The Extreme Events Command Center.

The Extreme Events Command Center is a robust, new dashboard that allows the Live Operations Team to fully control the shutdown of Instacart delivery for stores in the event of a catastrophe. This dashboard consolidates over 20 tools that the Live Operations team uses to research, plan, communicate, and manage disasters.

In a catastrophe, time is critical. Billions of dollars and lives are at stake, and situations change rapidly, requiring the Live Operations team to act quickly with real-time information.

Instacart brought me on to revamp their process for handling catastrophic events that threaten fulfillment. I developed a streamlined workflow and product strategy for migration as well as implementation. The result of this work became the Extreme Events Command Center dashboard that allows the Live Ops team to monitor, communicate, and intervene during these fufillment events.

The Extreme Events Command Center is a dashboard for Instacart's Live Operations team, consolidating over 20 tools into one platform to manage emergencies.

In case of fulfillment disruptions, the Live Operations team will have all their tools in one place, enabling easy communication of updates and quicker interventions to mitigate adverse outcomes.

I leveraged AI to predict potential fulfillment threats, preemptively alerting the team, and saving critical minutes.

To expand the capabilities of Instacart’s internal AI, I introduced real-time weather and city event data, which was then overlaid on a map of Instacart assets across the U.S. and Canada.

The tool and its workflow were constructed to address the complex process of extreme event management.

Okay...So What?

The problems I aim to solve are that there are too many tools, too many players, and no centralized workstation that costs the team precious seconds while adding more confusion to an already stressful moment.

The main focus area for this initiative is to bring the entire workflow into one product. This allows the Live Ops team to seamlessly be notified of disruption events, research, intervene, and communicate the information without leaving the EEMCC dashboard.

Evaluating this complex workflow helped me understand the key patterns, interactions, and current problems that lack a solution.‍

I mapped out the process, key players, and identified major areas of friction. Using this information, I formed a hypothesis: the Live Ops team needs a interactive map tool that is state of the art. A large scale dashboard that will serve as the hub for disruption events.

Collaborating with the Live Ops team, dev teams, and other stakeholders, we were able to align on a product direction.

We sketched, white-boarded, and discussed what the tool could be. From there, I began sketching and wire framing the vision.

I can admit, this project was very ambitious considering a tool of this type currently does not exist. My goal for the project was to create a unique product to address the Live Ops team's workflow issues.

Evaluating this complex workflow and it's tools helped me understand the key patterns, interactions, and current problems that lack a solution.‍

Case studies of tools like Tomorrow.io, Google Maps, and Zillow highlighted the need for presenting actionable information efficiently. Feedback emphasized prioritizing and directing users to critical information quickly. The final tool needs to be a dynamic map view that preemptively alerts, priotritizes, and highlights disruptions, allows the Live Ops team to research and act quickly, then easily communicate the resulting information to various channels.

As I entered into the conceptualization phase of the design process, my first focus is creating a new IA for the main functions of the Command Center.

I then developed the foundation for the tool's map view layout and structure. This structure needed to be simple, so I split the view into 3 main sections.

Map Control Bar

The map control bar is where the team can search, adjust settings, and control parameters that will affect the other elements.

Information & Action Panel

This panel serves as the main acton for the experience. The information from the map view is reflected on the information panel allowing users to never lose context and take action immediately.

Map Control Bar

The interactive map allows users to easily navigate all Instacart locations, quickly switch between zones, and get a bird's eye view of what is happening in the area so they can take action.

Through multiple review sessions, all teams aligned on the general experience, structure, and user flow of the Extreme Events Command Center.

The vision began to materialize as I iterated on the dashboard's look and feel, ensuring the components aligned with the future of Instacart's design language.‍

Cool! So What Now?

Let's see the the Extreme Events Management Control Center in action.

Using the new workflow and dashboard, we can watch how the Live Ops team can move quickly, collaborate, and communicate with transparency and confidence. There is a hurricane coming off the coast of Florida. Joey and his team from the weather events Live Ops team.

Joey is provided an early alert that a Category 3 hurricane is predicted to make landfall in Florida in the next 5 days.

Joey reviews the details of the hurricane’s path.

Joey saves this map view and a link is automatically generated to share with his partners so they can monitor together

Joey’s partners receive the message and can view the details of the hurricane in a view only version of the map

Joey and his team monitor a hurricane predicted to make landfall in 3 days. He assigns zones across Florida to his team for research and intervention planning.

Ryan is assigned zones in central Florida. He opens a map view of the hurricane created by Joey and begins researching the hurricane’s forecasts.

Ryan initiates Intervention Mode to adjust store settings for the first day of the hurricane, selecting zones on the map and inputting pre-filled settings based on Joey's parent intervention setup.

Ryan schedules notifications for internal partners and retailers about the hurricane forecasts and Instacart's planned interventions, and saves these interventions for review on the map.

Time passes and the entire team finishes entering their interventions

Internal partners and impacted retailers receive the notifications and can review the hurricane’s impact and Live Op’s interventions on a view only map.

All interventions that impact customers and shoppers are automated based on the interventions set by the Live Ops team.

In the end, the Extreme Events Command Center made a huge impact and garnered attention across the entire organization.

Tim Allen - Global Head of Design

“I was blown away by the human-centered approach and remarkably user-friendly design that the Live Ops and Event Management team applied to their vision to prevent revenue loss and customer frustration by efficiently and accurately intervening in disruptions to our fulfillment operations due to emergencies. This work in particular is a fantastic embodiment of our mission and purpose of food access.”

Joey

"I have had a chance to work with the new tool and I have been impressed! The real test is on the way, as there is another hurricane coming that needs immediate action. The tool even sends me notfications on major disruptions!"

Outcomes

Unified Workflow
60% Reduction in operational costs
30% Faster response times.

Overview.

The Extreme Events Command Center.

Okay...So What?

Map Control Bar

Information & Action Panel

Map Control Bar

Cool! So What Now?

Disciplines.

Challenges.

Problem.

Solution.

Process.

What We Built.

Big Picture.