Lessons in New Platform Launches

• The current system reached limitations of flexibility to coordinate multi-agency disaster response.

• Increasing disaster events required a more robust infrastructure for data management.

• With over 10,000 disaster responders, the ability to rapidly change user roles and develop HR-related processes became paramount.

The company realized that the changing landscape of disaster response required a completely new system to be built from the ground up.

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• ​The system would need to be massively more flexible while adhering to more stringent data security standards.

• The system would need to handle more agencies coordinating disaster response. Each agency had a specific role in the disaster and unique business processes that must be accommodated in the same system.

• At any point in time, there were numerous active events in play coordinating 10,000 users, thousands of constantly evolving volunteers, and millions of victims tracked across hundreds of agencies.

• Now that the new system was built, all of the above had to be migrated during live events without a disruption to service.

1. System Parity then Business Transformation: Since the new system could morph dynamically in real-time, the first view of the system was intentionally designed to look like the old one to minimize the change management and training of field personnel. 

2. Train the trainer: A national committee of trainers was designated to roll out training to the field.

3. 24-hour Help Desk: For the transition period and months after, a 24-hour help desk was staffed to handle field issues in real-time to ensure that victims of field responders were able to address systems quickly.

4. Multiple Feedback Points: Surveys were set up in multiple areas to promote feedback from multiple levels. Data were compiled weekly to build rapid roadmaps for system improvements.

• Converted 10,000 users in six weeks.

• 96.5% adoption rate organization-wide.

• 97% customer satisfaction rate.

1. Go slow to go fast. The planning phase of the migration was a full six months in the making. Tabletop simulations were set up to practice and test the process on a small scale before moving to the full-scale conversion.

2. Overstaff the support team: They are the rapid triage group in case you missed something. We had a primary team and two backup SWOT teams that would come online as needed.

3. Build in rapid feedback loops. Proactive surveys for each step of the process and each group of rolling migrations. Multichannel inputs - mobile, email, text, and phone.

4. Focus on the late adopters first. Many change agents focus on the eager early adopters first to build momentum. Focusing on the laggards first gives you the worst case to solve early. If you convert them, the rest is easy. We recruited a group of the old guard in disaster response and invited them to break the demo instance of the new platform. We gathered valuable data to improve the system while garnering buy-in from those influence others.