From Data Overload to Clarity

How We Transformed Aircraft Maintenance at Bombardier

In a Nutshell

We decreased turnaround time to get aircraft back in the air by empowering workers with data they could actually use to troubleshoot problems.

Overview

Directors of Maintenance (DoMs) and their support teams (CRC) struggled to rapidly access accurate aircraft data in an intuitive format. This project aimed to revolutionize aircraft data accessibility, enabling faster troubleshooting and setting the foundations for predictive maintenance.

Role: UX & UI Designer, Interim Product Owner
Skills: Data Visualization, Product Design: from Validation to Launch.
Company: Bombardier Business Aviation
Timeline: Jan-Dec 2020 (Launched later in 2022)

  • Following advisory sessions with a McKinsey team, an internal innovation team was created as a joint venture with GE’s hardware division to coincide with the launch of the Global7500 series aircraft. The goal was to transform aircraft maintenance & troubleshooting practices by leveraging intelligent data visualization.

    • Sr. Design Strategist

    • Designer (me)

    • Product Owner

    • SCRUM Master (GE)

    • Research Team (I shadowed them for a few weeks, then we took it from there without the research team.)

    • PM (GE)

    • Technical Team (External Developers)

    • Business Stakeholder (VP of Bombardier)

  • Sketch & InVision

  • Mercuriades Business Award for Innovation, 2022

Research & Discovery

Google Venture’s Design sprint structures is one of our favourites to follow. Once we find out how the team might best succeed through clear role allocation, our output immediately becomes of higher quality, as well as more frequent.

User Interviews

Before the official project kickoff, we conducted user interview sessions to understand our end-user personas, create user journey maps, and prepare a pitch for the VP to present to the board (to validate the project).

Interview Process:

  • Conducted in teams of three: interviewer, note-taker & record keeper, and a secondary interviewer/note-taker for follow-up questions.

  • Focused on pain points, workflow inefficiencies, and data accessibility challenges.


Personas

Our key personas included:

  1. Directors of Maintenance (DoMs): Responsible for coordinating repairs when a “snag” (issue) arises with an aircraft part. Due to inaccessible and convoluted data, they often struggle to diagnose issues.

  2. Customer Response Centre (CRC) Representatives: Support DoMs by troubleshooting, recommending replacement parts, and arranging repairs.


Usability Tests

After user interview sessions, we mapped user flows and journey maps to visualize pain points and design opportunities. White-boarding sessions facilitated sketching out the first iterations of workflows.

Design Process

  • Initial workflows were tested in one-on-one sessions with different key research participants.

  • Clickable prototypes were sent to a larger incubator team for live feedback sessions

  • As the designs evolved to high-fidelity prototypes, group usability tests were conducted via interactive prototype links.

  • Feedback forms linked in the prototype enabled us to collect more async feedback, which was consolidated and prioritized according to business and user needs.

Not only did we help get airplanes back in the air faster, we helped usher in a cultural shift — proving the value of innovative projects such as these to the C-suite & board of directors, as we collaborated closely with the VP.

Marketing Launch Video, 2021

Winner of Mercuriades Business Award for Innovation, 2022

🍒 On Top