Field Worker Experience
Simplifying how utility crews prepare for, navigate, and execute work in the field.
Field work at FirstEnergy spans far more than completing a job in the field. Crews operate within a coordinated system of dispatch, damage assessment, safety response, materials, routing, repair, and reporting. My work focused on simplifying that complexity into a clearer mobile experience for the people doing the work.
FirstEnergy field workers relied on fragmented tools and workflows to complete jobs across service territories. Our team explored how a more unified experience could reduce friction between receiving work, preparing for jobs, navigating to sites, and completing tasks in the field.
Phases of Work
Objective:
Understand how field crews actually planned, prepared for, and executed work in order to define the future product.
"Being able to continuously understand the scope-to-lesion relationship gives me confidence before and during sampling."
Lineman (2 years work xp) | FirstEnergy
"I'd like to spend less time in meetings, safety/cyber training, and admin work."
Line Leader (17 years work xp)| FirstEnergy
Observations
Different field roles had very different workflows
Work frequently moved between digital systems and physical environments
Existing processes contained both official workflows and informal workarounds
Improving one step could create downstream problems elsewhere
Decisions:
Mapped workflows around the work itself rather than the existing software
Looked for repeated pain points across roles rather than isolated interface complaints
Used those patterns to identify product opportunities for the future-state experience
Challenges & Constraints:
Many opportunities emerged from research
Different business groups naturally prioritized different problems
The product could not realistically solve everything in its first release
Decisions:
Organized opportunities around the worker journey
Used visual workflows and concepts to make future capabilities tangible
Connected individual features back to larger operational problems
Alternative explorations:
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Design opportunity:
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Objective:
Align stakeholders around which capabilities should define the first version of the product.
Description
Challenges & Constraints:
Research surfaced more valuable opportunities than could realistically be built
Features varied widely in user value, operational value, effort, and dependency
Stakeholders needed to move from individual preferences to a shared product direction
Decisions:
Led an in-person feature-prioritization workshop
Made candidate capabilities visible and comparable
Facilitated discussion around user value, business value, feasibility, and dependencies
Used the workshop to separate MVP needs from longer-term opportunities
Turned stakeholder discussion into a clearer product roadmap
Daily Work Queue
Help workers understand what they need to accomplish and what requires attention before leaving the service center.
Job Detail
Bring work instructions, customer/site information, materials, and relevant context into one place.
Field Navigation
Connect job sequencing with location so workers can understand where work is occurring across their territory.
Exception Handling
Support the reality that field work rarely follows the happy path perfectly.
"Andrew joined our team and had a very direct impact. His background and knowledge were extremely instrumental in getting our project off the ground."
Christopher Pettit, SME, Staff Technical Specialist | FirstEnergy
Established a shared future-state vision for the field-worker experience
Converted frontline research into prioritized product opportunities
Aligned stakeholders around an MVP direction
Created workflows and concepts the product team could use to move into delivery