I was apart of a team of 10 talented enterprise designers and researchers while at IHG. I was tasked with leading various efforts including creating a check-in system, revamping property revenue management, and designing a solution for managing customer complaints. Many of these initiatives replaced paper, extremely outdated legacy applications, or were completely new technologies.
Check-In Prototype vpn_key Complaints Prototype vpn_keyEvery hotel had its own methodologies to maintain operations. Repetitive workflows were outdated, clunky, and slow. Not one hotel's process for a specific task overlapped with another.
With our researchers, we tested early and often. As soon as a workflow was prototyped, we wrapped it in User Testing’s engine and quickly received actionable feedback from staff at IHG hotels around the world. We replaced patchwork efforts with streamlined, web-based systems.
All of these solutions were created for desktop only, but it was a challenge to account for the ever-varying use cases. Some properties used paper-based guest lists reprinted constantly to check in customers, while others relied on apps like WhatsApp to keep staff updated.
Conflicting ideas with Product vs. Customers. Some evangelism was needed to remind everyone who we were solving problems for. This was also my first time working with overseas development teams.
Piloting Google Design Sprints with SMEs, designers, engineers, and researchers. This has never been done at IHG before, however all of these solutions were quickly born from sprints.
There’s always room for improvement. Hospitality has so many moving parts and every property is different. It was paramount to test early and often.