Somewhere on a BP Wind site, a technician climbs a turbine tower, finds out the part in hand isn't the one that's broken, and has to climb back down for another to discover the needed part is not in stock anymore. Alissa Millenson stepped into that world for her Service Design Network award winning project, transforming spare parts management for onshore wind energy.
While waiting for better weather to go on site, Alissa started differently: watching technician "day in the life" videos on TikTok and YouTube, mapping processes with managers and their teams, and slowly building the trust that let her walk onto a wind farm with storyboards already in hand.
We talked about how speaking the same language as the experts on site is necessary for the trust and creating a momentum. How some quick drawings where perfect for the first experiments and of course, how pizza can bring people together and turn a dry back-office process into something people wanted to be part of.
We learned how using workarounds in process flow can be a source of insight, rather than a problem to eliminate, and what it means to design a system as relational rather than purely transactional.
Learn more about Alissa on her own website
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