The United States Air Force (USAF) has the most-advanced fleet of aircraft in the world and the most-skilled pilots to operate them. Whether airpower is needed to protect our public or to provide aid to those in need all over the world, the USAF is dedicated to finding solutions and providing care in an effective and timely manner.
In 2021, the USAF took on a brave new way of thinking that many federal organizations, especially in defense, were hesitant to bring into their missions and operations –Human-Centered Design (HCD). Adopting this new approach to problem-solving has provided the agency with a unique opportunity to advance their technology, solutions, and care to both the American public and their internal airmen, airwomen, and airpeople that have dedicated their lives to the service of protecting and aiding others.
USAF
Bringing Human-Centered Design to Unlikely Places to Increase Innovation
There was so much pushback initially for our teams to adopt HCD. Robyn & her team honored where we were at and helped guide us through this new mindset. We are three products in and already feel confident in owning and running the process. This change has transformed USAF –how we build new technologies and evolve legacy systems to support our people.
USAF, Colonel
Case Study
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After adoption of the new HCD approach, it became evident that this new mindset needed support from the agency and key stakeholders to take flight. There was also a need to upskill current staff on the methodologies and language that HCD principles are grounded in while fitting the new methodology seamlessly into USAF’s daily routines. An important factor was not to add unnecessary friction or additional steps to airpeople’s workloads.
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Our team partnered with the organization to collaborate with their newly formed HCD department within USAF and begin stakeholder mapping, interviews, product intake forms, and lunch-and-learns to help with the adoption and understanding of the HCD process, and implementation of a product process. The key was to ensure that the agency was able to own and manage these new methods and tools in a way that honored their schedules and bridged the gap in communications across units –active duty, national guard, reserve, and civilian service– using plain language and visually accessible keys.
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Today, the USAF is already seeing significant improvements in airpeoples’ experiences due to their adoption of the HCD approach in their product development process. Retirement and leave have been the two biggest focus areas in 2023 where the agency has seen positive improvements to their platforms based on user feedback and increased satisfaction overall with the retirement and leave experience –request leave on the go and access retirement options and timeline more easily. Mission Owners have successfully run and owned the product process to completion using a series of UX research methods, HCD artifacts, and key stakeholder alignment sessions.