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Mobile App For Construction Equipment Analysis

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During my tenure as the first Product Manager for the appraisals department at Rouse Services, I had the opportunity to help the team tackle some significant data collection and security challenges. The team had a group of construction equipment inspectors who traveled the country collecting equipment data at various construction sites. Before I joined, these inspectors would collect equipment data by hand, often using paper and pencil.

Their notes would get lost, sensitive info would be sent by unsecured email, and inspectors would spend nights and weekends entering their notes into a spreadsheet. The process was so broken that appraisal clients would be waiting for weeks for basic reports on their equipment. Worst of all, inspectors were taking vacation days just to do manual data entry rather than spending time with their families. I knew that things had to change.

I organized a team of engineers and designers to figure out how the data collection process could be changed and scope out how we could use technology to better serve our appraisal clients and give inspectors their lives back. We quickly settled on a few solutions that would allow inspectors to collect and transmit data seamlessly and establish a process for reviewing equipment data and presenting it to clients rapidly.

Below are the three application I built with the team

Inspector App: This iOS iPad app streamlined the process of collecting data from inspectors by processing and packaging the data so that it could be sent immediately to the appraisal team. No more manually filling out Excel documents and sending them over unsecured email.

Admin Site: This React Native website was a platform for Rouse appraisal analysts to quickly view and verify equipment data. If something looked off, they could alert inspectors to review their reports.

Client Site: Built with design in mind, this website was a user-friendly, client-centric portal to enable our clients to easily view, export, and review the value of their company's construction equipment.

While it was clear what applications needed to be built, I quickly saw that the software development process was all over the place. My engineering team had a culture of using Excel documents to track and record their progress. There needed to be more straightforward ways to measure individual engineers' impact. Internal stakeholders were frustrated to see only sporadic progress and deadlines being pushed back.

I implemented a transition from using Excel to JIRA. This required a culture shift among the team, but it was well worth it. With JIRA in place, the team could now track their progress with stories, tickets, and tasks. Story points were correctly estimated to give internal stakeholders a better sense of project delivery milestones. We transitioned to two-week sprints and demoed working software with a consistent cadence. Lastly, I implemented a system for running pre-launch quality assurance testing so that bugs would be discovered before deployment.

I successfully ran the team to launch these critical apps for the appraisal team and for our client. By the time my time at Rouse ended, data was seamlessly collected by inspectors in a secure manner. Analysts were able to generate reports for clients in days rather than weeks. Clients were now able to view and interact with their reports rather than just receiving a lengthy PDF.

However, the most rewarding moment of my time at Rouse was when an inspector pulled me to the side and told me that the inspector app saved them from quitting their job. The prior process was so broken that they planned to leave the company. But thanks to my team's work, work became enjoyable again for the inspectors, and they had more time to spend at home with their family.

I strive for those moments as a product manager. Some days are hard, but reliably serving those who depend on products makes them worth it.

Let's get in touch!

justinphinh@gmail.com