DISCLAIMER: In compliance with my Non-Disclosure, Intellectual Property, Copyright and Social Media agreements, the information provided in this case study is limited to material that has been previously published in public forums and/or approved specifically for this post, as approved by my customer and/or my employer. While this case study represents my work and the work of my team, I am extremely limited in what I can share on this website. Graphics in this case study are intentionally obtained from public sources. If this case study interests you, please connect with me privately for additional discussion.
Summary
Portfolio Manager is an interactive web-based application provided by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that enables property managers to track and assess energy and water use across entire portfolios of buildings and apply for recognition from ENERGY STAR. This project overhauled the product to improve user experience, performance, and functionality.
“Tens of thousands of organizations—including school districts, retail chains, hospital systems, and local governments— use Energy Star Portfolio Manager to measure the energy performance, water use, utility costs, and greenhouse gas emissions of more than 40 percent of the nation’s commercial building space.” – EPA ENERGY STAR
The Challenge
As a flagship product of the ENERGY STAR Buildings & Plants program, Portfolio Manager was initially released in November of 2000. Over the next decade, the product grew to become a cornerstone in the management of building emissions as well as the awarding of the ENERGY STAR for buildings, for tens of thousands of organizations. As all web-based apps do, the product also aged. It needed to be overhauled, retaining all of the functionality of the legacy product and providing updates to improve functionality and usability.
“The goal of the upgrade is to scale up and meet the demands of an increasingly benchmarking-savvy industry”, says Alexandra Sullivan, technical development manager for Energy Star Commercial Buildings. – facilitiesnet
The Approach
Unfortunately, due to my agreements (see disclaimer above), I am extremely limited in what I can share publically about how we did it. What I can share is that, to this day, this project is the best example of User-Centered Design in an Agile framework that I have had the pleasure of working within.
Our team embraced true Scrum practices from the onset of the project, incorporating a true product owner from the EPA ENERGY STAR Buildings & Plants program and designing the product incrementally and iteratively using insights from the user population throughout the effort. I had the pleasure of acting as the lead UX and requirements lead for this team, organizing and executing all activities driving the design of the user experience of the redesigned product. Without divulging any competitive advantage on the details about how our team integrated Agile and UCD, the following list includes standard Agile and UCD best practices that our team adopted:
- UX and Agile integration (including staggered UX scrum and user research throughout the process, as advocated by Nielsen Norman Group)
- Story mapping for release planning and feature development (as pioneered by Jeff Patton)
- Persona development (backed with data from user research, as originated by Alan Cooper)
- Storyboard style scenarios to define workflows and wireframes for each epic (in response to the demonstrative work of Frank Long)
- User-centered stories (as pioneered by Mike Cohn) employing personas and written from user-centered design scenarios
The Solution
Again, unfortunately, due to my agreements (see disclaimer above), I am extremely limited in what I can share publically about our solution. As published in press releases, the solution involved a significant shift in the approach to the design of the user interface. Prior to the redesign, product’s user interface was heavily text-based and required an in-depth knowledge and understanding of how EPA managed the buildings program.
Before & After Screenshots of EPA ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager Before from LEEDuser. After from Commercial Property Executive.
The new product followed a more wizard-based approach, lowering the knowledge barrier to initial use while retaining advanced features regularly used by companies managing large portfolios of buildings. Navigation was also heavily improved with the introduction of a tab-based primary navigation system mirroring the primary categories of “jobs to be done” by the user base. Additionally, the newly redesigned product added a suite of graphical, on demand, configurable and downloadable reports. Prior to the redesign, reporting was limited and was primarily text/spreadsheet based. The new product design provided simple and immediately valuable reports for new users alongside deeply powerful reports and reporting data services for more advanced users.
Lupinacci says the tool will be faster and easier for new and non-technical users to understand. So many new users are coming to Portfolio Manager now for the first time, and the goal is to make the process as streamlined as possible so they don’t get frustrated. “We’re enhancing the wizards and the graphics,” she says. “We made it so it’s not a chore getting data in, so that users can spend their time managing their data.” – facilitiesnet
The Impact
The EPA, working with our team, debuted the upgraded Portfolio Manager in July of 2013 to glowing reviews from the energy benchmarking industry (see below for press releases). The product provided more efficient workflows (confirmed by usability testing metrics), improved features and updated aesthetics. The user base for this product continues to grow and the development team continues to employ the Agile UX methodology and processes put in place during this redesign effort.
