FUTURE BACK MOBILE APPS WORKSHOP
Creating a mobile app strategy for
Allegion's Global Software Systems
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KEY GOAL
I co-facilitated a high-stakes, "future-back" brainstorming session with US-based General Managers and business leaders. The goal was to break down silos between business units to define a cohesive, global mobile app strategy for Allegion.
HIGH LEVEL TIMELINE
MAKE OF THE TEAM
2 weeks of preparation for a full day workshop
UX Designer
UX Researcher (myself)
UI intern
SYSTEMS USED
Mural
Microsoft Teams
In person office space and the corresponding room technology
THE CHALLENGE
Allegion's various business units were developing mobile applications independently, leading to technical debt and a fragmented user experience.
We needed to:
1) Identify commonalities: Recognize that our different business units have more in common than they realize.
2) Leverage shared resources: Transition toward a "build it once, reuse everywhere" philosophy to minimize tech debt.
3) Anticipate the future: Use "Future-Back" thinking to look 5-10 years ahead, ensuring current development aligns with long-term goals.
Organizing use cases according to persona for each product area
THE STRATEGY
The workshop was grounded in the concept of Full Spectrum Thinking, a book of the same name by Bob Johansen.
We encouraged participants to set aside current "can'ts" and use their assumptions about the future to drive today's decisions. This approach allowed the team to build for a "North Star" while continuing to refine the strategy as technology evolves.
WORKSHOP DESIGN
The day was designed to move from broad empathy to specific actionable themes
We began by aligning on who we are building for. I shared our current research repository to ensure all business units used a unified persona definition. Key personas identified included the Facility Manager, the Integrator, Installer and Maintenance Technicians.
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Using a creative matrix, we brainstormed how mobile technology specifically addresses identity & security (mobile credentials), ubiquity (everyone has a mobile phone), and convenience (meeting the user at their point of need).
KEY OUTCOMES & IMPACT
Participants recognized that despite different titles, many personas are performing nearly identical jobs across business units.
The group agreed on the importance of building common infrastructure and standardized protocols to enable faster scaling.
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Established a "triad team" model to maintain consistent touchpoints across brands over the next 60 days.
TITLE OF THE CALLOUT BLOCK
LESSONS LEARNED
Sending out a post workshop survey was helpful to learn where we could improve and also demonstrate to workshop participants that we deeply valued their time and effort.
While we accommodated remote users, the consensus was that the unique benefits of in person collaboration are vital for these "thorny" strategic discussions. We experimented with AI generated stickies to increase speed, but found they sometimes sacrificed the nuance required.