Field operations,redesigned for atier-one operator.
A native iPad experience for thousands of field technicians. Offline first, glove friendly, and built around the real sequence of work rather than the org chart.
Twelve shifts in the field showed us basements, lifts and patchy networks. The app works without a signal and syncs when one returns, with conflicts resolved rather than lost.
02 / 05
Targets built for a gloved hand.
High contrast for daylight, large hit targets for gloves and rain, and no motion that tires a technician at the end of a shift. A design system built outdoors.
03 / 05
One app, in the real sequence of the work.
Receive the ticket, travel, arrive, diagnose, execute, close. The product follows the technician's sequence, and the data model serves the workflow rather than the other way round.
04 / 05
The report writes itself as you work.
Every step done on site fills the report as it happens. The paperwork no longer waits for the end of the shift.
05 / 05
In production with a tier-one operator.
Two legacy systems replaced by one native iPad app, released to two hundred technicians first and now used by thousands every day.
I / Context
Two tools, one technician, built by the wrong people.
Technicians used two tools. A legacy desktop application on a vehicle laptop for job intake, and a mobile app for closing tickets. The two did not talk to each other. Both were built around the org chart rather than around a technician's day.
Leadership had heard enough complaints. They wanted one tool, on one device, designed for the technician in the field. Not an iteration of either system. Not a wrapped web app. A native experience that respected patchy networks, large gloves, harsh sun, and someone with six more tickets to close before lunch.
II / Approach
Twenty-two weeks. Most of them in the field.
The brief looked simple: design a better tool. The first finding from the field broke our own hypothesis, so we followed the field, not the brief.
01
Field research, twelve shifts
We rode along with technicians across two regions. Twelve full shifts, six equipment types. We logged every tap, every retry on a patchy network, every workaround the team had invented. The report carried three findings leadership had never heard, and it changed the brief.
Weeks 1 to 4
02
Architecture around the work
We restructured the product around the technician's real sequence: receive the ticket, travel, arrive on site, diagnose, execute, close. The old tools were structured around data models. In the new one, the data model serves the workflow.
Weeks 4 to 8
03
Design and engineering, shoulder to shoulder
Native iPad. Offline-first sync with conflict resolution. A design system built for outdoor readability: high contrast, large hit targets, and no motion that would tire an already tired technician. Engineering built from that same system, so no component ever had two interpretations.
Weeks 8 to 18
04
Pilot, refine, scale
Released to two hundred technicians in two cities, with daily field observation for the first two weeks. The most important change was a redesign of the diagnosis flow we had been confident about. The pilot proved us wrong. The technicians were right.
Weeks 18 to 22
III / Outcomes
The tool stopped being the problem.
One native app replaced both legacy systems. Technicians went from two devices to one, and daily ticket throughput improved. They also stopped raising tool problems in the daily standup, which the field manager had said would be the real measure. The design system now belongs to the operator's own team.
2→to 1Legacy tools replaced by one native iPad app
4,000+Daily field technicians on the platform
22wksFrom field research to production release
Offline firstDesigned for patchy networks across geographies
It is the first time IT has built something that respects how we actually work. We stopped having to fight the tool to do the job.
Field operations manager · Telecom operator · India
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