Solving LeanIX Case Study — Improving EAM Matrix Report

Problem statement

LeanIX EAM is built on Fact Sheets and relations — think of it like a graph with nodes and edge where both nodes as well as edges can hold properties. LeanIX comes out-of-the-box with a meta model (an opinionated approach on how to do Enterprise Architecture) configured.

The real strength of LeanIX only shines, when the Fact Sheets have the correct relationships to each other, e.g. the following shows a matrix report with the User Group “Headquarter“ and how this User Group supports our Business Capabilities in “Corporate Services“ with different Applications (they are highlighted for their business criticality).

Matrix report UI, credit -LeanIX

LeanIX Problem Statement

Users are unhappy with the Matrix report and it is the cause of negative NPS. Some feed-back:

Customer 1: The report takes ages to load and then I am suddenly losing all overview — you waste so much space, can’t you make the design wasting less space?
Customer 2: The reports are okay, but it takes really long to load and then any change to the filters lets you wait again that long — my users are afraid of changing anything in fear of having to wait another minute for it to load.

Customer 3: We have so many User Groups and Business capabilities, that it is unmanageable to view the whole report — can you make it more easy to get an overview please? When we zoom out (we have to user the browser’s functionality for that!) it just becomes a set of coloured boxes.

Customer 4: I want to export this to Power Point or your diagrams, so I can rearrange everything in a way, so my CIO can easily understand it.

Customer 5: Figuring out which Application is used by whom for what purpose is extremely important for us, but with ~900 User Groups and ~300 Business Capabilities and ~10k Applications, we will need the rest of the year to fill in the data. Can we get support in that? Customer 6: Aggregate everything. Increase overview.

Customer 7: My end users don’t get the report and the filtering.

Customer 8: I want to aggregate and drill in again.

How would you approach an OKR like “Increase the NPS for the reports by 20 %.”

Solution

Approach: The approach was to break down the customer problems into smaller chunks and identify commonalities between them. This also helps to know the:

1. Minimum Viable Feature
2. Technical debts &
3. Urgency

Understanding our Customer and their Pain Points:

1. 2 out of 8 customers find the report takes time to load (including any change to the filter which delays the report load time).
2. 5 out of 8 customers find it challenging with the existing overview (space optimisation reported).
3. 1 out of 8 customers need export facility for the application matrix & diagrams to PPT.
4. Understanding of the Application matrix architecture is a challenge for all our customers in general. 1 out of 8 customers find it challenging with the filters in the matrix report.
5. 1 out of 8 customers need a capability of filling the matrix report with 900 User Groups, 300 Business Capabilities and 10k Applications.

All our customers are important to us and as a company we are committed to provide our service in their best interest. However, we have some physical constraints as well; including time, resource and budget. As a Product Manager, I have to deliver solutions to my clients with limited resource within the interest of time.

To tackle this, I have come up with a MoSCoW Prioritisation Strategy for our existing customer problems. With this strategy we will be able to prioritise and rank problems we target to deliver first and followed by others.

1. Must-Have,
2. Should-Have,
3. Could-Have, and
4. Won’t-Have

On what basis we Prioritized?

Must — Priority 1:

2. 5 out of 8 customers find it challenging with the existing overview (space optimisation as well).

Reason: Majority (5/8) of our customers raised concerned on the existing overview. This has become essential and non-negotiable issue to be fixed. Thus making it the most time-sensitive of all the existing issue in the list.

Should — Priority 2

1. 2 out of 8 customers find the report takes time to load (including any change to the filter which delays the report load time).

Reason: Our customers has raised serious concerns on loading of the matrix report. For any customer making a critical business decision while on our dashboard, it is important that our reports load on time without much delay. This is a real pain point and should be considered as priority to be fixed.

Could — Priority 3

3. 1 out of 8 customers need export facility for the application matrix & diagrams to PPT.

4. 1 out of 8 customers find it challenging with the filters in the matrix report.

Reason: (Point 3) One customer has requested a feature of exporting the application matrix and diagrams in PPT format. This particular feature will not have much value addition for our other customers at this point of time and this request might be considered as least priority. This feature is though good to have but can be consider for our future development.

