Background

In early 2012, the Federal Transportation Administration (FTA) released the availability of discretionary funds to address the transportation needs amongst veterans, military families and transportation-disadvantaged populations. The “product/service” being produced is either a call center or website. With NMDOT already implementing a call center, Mid-Region Council of Governments chose to create a website. MRCOG’s depth of knowledge to deploy a website, via the existing employee pool, helped determine the product/service to be produced. The goal of each product is to facilitate the opportunities within Transportation Services, Workforce Solutions and Human Services to the target audience. Our federal allocated amount is $332,500.00, with a local match of $75,000.00, giving us a total budget of $407,500.00. The apportioned budget is spread between research initiatives, website development, customer service infrastructure, administration and marketing.

Challenges

• Enormity and Ambiguity of Information

  The foremost challenge is synthesizing the vast amount of information regarding the demographic and the variety of outlets from which the demographic may acquire the specific information they need.
  
  

  Understanding the Demographic

  The veteran demographic is very specific, but also largely diverse.
  
  

  Technology

  The User Interface (UI) design process is completely dependent on the completion of our target audience research. Therefore, determining the type of technology, or website functionality needed for determining web development costs, is difficult.
  
  

  Infrastructure

  With the release of this website and the marketing initiatives therein, the potential for converging new customer service is certain. For which, the capacity does not currently exist. Therefore, MRCOG, along with Rio Metro, will need necessary equipment upgrades to handle the increase. Maintenance of the website is also a challenge, as there are no current provisions, in the program itself, for an employee to keep the website running.





Strategies

• Communicate with Clarity and Understanding – In order to help remain consistent in all communication, a workgroup mission statement, brand mark, shorter name and tagline was developed. Branding the initiative has proven to help communication by being easily recognizable, relevant and concise. Success of the branding has been seen through the quick adoption of the project and input received from individuals, both veteran and non-veteran alike. The workgroup mission statement is a reminder of the direction all efforts must follow. Helping all parties stay on task.
  
  

  Workgroup Mission Statement:

  “Provide possibilities for independence & the ability to imagine oneself active in career, community and family.”
  
  

  Be User-Centric

  In the search for specific information about the demographic, the data pool grew, but not in specificity.  It was quickly apparent that developing a user experience that would appropriately reach all of the target audience was going to need a boots-on-the-ground approach. Getting to know the demographic would then require research strategies that would meet the veterans where they are and not just consider what they do, but how they feel about what they do.
  
  

  Bring the Demographic and the Agencies Together

  The process of cultivating a relationship between service provider and user(s) is proving to be the projects greatest asset. Getting the two parties to communicate over a common goal is not only beneficial, it has become unifying.  It is certain that furthering this communication will reveal elegant and definitive solutions. One of which is the concept of Profiling and Schema Development.  
  
  

  Combine Efforts

  The target audience is diverse. To answer that call, I have endeavored to bring together an equally diverse group of individuals called workgroups. Workgroups are that boots-on-the-ground approach. Workgroups are comprised of a project manager, Tribal Liaisons, CTP steering committee members, transit planners, DAV representatives, a variety of veteran professionals and volunteers, workforce representatives, human service representatives, and interested parties. Workgroups extend further than our own four county districts, and include a partnership with NCRTD, RMRTD and Santa Fe Trails. This has allowed us to broaden our reach past the four counties we are responsible for and on to the entire state. This approximately grew the 70,000 strong demographic to 180,000. This statewide partnership/workgroup is endeavoring to meet with representatives from the entire state to develop a working model of communication that will help create very targeted marketing initiatives with very specific tools. The goal here is to garner a deeper understanding of the demographic, and in-turn, develop marketing tools that will secure the greatest effectiveness with the target audience.
  
  

  Find Similarities

  The process of cultivating a relationship between service providers and the target audience has made clear the initial objectives and reachable milestones. The first milestone is Profiling and Schema Development. This will be the cornerstone of the website.  The goal here is to take the data gathered from our workgroup research and cluster the target audience into categories that will become the (UI) user interface design. Creating a select number of profiles of the larger whole provides a platform for the most effective user experience to be designed. This will allow for that “one-click” simplified model of website design, to become achievable.
  
  

  Progress & Achievements

  • Project manager assigned
  • Budget approved
  • Branding created, approved and implemented
  • Group mission statement approved
  • Web development model created and presented to workgroups
  • Milestones established
  • Functioning workgroups developed
  • Rough Timeline Established
  • Statewide partnership/workgroup established                         
  • Possible invitation to the Tribal Summit
  • Partnership with Statewide Veteran leaders first meeting at State Capital
  • Workforce Internships Initial Development
  • Initiated the CTP Steering Committee Veterans Addendum
  • UI Concept Developed
  • Rapid Portotype Contractors Choosen