Improving Federal Agency User Experience - Scaling MVPs as a Marathon, not a Sprint

🎤 Presenters: tk421jag, ashleyfmiller, ihutson

This session will investigate how MetroStar’s Lean/Agile approach has enabled the iterative development of a popular USDA web tool that matches farmers with potential disaster assistance programs. More specifically, we will discuss how we went from a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) to a more mature Vue.js app in Drupal, and how we used user analytics to engage our customer in the process.

As part of the vision for Farmers.gov, the Secretary of USDA, Sonny Perdue wanted to create the most customer-centric public website for US farmers to learn about available programs, financial assistance, and self-services. Based on that guidance, we have created numerous user-friendly tools and resources meant to aid farmers and simplify their complex environment.

Some examples of the tools we've created include navigating numerous types of loan program, understanding the process of hiring temporary foreign agricultural workers, and applying for disaster assistance programs that meet their needs.

In this talk, we will walk you through a case study of how we were able to iterate on one of our tools while navigating organizational logistics and Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) release train priorities. Today, we will dive into how we partnered with our development team to gain buy-in from the product owner and numerous stakeholders by making evidence-based arguments why the minimum viable product (MVP) should be scaled and enhanced.

🔗 Session Details: https://www.drupalgovcon.org/2020/program/sessions/improving-federal-agency-user-experience-scaling-mvps-marathon-not-sprint

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