(Point 4) Understanding of the Application matrix architecture is a challenge for all our customers in general.1 out of 8 customers finds it challenging with the filters in the matrix report as well. Purposefully, this issue is considered as Priority 3 as it has some relevance with Priority 1 problem. (a) Maybe fixing the overview might fix the issue as well. That can only be determined after fixing Priority 1 problem and interacting with user. (b) If, the issue remain unsolved we can re-consider the problem and work around the filters.© Maybe just FTUE around the Matrix dashboard for the end users and some training may fix the issue as well.

Won’t — Priority 4

5. 1 out of 8 customers need a capability of filling the matrix report with 900 User Groups, 300 Business Capabilities and 10k Applications.

Reason: Comparatively this problem is little big compared to other problems which are quick win for the team. Here, the client has a huge IT infrastructure and business is spread across multiple geographies. To fix this issue we need to onboard the frontend team, backend team and the design team to come up with a solution. Before implementation, (a) we might have to go with several rounds of talk with the client to understand that if our proposed solution is solving the problem or not. (b) We might also need several approvals form the business and IT. © Since, the business is spread across multiple geographies we might need regulatory authority compliance approvals as well.

In short, this is itself a big project and not just minor bug fixing or feature addition. This problem will take good amount of resource in terms of time, money and bandwidth. So, I have consider this as priority 4 in my list.

User Story

* The user story is written keeping user (customers, their problem and pain points) at its centre.

User Story for Priority 1 problem

Objective:

As a User of EAM application, I want to see a complete overview of the Application Matrix in my screen without losing any part of it so that I can perform my day to day job on the dashboard.

Acceptance Criteria

1. User should not lose the overview of the matrix report while loading, refreshing the screen.
2. User should be able to view the entire report in one screen.
3. Matrix report should recalibrate while selecting, deselecting the filters to optimise space.
4. User should be able to increase and decrease the overview of the matrix report.

User Story for Priority 2 problem

Objective:

As a User of EAM application, I want to see the entire report loads quickly in the screen when any filters are applied or removed without any delay so as to preform my daily job.

Acceptance Criteria

1. The application matrix should load quickly once the user navigate to the report in the EAM application and perform his daily operations.
2. User should be able to change filters without worrying about matrix report to load.

User Story for Priority 3 problem

Case 1:

Objective:

As a User of EAM application, I want to export the Application Matrix Report and Diagrams to Power Point and rearrange so as to perform my business.

Acceptance Criteria

1. User should be able export the Application Matrix Report and Diagrams in the local system.
2. While exporting, the user should be able to perform his work in the dashboard while the downloading can be carried out in the background.
3. Once exported, user can view the same in Power point with each slide containing information about user group, business capabilities and application.
4. Once exported, user can view the same in Excel in tabular format.
5. Addition of export facility should not impact the load time of the report.

User Story for Priority 3 problem

Case 2:

Objective:

As a User of EAM application, I want a FTUE (First Time User Experience) with a complete virtual tour and work around with examples along with labelling (high level) of rows and column of the application dashboard.

Acceptance Criteria

Objective:

1. As a user of EAM application, I should receive onboard training and walkthrough of the entire dashboard.
2. The matrix report should provide a better First Time User Experience and work around with examples once the report loads.
3. The matrix report should contain legends arounds its rows and column for better understanding.

User Story for Priority 4 problem

As a User of EAM application, I should be able to figure out which Application is used by whom and for what purpose in an IT ecosystem with 900 User Groups, 300 Business Capabilities and 10k Applications and able to establish relations between User Groups, Business Capabilities and Applications.

Acceptance Criteria

1. User should be able to figure out which Application is used by whom.
2. User should be able to establish relations between 900 User Groups, 300 Business Capabilities and 10k Applications in a way that the data in the cell are auto populated.
3. User should be able to view the entire report in one screen.
4. User should be able to zoom in and zoom out the application matrix.
5. Addition of export facility should not impact the load time of the report.

Note:

a. Issues screenshots are kept hidden.
b. Solution to all the problems are kept hidden.