Key Learning
A framework doesn't need a mandate to scale — it needs to make people's work easier. Product Trio spread because teams saw the value before anyone asked them to adopt it. The pre-planning shared context was the mechanism; the delivery improvement was the result.
Key Learning
A framework doesn't need a mandate to scale — it needs to make people's work easier. Product Trio spread because teams saw the value before anyone asked them to adopt it. The pre-planning shared context was the mechanism; the delivery improvement was the result.
Key Learning
Fragmentation is a design problem before it's an engineering problem. By the time inconsistency is visible in shipped products, the decisions that created it are already months old. The ecosystem view surfaced that risk early enough to address it at the planning level — the only level where it can actually be fixed.
Key Learning
Fragmentation is a design problem before it's an engineering problem. By the time inconsistency is visible in shipped products, the decisions that created it are already months old. The ecosystem view surfaced that risk early enough to address it at the planning level — the only level where it can actually be fixed.
Stephen Young
Product Manager
"Watching you lead usability testing for reroute pay was insightful. I am planning to continue to incorporate usability testing with the pilot pay statement and future initiatives."
Scalable Usability Testing
Transforming Business Outcomes and Team Practices Across Domains at Delta Air Lines.
Challenge
Crew and Catering teams relied on informal or inconsistent user feedback, making it difficult and costly to identify user needs early and measure usability improvements across interface design iterations.
Approach
Introduced early-stage usability testing with end users to gather actionable feedback on prototypes e.g., Pilot Pay (Crew), RES UI (Catering).
Developed and deployed a comprehensive usability testing toolkit across multiple domains - facilitator guides, SUS scoring files, and standardized summary templates to enable consistent, repeatable testing.
Leveraged Delta Air Lines provided AI tools to automate and accelerate the creation of usability testing summaries, reducing manual effort and turnaround time.
Outcomes
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Crew teams shifted development to include the mobile approach based on pilot feedback, aligning solutions with real user workflows and expectations.
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RES UI project scope was reduced by 50% as a direct result of usability insights, saving $400,000 in un-needed development.
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The Pilot Pay team independently replicated the usability testing process on multiple occasions, using SUS scores to track and demonstrate measurable improvements across prototypes resulting in 22% (71.3 to 91.3) usability improvement.
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94.2% UX usability testing satisfaction rate as reported by participants in the follow up survey - above the 80% initial target rate.
Growth Opportunity
Embed usability testing as a product lifecycle practice, create a centralized insights hub for data-driven decisions, and expand into next-generation capabilities such as AI-powered testing to drive global scalability and innovation across Delta IT.
Key Learning
Architecting systems - tools, templates, and processes that teams can adopt and evolve is as valuable as uncovering the initial user insights; true impact endures and multiplies beyond direct involvement.
Stephen Young
Product Manager
"Watching you lead usability testing for reroute pay was insightful. I am planning to continue to incorporate usability testing with the pilot pay statement and future initiatives."
Anonymous
Product Manager
"Thank you Alex for leading the Usability Testing sessions with homies from RES. Also translating that feedback into the prototype … before development begins."