Toward digitizing title requests for seafarers

Onboarding an administration

How I got Involved ?

In 2020, I had the opportunity to join an innovation program initiated by the French Digital Direction (DINUM). The program aimed to bring together designers, developers, and data scientists with government administrations seeking to accelerate the resolution of complex issues. I joined the Maritime Affairs Administration, a part of the Ministry of the Sea, along with another developer named Elisabeth Fainstain.

What were my goals ?

The initial brief was quite broad. In this work case I will only dive in the first part of the challenge that involved digitizing the request process for professional seafarers' titles. My priorities were as follows:

• Explore : Create initial drafts of solutions to inspire stakeholders and learn from their feedback.
• Frame and Define : Based on the feedback and insights gained, determine what the minimum viable product (MVP) will be and deliver the first iteration.
• Ignite a Product : Adopt a product approach with iterative development and regular user testing.

Understanding the context

Conducting Field Research

To better understand the existing procedures from both the agent and seafarer perspectives, I conducted a short field research. This involved meeting with agents who process title requests and observing their work environment through shadowing sessions and interviews. Although I didn't have the opportunity to meet any seafarers at that point, I gained insights into their profiles through the stories shared by the agents.

Discoveries and Insights

During our research, we discovered the diverse profiles of the agents and how different teams across France had varying approaches depending on regional specificities. We also understood the challenges they faced, including heavy workloads and concerns about being overlooked during the digitalization process. Despite these challenges, the agents expressed satisfaction with the level of collaboration, despite the complexities and blockers they encountered in their daily work.

Mapping the existing service

From this research I mapped the existing service² to identify the poorly addressed touch-points. Thanks to this service blueprint, I identified and communicated more effectively about the areas where we will focus the upcoming work.

Developing a proof of concept

Time went fast and we decided with my colleage to not linger on the research phase. So, we decided to quickly build a proof of concept to demonstrate the digitalized process and test our initial ideas with users³. We started by envisioning user flows and the information architecture of the solution. From there, we created an interactive prototype ready for testing.

Targeting an MVP

Reframing the Scope

The scope of our initial proof of concept was too large, so we needed to reframe the project's goals. We decided to focus on two specific titles that were relatively simple to automaticaly process and accounted for approximately 20% of the annual volume of requests. This allowed us to create a service blueprint⁴ that outlined how this partial digitalisation could work while keeping the rest of the service unaffected.

Testing Simple User Flows

At this stage, our goal was to spend as little time as possible on prototyping before conducting tests. Since we hadn't interviewed users yet, we relied on earlier research to develop heuristics and metrics to guide our design choices and evaluate the quality of our concepts. We then built an interactive prototype ready to be tested⁵, focusing on simplicity and transparency in the request process.

Challenges Faced

Partial Results and Organisational Dynamics

While we made progress, we encountered challenges that prevented us from going further. Although we had a strategy to launch a product allowing seafarers to make online requests for two specific titles, our sponsors were not in a position to take on the associated risks. Additionally, their priorities and focus did not align completely with our strategy. Another team within the organisation pursued a different approach by working with a private consultancy and securing additional budgets. Unfortunately, we were unable to gain enough support to advance the project.

Lessons Learned

Through this project, I learned that framing a relevant MVP is not enough to gain organisational buy-in. It requires sponsorship that is willing to shoulder the risks associated with the strategy. Additionally, to avoid being overwhelmed by technicalities, it is crucial to have individuals who can bridge the gap between MVP development and business expertise.