Research and UX strategy for Datastream-as-a-service
Company
Urban.io
Role
Product designer
Duration
2020
After several successful IoT pilots in utilities and energy, Urban.io needed to scale its platform. Each deployment used different tools and processes, creating friction between hardware, software, and operations internal teams.
The POC of the industrial IoT platform which UX no longer met the use cases of the validated platform.
Challenge
Urban.io’s pilots worked independently but lacked shared workflows.
Customer, partner, and internal teams each used different processes for device onboarding, monitoring, and reporting.
We needed to create a shared map of responsibilities and define how all these experiences fit within one scalable platform.
Research approach
I led UX research and strategy to align teams and systems, turning fragmented pilots into one coherent platform vision.
Urban.io engineers and support teams
Partner installation contractors
Customer operations managers
This helped us visualise how data flowed across organizations and where communication broke down.
Insights
Using the JTBD framework, we uncovered key motivations:
Engineers: “I want to deploy devices fast and know they’re live.”
Operators: “I want to trust the data I see.”
Clients: “I need a clear overview without technical noise.”
Role ecosystem mapping dependencies between teams.
Strategy
We translated research into a strategic UX framework that defined four core platform verticals:
Monitoring — real-time asset and sensor visibility
Network Admin — device provisioning and configuration
Organization Admin — user roles, access, and permissions
Data Visualization — insight dashboards and reporting
Outcome
The research and strategy work unified Urban.io’s design direction across teams.
It created a clear product vision, aligned workflows, and guided subsequent design system and onboarding efforts.
Defined UX principles and platform verticals
Unified teams under one system map
Established foundation for scalable IoT onboarding and monitoring tools
Learning
Scaling UX for industrial systems requires translating operational complexity into shared understanding.
Strategy is design — it builds the map others can navigate.
"Strategy is design — it builds the map others can navigate."
View more projects
