### Taking a critical, legacy system and reimagining it beyond "feature parity" to create a tool that met Asylum Officer's needs and made a serious mark on a years-long backlog. Our goal: to enable Asylum Officers to focus on the most crucial aspect of their job: the Asylum interview. Our software will take care of everything else.

> **Overview \
> \
> Users:** Asylum Officers (Primary), Asylum Operations and Support Staff, Asylum Seekers \
> **Employer**: Pivotal Labs \
> **Client**: USCIS Asylum (DHS) **\
> Role**: Lead Designer \
> **Team**: Don Ruzek (Client Designer), Nick Tomaszewski (Lead Product Manager), Nicholas Leake (Client Product Manager), Eliza Aierstuck (Tech Lead), Thomas Baird (Client Tech Lead)

```cv
gallery
{"layout":"hscroll","images":[{"src":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/maitake-project.appspot.com/o/pages%2Fg4UB6DM7HpP7J7nTOXCSbcIWmJM2%2Faeg4RxnkFhuDWvvaTxsa%2F7e2944ee-120f-4c01-bb13-0e242c58beaa.jpg?alt=media&token=70fe8a38-6239-4841-8710-d54f71b749a1","id":"7e2944ee-120f-4c01-bb13-0e242c58beaa","width":400,"height":400,"filename":"uscislogo.jpeg","type":"image/jpeg","caption":"","border":false}]}
```

## High-level outcomes:

### In approximately two years, we rebuilt and launched a new, modern software solution to the 8 asylum offices across the U.S. The Global Asylum project **saved $10MM annually** for the USCIS Asylum program and r**educed the security check processing time by 92%** (from 24 hours to 2 hours) by decommissioning the mainframe system, as well as **reducing manual data entry by 60%**.

There was also a 98% reduction in the time to process work order requests for a key immigration form, 80% reduction in the time to process Asylum Pre-Screening Officer cases, and 356% increase in production deployments.

Our project was awarded a Director's Cornerstone award.

### User-centered outcomes

* **Reduced manual data entry by 60%**. We integrated with USCIS' *Person Centric Query Service (PCQS)* to pull data directly into the file for both the APSO and Affirmative case types, which helped to ensure consistent data during handoffs between government agencies.

* **Improved transparency of in-progress case status** with the state machine. By aligning the status of the cases in the code with that of the asylum process, we were able to convey much more specifically where a file was located in the process. This enabled visibility into the backlog.

* **Improved transparency of case histories** with the Case Log, where we built an audit trail that included data and documents and allowed asylum operations a clearer picture into the actions taken by the adjudication staff. It also allowed staff to find documents quicker with an asylee's file.

* **Case status visibility for asylees**. We exposed endpoints to share file status with asylees that created visibility on where they were at in the process.

* **Improved "clock" for a case's timeline**. At one point in the process an asylee could be scheduled for a biometric appointment (that is, fingerprinting) and for the asylum interview itself. Both events stopped their "clock," which counted the time until they could get authorization to work in the United States.  If the asylee missed both their biometric appointment and their asylum interview, their work authorization clock would be effectively "double" stopped. We advocated for a system where the clock would restart when they completed their biometrics, rather than the asylum interview, enabling the asylee to meet the work requirement quicker. This process change demonstrates how we on the technology side can influence the policy side in favor of our users.

### Process

This was a long project, and followed every stage of design and development from discovery to rollout. Throughout, however, some aspects of our process remained, and were crucial to our success. They include:

* **Weekly user interviews**. Whether discovery "ride-alongs" to gain new domain knowledge, in-depth contextual deep-dives into a particular part of the process, or simple usability tests, we made it a core team practice to speak to users every single week. Over the course of the project, I was able to meet and get feedback from nearly every single member of the Asylum organization, from officers all the way to data-entry.

* **Client pairing**. Part of the mission in Pivotal Labs' projects was a teaching model, in which our clients would provide us functional "pairs" for each member of the "balanced team" — design, product, and engineering — and would join us in our office to

* **Balanced team collaboration and improvement**. No member worked or made a decision in a silo, and we checked in twice weekly as a team to ensure we were all aligned on what we were building and why; at the beginning of the week, during Iteration Planning meetings, and at the end of the week, during retros. In this way, we were committed to continuous improvement and self-reflection, both for the product we were building and the team we were a part of.

**Over the course of this project, I was able to:**

* Plan and lead weeklong onsite Contextual Inquiry research projects

* Lead Discovery design thinking activities with clients and stakeholders

* Work from inclusive principles, learn accessibility best practices, and ensure the entire app conforms to WCAG 2.1/Section 508.

