Journey map of a traveler’s experience.
Focusing on Key User Needs by Traveler Segment
Detailed customer personas, representing various passenger segments, were developed to enable deeper understanding of travelers’ goals, pain points, and needs. The team zeroed in on principal traveler personas—the frequent flyer or business traveler, the family traveler, and the leisure traveler—and explored how best to support those passengers’ desires. By understanding each traveler journey, the team could look for ways to communicate with and educate each type of passenger.
The journey maps also illustrated the critical needs of each traveler persona. Armed with that data, the team could design the equivalent of a “minimal viable product” that would satisfy fundamental user needs. By zeroing in on key traveler segments, the team could focus on what was essential to that segment of users. This “curation” aspect is key to both design thinking and Agile-styled methodologies. In design thinking, curation happens with the identification of key insights and the creation of design criteria. These critical activities allow us to take all of the What is research and translate it into a simple set of criteria to drive idea generation in the What if phase. Instead of trying to stuff all possible features and information into any solution, the goal is to focus on paramount user desires, thereby simplifying planning and developing features that add tangible value to the solution.
The team created vignettes demonstrating how the traveler experiences the journey to the airport and how advanced information might engender a smoother journey and a calmer checkpoint. For example, business passengers who travel weekly through airports are most interested in getting through security quickly. Hence, a focus on wait times and airport status was important to them because both facilitate the business traveler’s decision on when to head to the airport. The less frequent leisure traveler will be more concerned about what can or cannot be brought on board. The vacationer in the vineyard needs that information before making a purchase, not at airport security. From this understanding of when answers are needed and how travelers could search for information came TSA’s “When I fly, can I bring my…” tool.
THE PERSONA TOOL
Personas are one of the most popular design tools. They are archetypes—fictional characters that we create to represent different types of stakeholders. Though they are based on actual data gathered during What is research, they are a synthesis of characteristics of different people that we have interviewed, rather than one actual person. We use them to bring our stakeholders to life—not as demographic descriptions but as flesh-and-blood people with names, challenges, and jobs to be done.
Although features were developed for different ends of the usage spectrum, from infrequent to frequent passengers, tools developed for travelers on one end of the spectrum still held value for others. While wait-time information was particularly important to business travelers, this feature still could be helpful to all travelers. Every passenger scrambling to the airport worries about how busy security checkpoint lines are, because everyone occasionally misses a wake-up call or hits bad traffic.
Artifacts created during research and discovery, such as the journey map and traveler personas, became a baseline for the workshop phase, during which participants could adjust or build on them as additional information was shared. These items formed the common framework and language to move the work forward. During the workshop, TSA web strategy summary goals were clearly laid out, including primary and supporting objectives. The primary objective was to prepare the traveling public for security checkpoints and to increase the public’s understanding of TSA’s people, mission, and policies. Secondary and supporting objectives included providing authentic, timely, and relevant information; setting expectations about the dynamic nature of TSA’s role; and portraying TSA employees as skilled and intelligent employees. Decisions made with respect to tools and features would be measured against these goals.
A strategy experience framework was developed to set out the actions to be undertaken. The framework included Engage, Attract, and Extend stages to engage travelers through the design, implementation, and maintenance of the TSA.gov website. Each stage was detailed in terms of the specific tasks to be undertaken. In the Engage phase, the website would be designed and built to reflect the user’s needs and the TSA brand. The Attract stage would provide the on-ramp and would involve efforts to make travelers aware of the redesigned website. The Extend part of the process would allow for continued dialogue and feedback. A timeline or roadmap (similar to the one we saw in the Ring of Kerry story) clarified and detailed how the work would evolve.
Roadmap of Transportation Security Administration web strategy.
The Best Laid Plans …
But the TSA team was to face their own cucumber water moment, like the one we recounted at the start of this book. The day before the intended launch of the revamped TSA.gov website, the Department of Homeland Security announced unexpected policy changes that required all agency websites to follow the same format. This change resulted in a delay of the website launch while the team reviewed the changes necessary to meet the Homeland Security guidelines.
Not to be deterred, the team pivoted to the development of a mobile phone app. Building an app was both within the project mandate to find channels of communication to engage and attract travelers and within the budget. The extensive early research for the website also provided the foundation for other channels of communication, not solely the website. And so a mobile phone app was quickly moved into prototyping. Although the first iPhone had just been released in 2007, it was already clear that people were turning to smartphones for more than text and e-mail. In Lynn’s words: “We didn’t want to build an app if nobody needed it, but it just seemed that every time you flew you saw people pulling out phones for every reason under the sun.”
