Building X.

Building X is a Siemens multi-product platform for managing smart grids and smart buildings, mainly targeting B2B customers. It is presented in the product portfolio as a cloud-based alternative solution.

I served as Senior UX Researcher.

No previous end-to-end mapping of the onboarding flow for a building or campus had been done. I contacted and interviewed over 40 users across 3 continents (USA, Africa, Europe), aligning stakeholders from diverse business divisions — sales, procurement, installation, technical leaders, developers and engineers.

The process of rationalizing and mapping onboarding flows lasted between 6 months and 3 years depending on complexity, through 5 complementary personas and 25 interviews.

I proposed and executed the following activities:

• Research planning and stakeholder alignment.
• Kickoff meetings and creation of research plans.
• Both field and desktop studies.
• Service blueprint mapping.
• Qualitative and quantitative analysis.
• Insight synthesis and suggesting new initiatives.

For the first time, all actors involved in the onboarding process could see how their roles fit into the overall flow. Pain points were grouped into 5 main clusters, each containing 6–12 issues. The 13 design questions that emerged enabled teams to solve prioritized problems efficiently, with actions agreed upon with stakeholders from the reference business departments.

• It's a mistake to take for granted that you understand what your interviewee is reporting — better to double-check, especially with engineers with 25+ years of experience.
• Aligning stakeholders during the process often reveals surprises that would otherwise go unnoticed, sometimes putting the audience into a defensive mode.
• A thorough research process requires time to design and implement, but ultimately saves more time.