Problem Space
The current state of Meta’s Change Management systems was characterized by fragmentation, with multiple disjointed tools and workflows that hinder efficiency and effectiveness. The UCS Production UX North Star aimed to contribute to a reduction in Service configuration and code-update errors by improving the usability and effectiveness of Change Safety mechanisms, enhancing visibility and the understanding of Change impact;
and streamline workflows.
and streamline workflows.
The UCS Production UX North Star outlined a vision to enhance Meta’s Change Safety systems by unifying and improving these fragmented systems. This initiative aimed to create a user-friendly, efficient and effective Change Management system to support Infra’s Production environment.
Phased Approach
By utilizing the Crawl, Walk, Run, Fly metaphor the north star presented a staged approach where each milestone is built upon the previous:
1. Crawl: Focus on immediate experience and performance improvements, address immediate usability concerns with minimal Engineering effort.
2. Walk: De-fragment and unify the UX across the change management toolset, map User Journeys and create a more cohesive flow.
3. Run: Bridge UCS with partner-team initiatives that focus on Monitoring & Observability, Reliability Infrastructure and Configuration management - to create a cohesive ecosystem.
4. Fly: Align the progress of the previous milestones with the pre-established Monitoring vision & Strategy for the following year, offering insights into the next evolution of UCS.
2. Walk: De-fragment and unify the UX across the change management toolset, map User Journeys and create a more cohesive flow.
3. Run: Bridge UCS with partner-team initiatives that focus on Monitoring & Observability, Reliability Infrastructure and Configuration management - to create a cohesive ecosystem.
4. Fly: Align the progress of the previous milestones with the pre-established Monitoring vision & Strategy for the following year, offering insights into the next evolution of UCS.
Stakeholder Roles & Expectations:
This initiative emphasized collaboration with stakeholders, leveraging their expertise to identify blind spots and validate approaches. It also highlighted the importance of addressing immediate issues to build a strong foundation for long-term goals. Each milestone included detailed deliverables and expected goals, aiming to improve usability, streamline workflows and enhance system integration.
Milestone 1 - Crawl: Immediate Experience Improvements
Indicators for Success:
Shipped improvements that address the issues we know exist. Hypothesis for additional areas for improvement based on research findings and workshop.
Shipped improvements that address the issues we know exist. Hypothesis for additional areas for improvement based on research findings and workshop.
1. Address immediate experience issues, ensuring that the most pressing usability concerns are addressed quickly. Validate improvements with simplified user-testing in a varied but limited pool to respect the timeline.
2. Short-Term wins with low engineering toil, including improving error messaging, streamlining workflows and clarifying functionality by organizing the UI to be more holistically-coherent.
3. Set the stage for Milestone 2 (Walk) by focusing on optimizing workflows that support time sensitive emergency code changes.
4. Set the stage for stakeholder workshops to uncover and discover potential areas of investment and mitigate risks.
Design Deliverables:
Wireframes, Figma Designs (see below), Evaluative Study Report, UXR Lit review, Workshop to expose change safety risks.
Wireframes, Figma Designs (see below), Evaluative Study Report, UXR Lit review, Workshop to expose change safety risks.
Impact:
Tool interactivity increased (in a single quarter) over 300% by users aiming to experience a streamlined support workflow when updating their Services' safety monitoring.
Tool interactivity increased (in a single quarter) over 300% by users aiming to experience a streamlined support workflow when updating their Services' safety monitoring.
"Safe Change Console"
Upgraded to include Phase management in a step-by-step workflow, internal wiki support messaging,
and "Metamate" (internal ChatGPT) support.
and "Metamate" (internal ChatGPT) support.
Milestone 2 - Walk: Defragmentation, Unification and Definition
Indicators for Success:
Clear definitions of the purpose and responsibilities for each tool via a validated user journey for quality tuning.
Clear definitions of the purpose and responsibilities for each tool via a validated user journey for quality tuning.
1. After resolving immediate issues in Milestone 1 (Crawl), The overall experience was unified by mapping targeted User Journeys to expose potential blockers and create a seamless flow across the Library-of-Tools.
2. Fragmentation theories were examined in terms of each specific tools' role, with the lens towards developing a unified narrative.
Deliverables:
User Journey maps focused on "Change Authors" (the person who makes the code change). Published profiles of each tool to clearly define their purpose (internally shared).
User Journey maps focused on "Change Authors" (the person who makes the code change). Published profiles of each tool to clearly define their purpose (internally shared).
Impact:
Blockers exposed in the User Journey mapping influenced the roadmap for H2 and beyond, organized by "quick wins" (to weaken impact on Engineering toil) versus "long-term Product goals" (which would enable broader business-need direction).
Blockers exposed in the User Journey mapping influenced the roadmap for H2 and beyond, organized by "quick wins" (to weaken impact on Engineering toil) versus "long-term Product goals" (which would enable broader business-need direction).
User Journey for a Change Author authoring a "safe change".
User Journey (via stakeholder workshop) on the Change Authors' path to tuning the health of their Service to prevent failures.
User Journey for a Change Author investigating a failure.
Milestone 3 - Run: Connect with Reliability Infrastructure and Configuration Management
Indicators for success:
Supporting organizations that have completed the first year of their safety journey and demonstrated their ability to maintain high standards; while showcasing progress and potential areas for improvement.
Supporting organizations that have completed the first year of their safety journey and demonstrated their ability to maintain high standards; while showcasing progress and potential areas for improvement.
"Regression" Support: Investigate proper methods of surfacing data of Organizations that are "regressing" in safety standards (in tracking tools) and provide actionable paths to support correction.
Deliverables:
Figma designs to surface regression data in ProductionMatrix (a tool dedicated to monitoring reliability standards for Organizations) while providing actionable context on risk.
Figma designs to surface regression data in ProductionMatrix (a tool dedicated to monitoring reliability standards for Organizations) while providing actionable context on risk.
Impact (early stages):
Organizational performance data in ProductionMatrix reported a reduction in reported "safety regressions", as reported by tracking click-rates on support correction, and through monthly summary reporting.
Organizational performance data in ProductionMatrix reported a reduction in reported "safety regressions", as reported by tracking click-rates on support correction, and through monthly summary reporting.
*note: visuals from Milestone 3 are limited due to NDA.
Milestone 4 - Fly: Unified Change Safety and OneMonitoring
Indicators for success:
This phase provided a clear direction for UCS to guide efforts and decisions into the following year and help the team understand how they can incrementally work towards achieving it.
This phase provided a clear direction for UCS to guide efforts and decisions into the following year and help the team understand how they can incrementally work towards achieving it.
1. Future-vision experience recommendations on the connection and relationship of UCS with a partnering Organization utilizing the tool "OneMonitoring" as we look ahead.
2. Summarizing "lookback" on the evolution of UCS through previous milestones and the path forward; including stakeholder wrap-up interviews and supporting user research to validate experience improvements.
Design Deliverables:
Reporting and design supplementation of the "what could be" effort towards bridging the effort of Unified Change Safety to partnering Organizations.
Reporting and design supplementation of the "what could be" effort towards bridging the effort of Unified Change Safety to partnering Organizations.
*note: visuals from Milestone 4 are limited due to NDA.