Building Bridges Across Organizational Silos
Summary
Providing information to public transit riders is complex. The information needs to be consistent across touchpoints and channels. Like many old, large organization ours is defined by its silos. When information is inconsistent across channels and touchpoints our organizational silos become apparent. More importantly, inconsistent information causes confusion for transit riders. While we can't stop maintaining and improving the information in our 'silos,' we build bridges across them so that riders get consistent information. This approach requires us to be intentional and patient.
Key Insights
-
•
Riders often receive inaccurate or overly broad alerts due to disconnected internal and public-facing teams.
-
•
Transit agencies’ products and information channels are fragmented, complicating a consistent user experience.
-
•
Operations staff and riders have different perspectives, priorities, and information needs.
-
•
Organizational structures and siloed teams unintentionally create barriers and confusion for users.
-
•
No transit trip or disruption is alike, increasing complexity in designing effective communications.
-
•
Embedding product-agnostic roles can help connect dots across teams and user journeys.
-
•
Leaders must give teams permission to address problems holistically beyond their product slice.
-
•
Frequent, transparent connection rituals (e.g., design standups, onboarding coffee chats) improve cross-team awareness.
-
•
Accurate real-time information remains the most critical and challenging aspect to improve for transit riders.
-
•
Systemic change requires patience, experimentation, and willingness to tackle organizational norms, not just products.
Notable Quotes
"The alert Julie received didn’t apply to her and didn’t affect her morning commute."
"No two transit riders are alike. No two transit trips are alike. No two service disruptions are alike."
"A service must not unnecessarily expose a user to the internal structures of the organization providing the service."
"Teams are structured around products instead of experiences or processes, which makes delivering a consistent service difficult."
"If we avoid how we work together, we create disjointed experiences and cause confusion and frustration for riders."
"Being a formal leader is harder in many ways, but you have more leverage to make change."
"Make a case to hire people who are product agnostic to connect where products intersect in the rider journey."
"Give teams permission to think about the whole service and solve the problem holistically."
"We have to look at how we are organized and ask if that is causing an unnecessary burden to the public."
"Approach organizational challenges with the same design process you would apply to a product: research, iterate, align, and adjust."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Screen readers have two modes: browse mode for navigating content and focus mode to interact with form fields or apps."
Sam ProulxEverything You Ever Wanted to Know About Screen Readers
June 11, 2021
"Even though we are virtual, we are still community and must treat each other with kindness and respect."
Bria AlexanderOpening Remarks
November 17, 2022
"This is a moment to rethink identity beyond UX and get creative with income streams and career paths."
Corey Nelson Amy SanteeLayoffs
November 15, 2022
"Shared language lets different roles venture out of their comfort zones and collaborate on changing the enterprise system."
Milan GuentherA Shared Language for Co-Creating Ambitious Endeavours
June 6, 2023
"Stakeholders aren’t ready to write their own briefs or manage recruitment, so it ended up being a hybrid model initially."
Erin May Roberta Dombrowski Laura Oxenfeld Brooke HintonDistributed, Democratized, Decentralized: Finding a Research Model to Support Your Org
March 10, 2022
"If you falsely think you are having the same experience as a native user, you become afraid of accessibility and say it's impossible."
Sam ProulxUnderstanding Screen Readers on Mobile: How And Why to Learn from Native Users
June 6, 2023
"We experimented with AI-powered sprints, but had lots of dead ends and false starts before finding what really works for us."
Mujtaba HameedThe new horizon of ethnography: using AI to unlock the full potential of in-person research
March 11, 2026
"Ethical technology governance means anticipating the long-term social impacts of technology today and acting to protect essential public goods."
Ilana LipsettAnticipating Risk, Regulating Tech: A Playbook for Ethical Technology Governance
December 10, 2021
"When we build accessibility into an environment, especially if we do it subtly, it becomes the new normal."
Samuel ProulxFrom Standards to Innovation: Why Inclusive Design Wins
September 10, 2025