In the development or prototyping stage, TSA’s iterative cycle continued. In the first instance, wireframes (frameworks illustrating the proposed features and functions) were quickly created to validate the design and features. Using fast, iterative cycles, the team moved on to create working prototypes with a robust back end. Users were asked to conduct specific tasks, and observers verified the number of clicks and amount of time it took to accomplish each task. As Tom explained:
A lot of times when you design something, you are a little bit too close to it. What you think is an intuitive experience may not be intuitive at all. So we make sure that it is. We do specific testing to validate that the design we are trying to deliver is cleaner, more efficient, and creates a better result.
Design and testing were done in smaller sprints. The TSA team took prototype phones with the app, supplied by Sapient, and asked colleagues in neighboring departments to utilize the app—a simple but effective solution to time and access restrictions. This idea of observing the user’s actual interaction with a prototype is key to successfully learning and iterating. As Lynn described:
We knew that the app would have to evolve over time. We needed to be able to make changes if a new procedure was added or any security rules changed. We just knew we would learn throughout the process, even after the app launched. I think you have to go in knowing you are going to learn.
And learn TSA did.
Updates to MyTSA
Launched in June 2010, the MyTSA app was updated over time on the basis of feedback. One early update added the ability to type in three letters to anticipate full search terms in the “When I fly, can I bring my …” tool. In addition, multiple spelling formats were included—for example, light saber and lightsaber. As part of the effort to humanize TSA staffers, humor was eventually added: “Sadly, the technology doesn’t currently exist to create a real lightsaber. However, you can pack a toy lightsaber in your carry-on or checked bag.” If passengers look up “elephant,” the response begins, “Yes, we have ‘elephant’ in our app!”
The tool started with one thousand items, including both permitted and prohibited a
rticles. That list is now at 4,600 and includes multiple descriptors. As Lynn described, “We kind of counted on users helping us with what works, what doesn’t work. We looked at the feedback on iTunes. People left feedback on what they liked and didn’t like. And so we were able to make upgrades.” Today, the tool allows users to suggest items to add to the database.
Since that time, TSA Pre® has been integrated into the MyTSA app. Launched in 2011, TSA Pre® allows travelers to apply for prechecked status, which speeds traveler movement through security checkpoints. TSA even put a call out for ideas on the InnoCentive website, asking people to submit ways to create a more efficient screening process that accommodates all levels of travelers, offering a prize of $5,000 for the best idea.
The app also now integrates a link to TSA videos on YouTube, another communications channel that was added to the mix. Users click through to simple, quick videos that help them with their journeys. Guides such as “Dress Smart,” Pack Smart,” “Liquids, Aerosols, and Gels,” “Traveling with Children,” and “Military Personnel” were added to provide information at travelers’ fingertips. Another addition was a list of tips or useful information that travelers might not know, which would automatically appear at the bottom of the screen, beginning with “Did you know?” A tip might be “Children ages twelve and under can leave their shoes on at security checkpoints.” The tip would be followed by details on where to go for more information.
There is no way to launch the perfect app, but it is possible to launch a well-thought-out, user-centered tool design that evolves over time in response to feedback. The key is to seek constant, direct feedback. When the redesigned TSA website was eventually launched, in 2012, learning from the MyTSA app was incorporated into the website.
Minimizing Risk with Small Steps
It clearly is a challenge to communicate with 700 million travelers in a timely and convenient manner. It is impossible to foresee all situations that might occur. Because eliminating risk is impossible, especially in a constant state of global flux, it is of vital importance for TSA to manage risk effectively by creating a portfolio of concepts and by proactively and progressively prototyping solutions that support their primary mission of service and security. If, through various tools of communication, TSA can anticipate and address unexpected situations before they cause problematic delays and discontent, then their work goes a long way toward maintaining calm and improving both speed and security at checkpoints, their ultimate goal.
Let’s return to Kip’s initial desire to open the channels of communication to better serve the public. The first new channel of communication, launched with Kip’s support, was the TSA blog. When viewed from the lens of today, a blog may seem decidedly ho-hum, but in 2008 it was revolutionary. Although TSA was not the first federal agency to launch a blog, it was the first to allow people to interact and comment—certainly a potentially risky endeavor, in light of the potential backlash. TSA had cleared the blog through its own legal team, but the Department of Homeland Security demanded an explanation.
Luckily, TSA blogger Bob Burns had already become so popular that it was hard to pull the plug. In fact, each early blog post received hundreds of comments, many from travelers expressing, often vehemently, their frustrations with TSA screening procedures. The blog received national media attention, which drove even more traffic to it, with some readers defending TSA against egregious comments. In fact, the blog sought to stimulate this kind of conversation. It was the first effort to establish an authentic and open dialogue between TSA and the traveling public. With the blog posts and the question-and-answer conversation in the comment area, TSA started the process of communicating what the agency does and why, in order to build a better relationship between travelers and TSA staff and, in doing so, to encourage compliance.
