive and pave the product’s future vision in a plausible way
Three main scenarios to design for: empty state, suggestion state, smart detection state
