Since its 2000 launch, JetBlue utilized a complex collection of systems and apps to manage its end-to-end operations. In 2018, they approached Rokkan to integrate these systems in a single, scalable SAAS (Software as a Service) application that could support every operations crew member for every flight and every airport in their extensive network.
As part of a small agile Rokkan team, installed at JetBlue’s Long Island City headquarters — and, not without some major challenges to overcome along the way — we shepherded the JetBlue product team to successfully and comprehensively update their suite of apps into one universal operations platform, BlueEye.
Deliveries
Business Requirements
User Journeys
Platform Integration
Product Experience (Mobile/Tablet App, Desktop App, Web experience)
Client
JetBlue
Area
SAAS Operations Platform Mobile app Desktop app Responsive Web
My Role
Experience Design Director
Date
2018
BlueEye facilitates JetBlue Crew Member Collaboration
JetBlue serves over 110,000 passengers per day across 1,000+ flights and 110 airports, globally. They have over 22,000 crewmembers working across their airports and routes — with several roles operating on the ground and in-cabin — ensuring that every traveler (and their belongings) reaches their destination as smoothly as possible.
As a platform, BlueEye is responsible for tracking passengers, baggage, and, in-flight crews and their locations, measuring on-time metrics and facilitating route manifests to minimize delays for all flights.
In-flight, BlueEye is responsible for tracking passenger and crew manifests, managing passenger requests and needs as well as passenger-facing onboard services such as In-flight entertainment and onboard Wi-fi.
As part of our discovery, we needed to understand every crew member type, their roles and needs, and how they collaborate with each other so each flight departs and arrives on-time and that those flights are smooth and satisfying for everyone on board:
Tidbit
Every JetBlue employee is referred to as a crewmember.
Front of House
Pre-security teams at or around the front counter
Gate Agents
Boarding gate teams responsible for assisting
Loading Crews
Behind-the-scenes at the airport, handling and loading checked luggage and food/drink
In-Flight Crews
Flight attendants responsible for the in-flight experience and safety
Diagram displaying our 4 primary crew members (end users) and their major and minor roles across a passenger’s journey.
Director’s Note
Working Through a Major Client Curveball
My team was contracted to deliver 4 complete sprints over the course of 6 months working directly with JetBlue’s product team, on-site. Team casting and contracting only allowed for 3 Rokkan staff — myself as Director and UX lead, one UI designer and one producer — to lead the charge to deliver BlueEye’s comprehensive experience. JetBlue was responsible for casting our team’s business analysts (to handle business requirements, BRs) and IT team (for dev and feasibility).
Beyond initial discovery, we had successfully delivered and approved our first sprint in 6 weeks, on-time, when we were handed our BRs for the second sprint.
Mind you, the first sprint’s BRs consisted of a 43 page powerpoint deck listing every minute detail we needed to solution for.
Our 2nd sprint consisted of a 3 page powerpoint, with minimal details; next to nothing to work with.
Rokkan Staff
Responsible for synthesizing JetBlue-provided business requirements into final UX and product artefacts.
UX Director / Team Lead (Me)
UI / Product Designer
Producer
JetBlue Team Members
Responsible for defining and detailing business requirements and final IT/Dev output
2x Business Analysts
Dev Team
How we solved
Our client team had failed to deliver business requirements — and given, we had almost nothing to design for — causing a hard work stoppage.
We rallied.
Taking a short-period to explore what we needed for this project to be a success. We worked with JetBlue to set new expectations on what could be achieved in the timeline, and what the entire team needed in order to for BlueEye to meet its goals:
3 total sprints, same timeline (remaining 2 sprints extended from 6 weeks to 8 weeks)
Rokkan adds a new Business Analyst to the team
Myself as the UX lead, my producer and the now augmented BA team conducted 1-2 week business requirement discovery and definition workshops (together with JetBlue IT, Product and Operations teams) with the goal of generating complete business requirements documents to be designed against.
Additional Rokkan Staff
Beefing up our discovery
Rokkan Business Analyst
Additional deltas
Impacting our previously mapped processes.
Staggered discovery workshops for each sprint, led by myself and a new Business analyst
What We Delivered
We ultimately were able to set the foundation for what BlueEye is today, delivering a multi-platform app capable of scaling to JetBlue’s growing needs and capabilities. My team dug deep to be able to ensure the project was a success, growing our UX and product design support with minimal impacts while not increasing budget.
Outcomes
74%
Adoption Rate
Adoption rate by team members within the first 3-months of launch (with the legacy platform continuing to operate concurrently with BlueEye for a grace period of 6 months)
–28 sec
Time Reduction
Average measured reduction in times-to-complete for the 5 most common actions by check-in and gate crew, including traveler confirmation, crew tracking (flight-to-flight), bag tracking and re-bookings.
and minor 
roles across a passenger’s journey.