Other communication initiatives undertaken by TSA, building on the success of its blog, include an Instagram account, started in 2013, and a customer service account on Twitter, @askTSA, started in 2015. In 2016, TSA became the first federal agency to offer its services via Facebook Messenger. “We continue to work on improving the traveler experience and security effectiveness with innovative tools such as Twitter and now Facebook Messenger,” TSA administrator Peter Neffenger explained. “By using social media to enhance the service that we provide, TSA is better positioned to assist travelers in real time while keeping transportation security our top priority.” These efforts continue to expand the means through which travelers can engage in a timely dialogue with TSA. These channels now even allow travelers to share photographs of carry-on items they have questions about—a visualization aimed at expediting assistance.
Both the TSA blog and the Instagram account remain popular today (hip website Jezebel recently called the Instagram account “surprisingly hilarious”), and both humanize the agency. They illustrate the issues TSA faces and the value TSA provides in securing air travel. When passengers become aware that seven or eight guns are found daily in carry-on luggage—not to mention other prohibited items—travelers develop a better understanding of TSA’s challenge in maximizing security while minimizing wait times.
There is inevitable risk in taking action, in reaching out to the public to encourage authentic communication. But such actions are necessary experiments, undertaken to learn, refine, and iterate. If we learn from them, they are not failures. While there is always the risk that a concept will fail—and, in today’s environment, possibly result in a social media backlash—there is greater risk, we believe, in inaction. Human-centered design helps us to manage the unavoidable risks that reaching out invites.
Reflections on the Process
MyTSA has now been downloaded more than 1 million times, which is impressive, given federal limitations on paid advertising. In 2011, the application was named Best Mobile App in Government by the American Council for Technology and Industry Advisory Council. In May 2016, MyTSA app usage was up 400 percent with a busy travel season predicted by airlines and airports. On Twitter, @askTSA, launched in September 2015, had received forty thousand inquiries by July 2016. But it isn’t just other government agencies that TSA is besting. Rolling Stone magazine recently analyzed popular social media sites, and TSA’s Instagram account ranked number four overall, beating out Grammy Award winner Beyoncé, in fifth position. “The nod from Rolling Stone is a bit of a coup for the oft-criticized agency,” the Washington Post noted, continuing:
It also is an acknowledgment at how adept the agency has become at using social media to engage the public. Whether it’s inviting travelers to tweet @askTSA for answers about what they can and cannot bring on their flight or using its blog to bust myths, these platforms have given TSA new ways to build goodwill, educate the public and shore up its image.
TSA has gathered more than half a million followers on Instagram, according to the Washington Post.
So the desire to foster open channels of communication with travelers, which Kip initiated, continues to advance, along with the intent to educate passengers about checkpoint security and to promote TSA’s people, mission, and policies. TSA continues to experiment with tools that will best serve the traveling public, whether on Twitter, Facebook Messenger, or other platforms.
But, as we saw in the United Cerebral Palsy story in chapter 8, the use of design thinking does not guarantee a happy ending. TSA continues to struggle, in the eyes of the public, and is still the butt of jokes (e.g., “TSA stands for ‘thousands standing around’”) and a source of complaints. As with UCP, much of this has little to do with its user-centricity and more to do with basic economics of staffing and budget cuts, as a recent article in Politico commented:
The crunch comes down to simple math: since 2011, the number of travelers moving annually through TSA’s checkpoints has increased by nearly 100 million, to a predicted 740 million passengers this year, while the agency’s staff has shrunk to a five-year low.
Yet the tools TSA created are being used by thousands daily, and the traveling pu
blic is now more aware of TSA policies and the reasons behind them. It is a complicated balancing act, but important strides forward have been made.
Tomorrow’s technology has yet to be discovered, and tomorrow’s policies have yet to be unveiled. We know that change is the only constant and, especially in the technological world, undoubtedly brings new challenges. But humans are Homo sapiens, not the “Homo economicus” that much planning and strategy is based on; our behavior is often irrational and is rarely dictated totally by analysis. Dealing with the human animal in successfully implementing technological possibilities involves searching for insights that will help us understand our uniqueness and idiosyncrasies. Rather than merely demanding that humans adapt to technology, governments and nonprofits can better serve us, and can accomplish their missions more effectively, by using technology—as TSA has done—to communicate with us and to better understand our often unarticulated needs.
At TSA, understanding and addressing these “peripheral” human desires advances the goal of security. Acknowledging that technology plays a key role, TSA’s strategy has been to systematically expand channels of communication in a manner that meaningfully meets travelers’ needs. The design thinking process, coupled with Agile-styled methods, has helped the agency to highlight bias, blind spots, and unexamined assumptions and to drive better results.
When challenges are complex, solutions often need to evolve in layers that support each other. TSA did not simply build channels of communication. The agency also trained employees to support the changes in approach and considered how to improve the security checkpoint spaces, identifying many passenger touch points to potentially improve. In both design thinking and Agile approaches, the holistic systems perspective is unlocked by bringing all stakeholders into the conversation.
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