Case Study / Flight Deck 26
FLIGHT DECK Activation Hub
A 10-day discovery and concept sprint that turned 302 hand-read comments and a 649-person survey into a full operating model for the GE Aerospace lean hub.
Work / Flight Deck
Sectors
Aerospace & Defense
Enterprise Software
Client
GE Aerospace
Year
2026
Engagement
May 1 → Sep 4, 2026
3 phases · 4 deliverables
Status
Phase 01 shipped · defunded
Our Roles
Product Strategy
VOC Research
Information Architecture
UX Design
Concept Development
Operating-Loop Design
Stakeholder Hub Engineering
GE Aerospace engaged Bttr. to redesign the FLIGHT DECK Activation Hub: the SharePoint-based system that operationalizes the lean methodology used across roughly 34,760 employees.
We compressed Phase 01 into a 10-day sprint and shipped it as a live, password-gated stakeholder hub the client could click through, not a static deck. By the May 8 standing we had personas, themes, page priority, deliverable scope, five concept directions, and the monthly operating loop to keep the work compounding after handoff.
649
survey respondents
8.1% response rate
302
open-ended comments
read by hand
335
issue mentions
across 14 themes
~34,760
employees in scope
7 persona archetypes
219,253
views · top hub page
TopicHome, all-time
59,594
views · top template
Action Plan template
9
D1 pages, ranked
sourced from VOC
5
concept directions
all click-through
Context
A discovery sprint that didn’t look like a discovery sprint
The hub serves every layer of the company: senior leaders, plant leaders, FLIGHT DECK leaders, manufacturing supervisors, hourly operators, supplier-quality engineers, and DT power users. The existing site carried broad content for an undifferentiated audience, and 302 open-ended VOC comments told us where sharper focus would compound.
We treated the discovery deliverable itself as a working product. A password-gated hub with a sidebar, sub-tabs, persona pages, calendar, risks panel, and a meeting brief. Every claim cross-linked back to the source data behind it. Every concept rendered as a real SharePoint page with the GE chrome, the GE footer, and content grounded in the VOC research.
The Stakeholder Hub
Eleven surfaces, one navigation spine
Sidebar nav grouped Run / Designs / Plan / Research / History / Watch. Mobile collapsed to a horizontal scrolling strip with group labels inline. Password-gated. Visit-alert beacons emailed when a stakeholder opened a page, with city, browser, and referrer attached. Bot and self-IP filtering on the alert path; Vercel Web Analytics and Speed Insights at the edge for aggregate history.
Run
- Dashboard
- Fri May 8 · Meeting brief
Designs
- 5 Concepts
- VOC Discovery doc
Plan
- Deliverables
- Timeline & Phases
- Calendar
- Comment Factory
Research
- Personas
- Archetypes
- External
- Customer Satisfaction
History
- Meeting Notes
- Transcript
Watch
- Risks
Sprint Timeline
Ten days, end-to-end
Mon May 4
Stand-up
Hub deployed. Eleven tabs, sidebar nav, calendar, risks, persona pages, OG preview, password gate. Personas & Customer Satisfaction review with GE; Nemoto framework noted.
Tue May 5
Restructure
Friday brief restructured to a 7-step insider flow. People names scrubbed for partner-led tone. Ten personas cut to seven, mapped to Sam Olstein’s three Wingmate buckets. Mobile breakpoints at 720 and 480.
Thu May 8 · 9:00 AM CST
Concept ship
Five full-page concept designs shipped, plus the guided walkthrough and the VOC discovery doc. Real persona portraits across every surface. GE Aerospace footer wired to all five concepts.
Same day · 3:14 PM
Telemetry on
Visit-alert beacon live. Resend email per page load with city, region, country, browser, referrer, and time. Vercel Analytics and Speed Insights enabled at the edge.
Phase Plan
May 1 → September 4, 2026
Phase 01 · Architecture
May 1 → May 29
Personas, themes, page priority, function-vs-tier seam, deliverable scope, integration mechanism. Acceptance: design approved, integration locked.
Phase 02 · Build
Jun 1 → Jul 31
D1–D2 dev complete trigger July 3. D1–D4 built and ready for UAT by July 31.
Phase 03 · Hardening
Aug 3 → Sep 4
UAT, support window, Comment Factory handoff. Final acceptance Sep 4.
Scope
Four deliverables, one connected system
D1
Flight Deck Dashboard
Supermarket layout, global nav, 8 Fundamental + 3 Behavior pages. The routing surface that decides whether the rest of the hub gets used.
D2
Template Library
Directory with sort, search, filter, and AI integration. The daily power surface for site lean coaches who live in templates.
