Idea

Clearly, Ausgrid needed smart, simple, real time collaboration between managers, schedulers, supervisors and engineers. But while the desired outcome was obvious, how best to execute was not.

Working directly with a group of real users, our project team prioritised a foundational feature set and shipped its first release within days.

This was deployed straight to production for a small user sample, who provided immediate and ongoing feedback. Iterating like this, from core capabilities outwards, within 12 weeks we had developed a product that was limited in scope but highly functional. 

The speed and quality of this outcome consolidated trust among the stakeholders. With Ausgrid embracing our methodology, we rolled into a new cycle, delivering more features at pace and increasing the user base. With more use and more users informing the process, an elegant but robust version 2 product quickly took shape. In the final phase, we refined the UX and defined more sophisticated integration.

Impact

After just 9 months, a full quarter earlier than anticipated, the MyWork platform was complete. We had created a field crew scheduling and collaboration tool that Boston Consulting Group’s global utilities expert described as the “world leading solution” in the space.

MyWork immediately saved the business $2M in capital expenditure by eliminating the need for a planned SaaS platform upgrade. More importantly, even at partial rollout it delivered over $1M per month in increased productivity, which meant the project paid for itself in less than three months.