For this sixth sprint we had set ourselves the goal of continued development of the MVP linear journey, to investigate DRS scheduling by area, to deepen our understanding of ‘Theory of Change’ and investigate viable support models. We are pleased to report that’s exactly what we achieved from the work completed:
- Prototype v4 iterated to reflect key findings
- Re-worked built MVP pages
- Where is the problem located? (select from list of locations e.g. Kitchen)
- What is the problem? (select from list of problems e.g. damp or mould)
- Please select one of the below (emergency or non emergency repair identification)
- Communal repairs, information page
- Built new MVP pages
- Investigated DRS ability to support scheduled repairs by area
- Deepened understanding of DLUHC Monitoring & Evaluation framework
- Service support model options discussed and outlined
- Wireframed ‘cancel repair appointment’ journey
- Set up Scheduling Api repository
Continued to develop our MVP
The product continues to mature as we build in the pages and functionality of our V4 prototype. The engineering team have been working hard building out the process to now include the pages:
- Describe your problem in more detail – (description & photo upload)
- Where is the problem? (list of areas, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom etc)
- Identify repair kitchen cupboard journey)
- How should we confirm the appointment? (confirmation sent via sms or email)
- Repair appointment availability (choose date/time for repair, first page)
One of the features that is worth a particular mention is the photo upload stage. The user now has the ability to upload and preview a photo of their reported problem, with clear guidance on what file types and size can be uploaded. The user also has the option to delete and change the image too.
Repairs by area
City of Lincoln council is currently piloting scheduled repairs, collating repairs in areas of the city for low priority repairs. This is so tenants have fewer appointments, less travel is required (reducing Co2) and material purchases can be planned. You can read more about this on the City of Lincoln councils website
The impact of this to this project is that we have to now look for appointment availability specific to the area in which the property relates, which can be up to 8 weeks. Working with One Advanced we are exploring the options within the API and system configuration to make this possible, whilst attempting to minimise the impact on performance of the system. This is a top priority for the team and will be a key focus for testing during our next sprint.
Working in an agile way has meant we have been able to respond and realign to meet challenges like this as we come across them. There are some fantastic resources on agile project management online, so I wont try are re-create that here, but we are certainly seeing the benefits of this approach in this project and would encourage anyone not familiar with it to take a look at what agile means.
Working with other councils
I am really pleased to say we have a growing interest in the project, with a few councils now looking at how they can perhaps implement our product.
Working with DLUHC, we have concluded the priority rule for the short term is to work with councils that share a similar technical stack to the current partners and are able to quickly implement the product. This will give us invaluable feedback on how easy it is to implement and what local challenges and customisations adopters my face. Ultimately this will help us evidence the requirements for implementation and will help us to build the adoption toolkit for other councils to use.
If you would like to be one of the councils to implement our product then please do reach out to us.
The show and share session
Why not take a look at our latest Show and Share, so you can see and listen to the progress made in more detail and see the product:
Repairs Online 