THE CHALLENGE

Communication is key, especially at a company with over 500,000 associates. During the pandemic, changing rules and regulations surrounding mask mandates from state to state led to associates finding themselves not knowing what their leaders were requiring them to do and therefore experienced anxiousness and confusion, common feelings that arise from a lack of clear communication. Beyond COVID-19, disaster protocol, associate benefits, leadership changes, success sharing and other messaging to promote store culture were things that both associates and leaders identified as aspects that could be better communicated.

The Home Depot was looking to launch an easy-to-use and efficient mass associate communication system for leaders to communicate with their associates.

This mass communication feature was to be an addition to an existing application, Workforce Tools. I would describe Workforce Tools as a Home Depot associate’s best friend. Workforce Tools is an app nearly every associate uses to view their time cards, clock hours, request time off, and complete any other work related task. My stakeholders identified this application as being a good avenue to reach associates.

I was working in a balanced team with two other software engineering interns. As the sole UX designer on this project, I had to ensure that I was clearly communicating with them what I was doing, why I was doing it, and how it connects to the project. To establish and garner that synergy of our team I conducted a question generation session as a kick-off activity. During this session we came up with any and every question we had related to the project and problem space. After, I sorted those questions into who those questions would be best directed towards and made plans to get those questions answered. Through my summer, I realized that the key for an effective balanced team is to build a strong relationship and for the team to see the value in UX practices. The best way I could do that was to invite my team to user interviews and for them to hear directly from the associates and hear about their challenges. This really helped all of us garner empathy and made us more passionate about our project and what the impact could be. 

RESEARCH + PLANNING

When speaking with current stores and leaders I learned that currently there is no standardized system of communications from leader to associate. If a leader has a message they want to relay to all associates they rely on mass group chats, meetings conducted at either the beginning or the end of the day, supervisors, or simple paper messages in the back call room. While at times these systems may be effective, there are also drawbacks to each method. For example, maintaining a group chat with 400+ associates is not easy. Similarly, meetings at the beginning or end of the day may not account for the associates who work odd shifts.

THE NEED