Details of this Case Study
| When | September 2010 – July 2013 |
| My Role | User Experience Lead, Lead Requirements Engineer |
| My Team | Lia King, Desire Turner, Melissa Booth, Alexandra Sullivan, Justin Kent, David Tatum, Nate Conroy, Anselm Griffiths, Asha Kalburgi, Sandip Kalburgi, Catalin Frasineau, Alex Saify, Narin Ratana, Mahmood Omari, Kun Yue, countless other stakeholders |
| Our Methods* | Story Mapping, Persona Development, Agile UX, Scenario Development, Story Writing and Management, Interviewing, Surveys, Usability Testing, Online Focus Groups |
| Our Tools* | Atlassian Suite (Jira with Greenhopper, Confluence), Balsamiq, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, WebEx, Skype, BitStrips, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Photoshop |
* Methods and tools listed are limited to those employed by our team for user experience design and development. Other tools were used by our team for other purposes, such as code management and continuous integration.
Publications About this Case Study
Portfolio Manager Information from EPA
- Learn more about Portfolio Manager on the EPA Website.
- View a Quick Start Guide summarizing the basic features that were developed during this redesign.
- Visit Portfolio Manager, create a free account and try it for yourself!
2013 Press Releases About this Redesign
- Sain Engineering Associates: EPA Debuts Upgraded Energy Star Portfolio Manager Benchmarking Tool (Released: 6/24/2013)
- “The new Energy Star Portfolio Manager delivers a more user-friendly interface, enhanced data sharing capabilities, better reporting, and for the first time, the ability to manage buildings across their lifecycle, from design through occupancy.”
- Building Green: EPA to Release Next Generation of Portfolio Manager (Released: 6/27/2013)
- “…an updated interface and easier report generation will likely come as welcome changes…”
- US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): EPA Debuts Upgraded Energy Star Portfolio Manager Benchmarking Tool (Released: 07/18/2013)
- “The new ‘turbo-charged’ Portfolio Manager makes it easier than ever for building owners and managers to make strategic business decisions that are good for the environment and good for the bottom line. Consistent with President Obama’s Climate Action Plan, this tool helps businesses cut wasted energy, reduce harmful carbon pollution, and save money.” – Janet McCabe, principal deputy assistant administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation
- National Small Business Association (NSBA): Energy Star Program Improvements for Small Business (Released: 7/24/2013)
- “After two years of user interviews, testing and redesign, Portfolio Manager users will enjoy simpler, more streamlined functionality, easier-to-generate colorful and graphical reports, as well as improved sharing features.”
- TRC Engineering Solutions: ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager®: What you need to know about the new system (Released: 8/20/2013)
- “This free online energy and water consumption benchmarking and tracking tool has been publicly available since the early 2000s. And its contribution to the ENERGY STAR brand can be seen on certified energy-efficient buildings across the nation. Its recent upgrade and facelift has modernized the system and positioned it well for future growth.”
- Institute for Market Transformation (IMT): The Changing Face of Portfolio Manager (Released: 12/12/2013)
- ” The revamped tool flaunts a modernized user interface and a redesigned data entry section, providing a faster and cleaner experience for users.”
- facilitiesnet (Home of Building Operating Management & Facility Maintenance Decisions Magazines): As Energy-Use Benchmarking Increases, Energy Star Upgrades Portfolio Manager (Released: 7/8/2013)
- “In Summary, says Sullivan, “It’s simply a lot easier to get data in and out of the tool through new interfaces and wizards, and reporting will be easier and more robust.””
- treehugger: EPA Portfolio Manager gets major upgrade for better tracking of building water and energy use (Released: 7/17/2013)
- “Improved Design. Entering information is easier than ever, with enhanced graphics, wizards and prompts.”