D3
Wingmate Integration
Prompt Library Page plus Problem Solving handoff. Conversational front door for the AI-native users who would rather ask than browse.
D4
Huddle Coach
Custom SharePoint app: photo → rating → action. Pressure-tests how teams perform in their daily huddles. Build gated on the GE-side DVMS rubric.
How We Made It
We read every comment by hand
AI categorization was tried first and dropped: the buckets didn’t fit the texture of the comments. The team manually read all 302 open-ended responses and let patterns cluster naturally. Ten patterns emerged. Three were collapsed for redundancy, leaving seven personas mapped cleanly into the three Wingmate buckets the client team had already identified.
Function-vs-tier seam analysis showed that 114 of 335 mentions sat at the manufacturing seam, where lean methodology brushes up against software, HR, and engineering teams that don’t live in the factory. That seam became the design lens for prioritizing pages, templates, and Wingmate prompts.
What 302 Comments Were Saying
14 themes locked. Six dominated.
62
Findability & search
Largest cluster. People can’t find what they need.
51
Real examples
Especially transactional, engineering, HR.
36
Training gaps
"Nobody has given me training on how or why to use Flight Deck."
27
Non-manufacturing content
Engineering, HR, transactional, software, services.
19
Information overload
"Starting to become too crowded with information."
16
Onboarding
No starting path for the 1,000+ new users a month.
90 explicitly positive comments. 15 unsolicited Wingmate praise.
Personas
Seven placeholders. Three highlighted as the priority.
Maggy Multiplier
Top 3Site lean coach · Manufacturing
Find templates fast to coach my team.
Primary surface · D2 Template Library
Nora Newcomer
Top 3New employee, first 90 days
A guided starting path I can follow.
Primary surface · D1 Dashboard
Theo Translator
Top 3Digital / software engineer
Bend MFG content to my function.
Primary surface · D2 Engineering filter
Oscar Operator
Shop floor operator
Plain-language meaning of Flight Deck.
Primary surface · Plain-English video
Pat Pragmatist
Program manager
Grab a known template fast and leave.
Primary surface · 2-click access, no fluff
Bea Bridge
Supplier quality engineer
Use Flight Deck with externals safely.
Primary surface · Tags for shareable content
Ada AI-Native
Wingmate power user, DT
Ask, don’t browse.
Primary surface · D3 Wingmate
Doer / Practitioner
Translator · Pragmatist · AI-Native
Learner / New-to-FD
Newcomer · Operator
Standardizer / Leader-advocate
Multiplier · Bridge
The seven nest into the three Wingmate buckets the client team had already named. Same data, different altitude.
Where to start
Nine pages, ranked in design order
Each ranking cited its source: Anam’s April 28 demo audit, the 302 hub comments, or the activation journey workshop deck. Three pages excluded with reason: 5S already redesigned, 3P lowest pull, VSM assumed cut.
01
Main Homepage (Dashboard)
Routing surface. Findability is #1 (62 mentions).
02
Daily Visual Management
GE’s #1 redesign target. Sets the structural template the other Fundamentals copy.
03
Stabilize
Activation journey rail.
04
Standardize
Activation journey rail.
05
Improve
Activation journey rail.
06
Standard Work
High template pull.
07
Problem Solving
Pairs with Wingmate prompt library.
08
Kaizen
Top-10 template (Kaizen Prep).
09
Action Planning
Designed last. Page is a launcher.
Page Heatmap
Where attention actually went
| Page | Total Views | Unique Viewers | 7-Day Visits |
|---|---|---|---|
| TopicHome | 219,253 | 29,734 | 4,326 |
| Standard Work v1 | 33,829 | 12,215 | 545 |
| Problem Solving v1 | 25,990 | 9,209 | 447 |
| Templates Library | 19,684 | 8,027 | 833 |
| Daily & Visual Management v1 | 19,559 | 7,743 | 298 |
| Action Planning v1 | 18,867 | 8,269 | 265 |
| Value Stream Management v1 | 10,013 | 4,453 | 158 |
| Operating Cadences v1 | 8,830 | 4,408 | 140 |
| Kaizen Event | 7,193 | 2,509 | — |
| Prompt Library | 1,450 | 687 | 677 |
The Five Concepts
One hub, five entry models
Each concept rendered as a real SharePoint hub page with the GE logo, real hero photography, the actual Activation Hub nav, and the GE Aerospace footer. Bottom-of-viewport floating glass-blur pill nav linked back to the hub. Content grounded in the VOC research, not Lorem ipsum.
Concept A · Stage-Based
“Where are you in your journey?”
