biteU

Project Type:
A design and functionality update to a consumer facing app necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Context:

  • Existing proprietary dining app was scheduled for an upgrade with additional pre-order functionality
  • COVID-19 increased the speed with which we needed to release update to the market
  • Working on a standard academic calendar schedule

Challenge:
How can we complete the redesign, update clients, configure ~120 instances and train the field in 90 days?

Research and Ideation:

Collaborators

IS&T, 3rd Party Developers, Strategy, Internal Offer Development Team, Temp Agency, Help Desk, Clients

Implementation Plan

Collaborative Agile process that prioritized the upgraded app functionality, delegated responsibilities and scheduled daily/weekly meetings to communicate progress and address concerns

Hypothesis

If we were to complete on time, we had to prioritize and divide responsibilities. First, design completion and development had to be completed. While that was happening, we assembled leads and created territory teams to handle the initial configuration and troubleshooting. As those configurations were completed, we used the learnings to build a training program and best practices database to introduce to on-site teams who would maintain their instance of the app.

Implementation Team Workflow Details:

Solution:
The updated app solved for the pre-order functionality gap, modernized the design and added more user-requested options (rewards, order tracking, etc). Additionally, streamlining the implementation strategy allowed the team to meet the deadline.

1.0 version

2.0 version

Impacts:

  • Financial: Made on-campus dining viable during a global pandemic, strengthening the company’s partnership with campus leaders
  • Human: Student adoption and use of the app increased 150% with the upgrades in functionality
  • Intangible: Our ability to deliver in a time of crisis deepened the connection between the company and its campus partners