* Manage stakeholder alignment and present work to upper leadership within USCIS

* Incrementally improve an app from its smallest MVP to a robust application spanning four case types and hundreds of users

* Get really, really, really good at forms

* Build and implement a design system from scratch

* Pair with engineers on front-end code and even commit front-end code by myself to make the application more responsive

### Selected Screens

```cv
gallery
{"layout":"hscroll","images":[{"src":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/maitake-project.appspot.com/o/pages%2Fg4UB6DM7HpP7J7nTOXCSbcIWmJM2%2Faeg4RxnkFhuDWvvaTxsa%2F9716c3d8-ae27-4e2a-a32a-4c74e1dac764.jpg?alt=media&token=d12ed07e-8e0c-4c25-8d61-28635d4623c9","id":"9716c3d8-ae27-4e2a-a32a-4c74e1dac764","width":3484,"height":2673,"filename":"IMG_20180723_173436.jpeg","type":"image/jpeg","caption":"Job titles and their interactions across the Asylum case type. I created this as a quick-reference for the engineering team to show them when different users would be in different parts of the system we were building together.","border":false}]}
```

```cv
gallery
{"layout":"hscroll","images":[{"src":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/maitake-project.appspot.com/o/pages%2Fg4UB6DM7HpP7J7nTOXCSbcIWmJM2%2Faeg4RxnkFhuDWvvaTxsa%2F11077214-1b29-4de5-90b0-a9c7b69ab9aa.png?alt=media&token=fe861356-a635-4022-8151-7539d86daec7","id":"11077214-1b29-4de5-90b0-a9c7b69ab9aa","width":2142,"height":1224,"filename":"Screen Shot 2021-06-18 at 7.41.28 PM.png","type":"image/png","caption":"This is what the existing Asylum software looked like. Users could tab through and navigated through a complex series of codes, which they had printed out in their workspaces.","border":false}]}
```

```cv
gallery
{"layout":"hscroll","images":[{"src":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/maitake-project.appspot.com/o/pages%2Fg4UB6DM7HpP7J7nTOXCSbcIWmJM2%2Faeg4RxnkFhuDWvvaTxsa%2Fb1bfa7e3-b5c7-428e-9120-8b36a33fe6b5.png?alt=media&token=94616d94-7993-467c-ba43-e47777a2b946","id":"b1bfa7e3-b5c7-428e-9120-8b36a33fe6b5","width":2652,"height":1529,"filename":"Screen Shot 2018-12-17 at 9.26.04 AM.png","type":"image/png","caption":"Homepage for the Asylum Global project, where Officers can pick back up on previous open cases or search/scan for a new one.","border":false}]}
```

```cv
gallery
{"layout":"hscroll","images":[{"src":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/maitake-project.appspot.com/o/pages%2Fg4UB6DM7HpP7J7nTOXCSbcIWmJM2%2Faeg4RxnkFhuDWvvaTxsa%2F5733b33c-82bb-44ef-a27c-6e595bbb3b39.png?alt=media&token=28ea988b-6813-41a8-ba6c-95497cfdc535","id":"5733b33c-82bb-44ef-a27c-6e595bbb3b39","width":2652,"height":1529,"filename":"Screen Shot 2018-12-17 at 9.31.10 AM.png","type":"image/png","caption":"Primary Data Entry page, where Officers can get an overview of the Asylum Seeker's biographic information, ported in from other intake systems, and edit or add anything necessary.","border":false}]}
```

```cv
gallery
{"layout":"hscroll","images":[{"src":"https://firebasestorage.googleapis.com/v0/b/maitake-project.appspot.com/o/pages%2Fg4UB6DM7HpP7J7nTOXCSbcIWmJM2%2Faeg4RxnkFhuDWvvaTxsa%2Fcabd53e7-eb44-46c9-b166-db03fc3e57cb.png?alt=media&token=25044cba-8669-46f7-8bfa-396fa3300c68","id":"cabd53e7-eb44-46c9-b166-db03fc3e57cb","width":2652,"height":1529,"filename":"Screen Shot 2018-12-17 at 9.31.40 AM.png","type":"image/png","caption":"Security Checks page, where Officers could see the outcomes of the security checks for an Asylum Seeker. Previous to this, they would have to log into up to 8 discrete systems to manually request this information.","border":false}]}
```

### Video

Our colleague and primary stakeholder on the client side gave a talk at Pivotal's Spring One conference about this project, and the processes that enabled its success. [You can watch this here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfcSZaoCizs).

```cv
tweet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfcSZaoCizs
```

Case Study: Global Asylum

additional projects and portfolio available on request!

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