Vivint Smart Home
Field Service Application - Less Time in Homes, More Jobs Done
Summary
Company Problem
The field service department relied entirely on email to manage its processes, with information then manually transferred to other systems and Excel sheets. This approach created a logistical nightmare, leading to frequent human errors and the loss of critical data.
Solution
The Field Service Application was a game changer for this part of the Vivint organization. Empowering field service professionals to input their own data gave them greater confidence in the accuracy of the information they relied on. They could more effectively track their truck inventory, and the system automatically replenished stock when levels fell below a set threshold, ensuring they always had the necessary supplies on hand.
Roles
Product designer
User researcher
Team
1 Sr. product designer (me)
1 Product manager
2 Engineers
Contribution
Product design
User research
Final designs
Release strategy
Derek is the kind of UX designer every company wants. He is meticulous in his work and dedicated to his craft. I have worked with Derek on several projects and he is always fully focused on delivering the best user experience with designs that are very contemporary.
Ken Holladay - Product Manager, Vivint
A scattered experience made self-starting a challenge for students
When I joined V School, I encountered a digital landscape that resembled a maze more than a learning platform. Students were bouncing between multiple applications just to access basic resources, and each program had its own unique – often contradictory – organization system.
No-code solutions bought time for a complex transformation
Rather than waiting for a perfect solution, I took a two-pronged approach. First, I implemented immediate improvements using Notion, our existing documentation tool. This no-code solution helped us quickly:
Standardize program pages across courses
Create clear navigation paths
Consolidate essential resources
But I knew we needed a more comprehensive solution. That's when I spotted an opportunity in an unexpected place: Job Leads Today, an app V School had purchased for job searching. I saw its potential to become something much more valuable – a unified student hub.
The student journey at a glance
Mapping out the user stories helped to order and prioritize the work
An existing tool had untapped potential
Working with our development team, we transformed Job Leads Today into what we now call V Hub. The new homepage became a gateway to everything students need:
Direct curriculum access
Interactive progress tracking
Program calendars
Resource libraries
The New student portal homepage
To validate our approach, we included a simple two-question survey with the initial release. The results were very positive: 84% of students reported that the new homepage helped them find everything they needed. This data-informed victory confirmed we were on the right track.
Feedback survey results
Building on our success
This transformation laid the groundwork for even more exciting improvements. With positive feedback from students we moved on to build direct curriculum access within V Hub, with automated progress tracking that gives both students and staff real-time insight into learning journeys.
Lessons learned
While I learned a lot from staff about the student experience, students were not so easy to learn from. When I reached out to students they were often unresponsive. I was able to learn from a few students, but not nearly as many as would have been ideal. Staff members knew the student experience quite well, but that was no substitute for learning directly from students. If I could go back, I would make a greater effort to find ways to learn from more students.
Helping teens discover new stories with the power of AI
Read The Case Study
Customer Problem
Vivint’s Field Service Professionals frequently relied on their phones to email inventory requests or call the main office for updates on their next customer appointment. This process was time-consuming and often caused delays, resulting in late arrivals to customer appointments.