Civic Enterprise System Procurement
UX Research, Workshop Facilitation, Product Documentation & Strategy
TL;DR
One of the nation's largest animal shelters was running on an outdated, legacy system. I led a 12-week research effort — 14 personas, 200+ user stories, 17 journey maps, Information Architecture — that became the product strategy for its replacement. A year after launch, euthanasia dropped 25%.
Animal Shelter Problem
The shelter’s productivity and effectiveness were hampered by an outdated shelter system. The system was full of UX flaws that caused confusion, data loss, staff exhaustion, and prolonged training cycles for new employees.
Goal
To understand shelter staff needs and write a product strategy so the City may procure a modern system specific to animal shelters and hospitals.
Team
Core team:
2 UX researchers (including me, as lead)
External stakeholders:
Shelter leadership team
Shelter staff
IT team
Procurement team
Activities & Artifacts
Eco-system map, research plan, contextual inquiries, journey maps, personas, user stories, workshop
Project Duration
12 weeks
My responsibilities
Stakeholder interviews
Contextual inquiries
Artifact development
Workshop facilitation
Final report
Scope of Work
Understanding
I developed and led a 12-week research and workshop plan to create the product strategy and requirements that would go into the RFP for a new shelter system. The plan included:
Bi-weekly stand-ups to inform and align the shelter leadership team
Eco-system map to map roles and stakeholders
Research plan to align and guide the project
Contextual inquiries & developing research artifacts (personas, journey maps, user stories)
Discovery workshop to review and finalize research learnings
Functional requirements and final report for RFP Statement of Work
Ecosystem map for the Austin Animal Center
In the first week, I ran an ecosystem activity with shelter leadership to visualize our users and stakeholders. I used the stakeholder conversations and map to develop the research plan.
Austin Animal Center Divisions and Roles to research: 3 divisions and 15 roles
Ecosystem mapping activity using Miro with shelter leadership
Research Plan & Strategy
Using the outputs from the first standup, I created a draft research plan using a research canvas and then shared the draft plan with staff leadership to co-create, answer their questions, and refine our research plan based on their inputs and insights.
By co-creating the plan together, I learned about the staff, possible areas of friction, and was able to further explain our approach. Afterwards, I developed a formal research plan for the project.
Co-created research plan using research canvas
Official research plan based on the co-created research plan
Contextual Inquiries & Research Artifacts
Over the next 8 weeks, I led the contextual inquiries at the shelter and the development of research artifacts. Before the user interviews, I contacted the staff member to let them know what to expect and my goal to better understand how they use the shelter system within their role.
In total, I developed 14 personas, over 200 user stories, 17 journey maps, and 3 key information architecture categories.
Personas with user stories categorized by task
Journey map for adopting a pet
Information Architecture for Pet Profiles
Discovery Workshop
I ran a half-day workshop to review, refine, and finalize the key artifacts before writing the functional requirements and product strategy doc. The workshop included key stakeholders across the shelter, IT, and procurement teams. In total, we had 25+ workshop participants.
The benefits of the workshop were that it built consensus, reduced the turnaround time, and finalized the material needed for the final stages of the RFP.
Presenting a workshop activity at the IT office
Workshop picture with shelter, IT, and procurement staff
Functional Requirements & Final Report for the RFP
We used the workshop outputs to develop functional requirements. These requirements, in addition to the research artifacts, were used in the RFP.
Sample of functional requirements
RFP Scope of Work
Outcomes
The RFP was published on time, and in 2024, the new shelter system was implemented. A year after the implementation, euthanasia, a leading indicator for operational performance at shelters, decreased by 25%.
In 2025, the interim Chief Animal Services Officer stated:
"This system is a critical investment in our future. By improving how we manage data across all shelter operations—from intake and adoption to foster and volunteer coordination—we’re supporting the priorities laid out in our new Strategic Plan, including greater transparency, enhanced public access to information, and a more efficient service model for Austin’s residents and animals."
Learnings
A few of the learnings I had on this project include:
Participatory Design helps align stakeholders. The discovery workshop accelerated the development of the functional requirements from 1 month to 1 week.
Scheduled communication provides visibility to key stakeholders. By running weekly standups with shelter leadership, we built rapport and trust that made it easier to overcome roadblocks and obstacles.
City staff were open to change. This project incorporated research methods and artifacts new to City staff. The openness to incorporate these new methods highlighted the City staff’s willingness to grow and evolve.
