Research-Led Approach to Optimize Site Operations & Asset Management
Honeywell Connected Enterprise (HCE), was spearheading a digital transformation by developing a suite of SaaS solutions focused on Site Operations and Asset Performance Management. These solutions aim to improve facility safety, supply chain efficiency, and decision-making through predictive analytics, reducing downtime and optimizing resources.
The need & opportunity:
Market gap: Companies shifting focus from individual automation equipment to a holistic view of their supply chain.
Priority shift: The current emphasis is on complete warehouse solutions—visualizing stock, optimizing order fulfillment, and throughput—over traditional machine health monitoring.
Honeywell's opportunity: Develop a real-time data analytics platform that continuously monitors assets and operations, offering actionable insights to operational staff. This strategic shift aligned with Honeywell’s broader goal to provide comprehensive warehouse solutions that go beyond traditional machine health monitoring.
Product page: https://www.honeywellforge.ai/us/en
My role & responsibilities: Lead design strategist and researcher on a cross-functional team of 2 researchers and 2 designers.
Time Spent – Approximately 5 months
Defined and executed an end-to-end research strategy using mixed-methods (qualitative interviews, journey mapping, and quantitative usability testing) and facilitated cross-functional workshops to converge stakeholder visions, and frame opportunities through systems thinking.
Led the development of the design strategy, contributing to the creation of scalable information architecture, scenario mapping, and storyboards.
Partnered closely with product managers, designers, and engineers across multiple product pillars, ensuring alignment on both the "right product" (problem-solution fit) and the "right way to build it" (feasibility, usability, scalability).
Supported the iterative design process across low, mid, and high-fidelity prototypes, anchoring every decision in real user behavior and validated insights.
Product impact
30–50% Improved Decision-Making Speed by Reducing Data Latency
25% Reduced Task Completion Time and User Frustration and Navigation Errors
Stakeholder Alignment Led to a Unified Product Roadmap Across Two Distinct Business Units
Accelerated Time-to-Validation with RITE (Rapid Iterative Testing)
The Onboarding Odyssey:
Initial engagement revealed gaps: inherited research was fragmented, and our understanding of this niche domain was superficial. With two product owners steering different parts of the project, our quest was to harmonize their visions into a unified user experience.
Aligning Visions:
Faced with the task of marrying two distinct product perspectives, we initiated a series of collaborative workshops. These were not just meetings; they were melting pots of ideas where different visions started to blend into one.
User Research & Insight Mining:
Our method: a mix of generative and evaluative research. We combed through existing data and engaged with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to build our understanding.
We crafted proto-personas, not just as hypothetical users but as beacons guiding our design journey.
Proto psersons to align team on the user needs and challenges.
Led workshop for stakeholders from product and development. Goal: Understanding challenges and success metrics for this product.
Questions explored during the interviews:
Who are the primary users of the application? Goals and motivations for using our product?
Knowledge they need to know to do their jobs?
What jobs they say they are doing vs what jobs are they are actually doing to complete their workflow?
Understand user’s mental model and expectations they have from our product?
Users’ problems and frustrations with their current product?
User pain points:
Users lacked real-time data access, causing decision-making delays.
Manual processes due to disconnected systems.
Visibility issues in asset performance leading to prolonged downtime.
Lack of visibility leads to slow decision-making and gaps between how the operations manager and maintenance managers work in the warehouse.
Understand the context of how the product fits into the lives or the workflow of the user: when, why, and how the product is or will be used?
Experience Outcomes from persona and customer journey
Transitioning to Design
The next phase of the workshop was for us to select a scenario that would help us draft the workflow for our Operations manager’s persona. I helped the product identify the slice of a user’s journey based on user need and business prioritization, which we converted into a storyboard that would help us visualize the solution could fit into our user’s life.
Gathering Requirements and Storyboarding
Information Architecture
After drafting storyboards and user requirements, the next phase was to think about the information architecture of the product. These features from Site operations were going to be a part of a larger EPM product, so I collaborated with another researcher to think about the scalability of the product and potential workflows they could have in this product. With my industry experience in supply chain products, we were able to create assumptions and hypothetical scenarios to create an inventory of features and set up a map of different navigations paths for different EPM product users.
This exploration helped us look at the product from different levels of zoom. The goal was to think about the navigation in terms of the scalability and extensibility of the product and its pricing model.
Based on two different approaches we created two options for the product to choose from.
Testing mid-fidelity concepts
By the end of two weeks, we had mid-fidelity concepts to test with. created the study plan, did the recruiting, and moderated a live conversation using the UserTesting platform to conduct the prototype concept testing.
Mid-fidelity concepts for Operations Dashboard and Asset Dashboard
User feedback
Users cited the transition from manual data collection to real-time dashboards significantly reduced decision-making delays. This change can be linked to improvements in operational response time by an estimated 30–50%, especially for warehouse operations and asset performance tracking.
100% of users found the information helpful, while 50% requested customization options—driving a clear product opportunity that resulted in prioritizing customizable dashboards for different user roles.
“To me, this is a Cadillac, and what people looking for these days for dashboard and information is Toyota Camry not too many loops.”
Hi-fidelity version of the design -
This version was tested with industry end-users. I recruited a panel working with PMs and sales representatives, designed the study, and did the analysis and reporting to product and dev before the designs were handed over to development for coding.
After analysis the overall impression on the mid-fidelity designs were:
Users felt that there is a lot of good information in this product; both high-level summary and detailed level department content.
“The pages are put in a way that can help everyone. Its high level and detailed level and felt that this product was created for DC General Manager, Middle Management and Area Supervisors”.
“On our sites now we have a huge [amount of] data to look at. What’s great about this is looking at graphs and charts, which is much visually faster to see the information.”
Analytics and Reporting from Hi-Fi testing
The Learnings
The journey through the Honeywell Connected Enterprise project was not just a path towards creating a product; it was a deep dive into the complexities of user experience (UX) research, design synthesis, and stakeholder alignment.
The first major hurdle was blending the distinct perspectives of two product owners. Through empathetic and in-depth interviews, a story emerged where their visions converged, leading to a unified product roadmap.
The absence of direct user data could have been a roadblock. However, turning to SME insights, we crafted proto-personas, painting a vivid picture of our users that resonated with all stakeholders.
The real essence of UX research unfolded as we pieced together the user journey. Lacking real user interaction, we relied on the narratives shared by SMEs, effectively capturing the user’s voice through a qualitative lens.
With time as a pressing factor, rapid iterative testing (RITE) became our go-to strategy. This approach enabled us to weave in quick, yet impactful, feedback, ensuring the product remained user-centric within the limited timeframe.
The project also brought forth the challenges of remote teamwork. Establishing robust communication channels and mastering digital collaboration tools like Miro, we not only overcame the physical distance but also strengthened our team dynamics.
This project emphasized the importance of empathetic and adaptable UX research approaches in aligning diverse stakeholder visions and approximating user needs, even in the absence of direct user data. These learnings have been instrumental in refining our approach to user-centric design under various constraints.