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
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Riders often receive inaccurate or overly broad alerts due to disconnected internal and public-facing teams.
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Transit agencies’ products and information channels are fragmented, complicating a consistent user experience.
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Operations staff and riders have different perspectives, priorities, and information needs.
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Organizational structures and siloed teams unintentionally create barriers and confusion for users.
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No transit trip or disruption is alike, increasing complexity in designing effective communications.
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Embedding product-agnostic roles can help connect dots across teams and user journeys.
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Leaders must give teams permission to address problems holistically beyond their product slice.
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Frequent, transparent connection rituals (e.g., design standups, onboarding coffee chats) improve cross-team awareness.
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Accurate real-time information remains the most critical and challenging aspect to improve for transit riders.
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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."
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