Stabilize → Standardize → Improve → FD101 as the navigation spine. “Most teams here” badge on Standardize.
Concept B · Wingmate AI
“Skip the search. Just ask.”
Conversational front door. Pulls from the curated template library and the Wingmate prompt page.
Concept C · Maturity
“Show me where to focus this week.”
SVG progress ring at 72/100. Ranked opportunities tied to the Hoshin plan. Site leaderboard with real GE plant data (Wilmington, Saltillo, Avio Aero, Cheltenham, Grand Rapids).
Concept D · Personas
“Choose your starting point.”
Seven persona doors. FLIGHT DECK Leaders flagged as the priority audience with an accent border, blue ring, and Genba coaches tag.
Concept E · Guided Flow
“Just tell me what to do next.”
3-column wizard with a connecting timeline rail. Blue and gold dots mark done, current, recommended.
All five
Built to ship.
Same chrome, same footer, same persona content. Floating bottom nav linking back to the hub and forward to the next concept.
The Operating Loop
Comment Factory · seven stations
A monthly operating loop so the redesign compounds with the factory running instead of decaying without it. New comments come in, get labeled, assigned, sorted into action queues, and tracked over time. Bttr designs the floor; GE owns and runs it after handoff.
01
Intake
DT pushes monthly batch
Apr · 45 returned
02
Filter
Drop non-substantive
Apr · ~13 dropped
03
Label
Theme · sentiment · persona · function
14 themes locked
04
Assign
Single owner
GE · DT · Bttr
05
Sort
Route to a queue
4 queues
06
Act
SLA per queue
Blockers → Risks
07
Trend
Theme counts MoM
Cumulative + delta
No new themes
Force every comment into the locked taxonomy. Only add a cluster when 3+ comments don’t fit and the pattern repeats across two batches.
AI assists
Wingmate suggests, human confirms. Suggestion-with-override, not auto-classify.
Single owner
Multiple owners equals no owner. Assigner picks the most accountable function and CCs the other.
Negatives forward
Pull negative-sentiment comments to the top. Blockers process first.
Privacy
SSO opt-in only. Survey is anonymous unless the respondent volunteers follow-up. DT data control plan governs.
Trend honestly
No recycled population. Until same-population resurvey is in place, trends measure cumulative drift, not user-level change.
Hoshin Action Plan
Six prioritized interventions
Step 1
Simplify navigation
Reorganize content, structure links by frequency, remove redundant callouts, add examples + templates repositories.
Step 2
In-depth examples
Define a standard format for examples and best practices.
Step 3
Journey by reason
Persona-based portals. Welcome video for first-time visitors.
Step 4
Search functionality
Rename docs for SEO. Update Wingmate metadata to reflect renames.
Step 5
Notification system
Research avenues for communicating updates without adding noise.
Step 6
Genba visits
Pain-point interviews per template. Surface FDO support for VoC interviews.
Built into the Hub
Telemetry from day one
Visit alerts
Per-page beacon to a Vercel function, email via Resend on every load. Subject line: Flight Deck visit · /concept-c.html · Park City. Body carried page, referrer, time (Mountain), browser, IP, and city · region · country with flag emoji. Bot, headless, and self-IP filtered before send. Same-page revisits debounced to once an hour via sessionStorage.
Aggregate dashboards
Vercel Web Analytics and Speed Insights served from the edge. Edge serving means the beacons aren’t ad-blockable like third-party scripts. Email for real-time signal, dashboards for aggregate history that survives even when the beacon is blocked.
Password gate
Light-theme client-facing gate matching the brand aesthetic. Access code flightdeck2026. Gates the entire surface area before any content renders.
Mobile pass
720px and 480px breakpoints. Persona grid, statbar, surface tiles, seam evidence, exec hero grid, deliverable grid, and methodology grid all collapse to single column. Sidebar collapses to horizontal scrolling pill strip with hidden scrollbar. 40px minimum tap target on every interactive control under coarse pointer.
Outcome
Five executable directions, every one defensible from the data
By the May 8 standing, the client had a working hub, the VOC discovery doc, five full-page concept designs, the guided walkthrough, the 9-page priority list, and the Comment Factory ready to run monthly. Everything was clickable. Everything cited its source. Every concept could have been built next.
The engagement was defunded after the review. Phase 02 didn’t happen. The work that was made stands on its own as a record of what compressed discovery looks like when the deliverable is a real product instead of a deck about one.
The work doesn’t need the project to have continued to be the work.
Ten days. 302 comments. 14 themes. 7 personas. 9 pages, ranked. 5 concepts. 4 deliverables. 1 operating loop.
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