Who are the Royal Navy?

The Royal Navy safeguard the united kingdom’s interests by fostering global trade, nurturing alliances, and protecting against threats.

What was the project?

The Royal Navy sought to enhance the effectiveness of the systems and processes used to design and manage its training activity for all new recruits and existing service personnel. They wanted to discover a better way to manage defence training activities and standardise processes across 16 naval bases.

TAFMIS is a bespoke, centralised system that provides tools to manage defence training activities, as well as the means to extract business intelligence data that allows targets to be measured and improvements to be made. It lacked a standardised process, resulting in inconsistent, inaccurate, and incomplete data. The absence of a cohesive approach hindered effective use and reporting.

How did I help?

As the Workstream Lead and Senior Service Designer, I directed a team of 5 people to comprehensively map the existing TAFMIS user journey, documenting the challenges faced by the Royal Navy.

We understood the client's requirements, conducted extensive research, and documented user needs through personas, stakeholder maps, and service blueprints. We delivered a comprehensive Discovery report and from there initiated a Phase 2 approach involving 6-week prototyping cycles.

What was the outcome?

The transformation involved aligning the project with user-centric principles, utilising prototypes to address identified issues. Highs included successful redesign efforts and stakeholder communication. Lows encompassed delays in recruitment, resistance to service design within the client organisation, and challenges prioritising outcomes over deadlines.

Despite challenges, the project led to a refined understanding of TAFMIS, streamlined processes, and improved user experiences. The adoption of service design principles paved the way for meaningful outcomes, contributing to the Navy's training program efficiency.