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Creating A Mobile App For Construction Equipment Inspectors

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During my tenure as the first Product Managers for the appraisals department at Rouse Services, I had the opportunity to help the team tackle some major 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 just paper and pencil.

Their notes would get lost, sensitive info would be sent by unsecured email, and inspectors were spending 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. But 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 to allow inspectors to collect and transmit data seamlessly. As well as establish a process to review equipement data and present it to clients quickly.

Below are the three application I built out with the team

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

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

3. 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. Engineering had a culture of using excel documents to track and record their progress. There was no clear ways to measure the impact that individual engineers were having. 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 difficult culture change among the team but it was well worth it. With JIRA in place, the team was now able to 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 of running pre-launch quality assurance testing so that bugs would be discovered before deployment.

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

The most rewarding moment of my time at Rouse however, 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 were planning to leave the company. But thanks to the work of my team, work became enjoyable again and they had more time to spend at home with their family.

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

While my time at Rouse Services was cut short due to layoffs because of the economic downturn in the construction, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I went on to take the time to pursue my hobby for coin collecting as a research and coin dealer. As well as having the time to study artificial intelligence and create an AI app called Numi.

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Let's get in touch

justintsn10@gmail.com

Justin Hinh | Product Manager‍