Case Study - User discovery for improved project management
We helped LWF World Service map user journeys, define requirements, and evaluate 56 project management tools to replace an outdated reporting system.
- Client
- LWF World Service
- Location
- Switzerland
- Services
- User Design, Digital Strategy, Agile Delivery
- Interviews conducted
- 0
- User requirements defined
- 0
- Report templates reviewed
- 0
- IT vendors assessed
- 0
Client
LWF World Service is the global humanitarian arm of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), working alongside communities in 24 countries across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and Latin America. Its teams deliver humanitarian aid and long-term development programs, often in some of the most complex operating environments in the world.
Opportunity
LWF World Service needed to replace a project management system that had become difficult to use. Reporting looked different from one country office to the next, the system didn't align with their results framework, and field staff had found workarounds rather than use it as intended. They wanted to standardize how data is collected and reported, and find a solution staff would actually adopt. The underlying need: timely, trustworthy data that meets donor requirements and supports day-to-day decisions.
Approach
We interviewed 23 staff across headquarters and country offices to understand how they collect, report, and use project data. From those conversations we built user personas and journey maps that showed where processes worked, where they broke down, and what people actually needed from a system.
That research became a Product Requirements Document: 102 requirements specifying what any future tool needs to do, grounded in how teams operate rather than feature lists from vendors. We worked in iterative cycles, sharing personas, requirements, and tool shortlists with LWF for feedback at each step so the output reflected their reality as it developed. We then used it to evaluate 56 tools across data collection, visualization, and reporting, scoring each against LWF's real workflows and monitoring and evaluation framework.
This discovery built on our earlier work helping LWF World Service develop a centralized data warehouse and analytics capabilities. We later applied a similar approach to aligning stakeholders across countries in our work tracking land restoration progress across the Sahel for the UNCCD.
Outcomes
Working in phases, we delivered:
- A review of the current system and data collection setup, with gaps and strengths identified
- User personas and journeys grounded in how teams operate day to day
- An analysis of reporting requirements mapped to the organization's results framework
- A Product Requirements Document covering updated requirements and end-to-end data flow
- A side-by-side comparison of tools for data collection, visualization, and reporting
- Practical recommendations on what to build, what to buy, and where to start
LWF World Service walked away with a shared understanding of what they need, a shortlist of tools that can deliver it, and a phased plan to get there.
- User research
- Product requirements document
- Digital strategy report
Technologies used
- Dovetail
- Lucid
Hikaya worked with us to identify our needs and crafted a clear technical roadmap to help us find the right solution for our organization.
Global Coordinator for Tech Solutions
At Hikaya, we help NGOs and nonprofits worldwide get from fragmented project data to reporting systems their teams will use, starting with the workflows that already exist rather than a blank-slate implementation.
If reporting feels harder than it should or you're weighing which platform to adopt next, a clear picture of what your teams actually need is the right starting point. Start a conversation with us, or explore how we work from discovery through delivery.