A Multi-Year Customer Experience Transformation
TL;DR
Over a three‑year partnership,
my team and I undertook a radical transformation of Norfolk Southern’s customer-facing tools. The results? A 30% drop in helpdesk tickets, an 84% reduction in error‑prone sessions, and a total savings of 388 user‑days of customer effort in just one quarter.
Background
Norfolk Southern (NS) is one of the US’ top 5 largest railroads. Its reach is massive and its operations are massively complex.
In 2020, they were hard at work on AccessNS - their third‑generation customer portal. Built atop back‑end systems dating back to the 1960s, AccessNS was intended as a unified, self‑service interface for planning, scheduling, managing, and paying for freight shipments nationwide. Yet engagement lagged, and many customers bypassed the portal in favor of internal tools or NS customer‑service agents.
My team and others were brought on to understand why, to build a roadmap for change, and to design the solutions that would deliver on the promise of AccessNS. What followed was three years of fascinating and challenging work with some of the best colleagues I’ve had in my career.
The Challenge
Siloed Stakeholders
Multiple product owners focused on isolated functional areas, with no shared end‑to‑end customer view.
Data Blind Spots
We started out with no robust analytics to reveal where users struggled—only call‑center logs.
Misaligned Features and Design
The UI prioritized data display over task flows, reused components inconsistently, and had a dated visual aesthetic.
Legacy Infrastructure
Core systems traced back to the 1960s, so we would have to get very creative to work around technical limitations.
Our Approach
1. Organizational Framework
-Leadership: I worked in tandem with our VP of Delivery and in partnership with NS’s lead SME and product owners.
-Core Team: 6 senior UX designers, 3 project managers, a research manager, plus NS SMEs, product owners, and IT specialists.
2. Deep Discovery
We needed to rapidly start understanding NS operations, customers, systems, and pain points. We started by kicking off intensive stakeholder sessions, feeding the information into a combination of workflows, Confluence documentation, and mind-mapping tools. This gave us a strong baseline understanding of how AccessNS worked, what was planned as its rolling releases continued, and what customers were saying to support teams about using it.
3. Customer Journey Mapping
Our discovery showed us (among many other things) just how siloed things were when it came to how NS supported customer interactions. We wanted to break down some walls. NS customers are segmented into several lines of business, such as:
-Unit Train (a full train with one type of cargo to the same destination)
-Intermodal (cargo traveling by some combination of train, truck, and/or ship)
-Industrial Products (trains specifically serving certain industrial facilities)
Each had completely different processes, needs, and operational teams. So we started with two of the largest and gathered the key players. I ran two massive workshops where we deconstructed the journey of planning, booking, managing, and paying for shipments, not to mention the things that could go wrong.
4. Product Roadmapping
We had done it; we had everything we needed to lay out a grand design for turning AccessNS into something truly special. I joined with Norfolk Southern SMEs and our VP of Delivery to list out key use cases and supporting features. We analyzed each for customer value, business value, level of effort, and likely constraints & risk factors, and looked at how they combined with other efforts around NS.
We adjusted the results further by socializing them with the NS leadership team. Once prioritized and validated, it became the basis for a program schedule. We could then run ahead of the NS IT department and continually feed their development backlog. The schedule was then broken down in JIRA for day-to-day work.
5. Co-Creation and Design Community
Our 6 UX designers were incredible. Each was specifically chosen for the ability to one their own workstream. Each was paired with a product owner from NS to co-create overall concepts and “throw wrenches” at them to see what they could break. Every day we had scrum sessions with extra time for peer review & feedback for those who needed it. Twice a week, we had more in-depth “show and tell” sessions to workshop ideas together in Figma or Miro. We crossed siloes as well, involving our research manager and project managers wherever helpful.
This structured, egalitarian, ultra-collaborative approach allowed all of us to learn from each other and strengthen our skills and knowledge. It also helped us to maintain consistency and manage feature overlap.
6. Governance & Handoff
As designs were completed, they needed to pass multiple checkpoints. A central governance council provided the forum and included representatives from NS operations, customer service, IT, product management, marketing, and the leadership team. Once we had made the necessary adjustments and gained approval, the designers and product owners switched to a period of handoff assistance. Even if features weren’t going to be developed right away, we made sure that they were documented well enough to make them easy to pick up once that part of the backlog was reached.
7. Close the Loop
As features rolled out, we again instrumented them with Quantum Metric for monitoring. Tweaks were to be expected, but the data was encouraging. Once this was correlated with data from call center analytics and customer feedback surveys, we could clearly see the impact we were having.
My Role
Led the Macquarium UX team in its engagement with Norfolk Southern
Co-led product roadmapping, program planning, and workstream management with our VP of Delivery and Norfolk Southern decision makers
Collaborated on estimates, SOWs, timelines and resourcing
Rapidly ensured recruiting, onboarding, and upskilling of top-shelf talent to ensure we could perform at large scale
Partnered with our research manager to translate our Quantum Metric data into actionable design recommendations
Planned, prepared, and led two large-scale customer journey mapping workshops and follow-on analysis activities
Directly interfaced with a wide range of Norfolk Southern teams across operations, customer support, IT, product management, marketing, and more
Managed all UX designers directly, including cross-training, community learning, peer & manager design reviews, performance management, and project enablement
The Solution
Quick score comparison and modular reporting with built-in alerts
Responsive design with tabbed multi-bureau comparison
Credit history drill-down views with natural reading patterns and quick consumer actions
Guided deep credit score diagnosis
Walkthroughs and helper content to educate consumers
Focused view for quick checkups
30% reduction
The Results
of users’ time saved in just one quarter
388 days
With AccessNS originally focused on data display, customers had to find manual workarounds for routine tasks. We brought them a huge set of intuitive, time-saving self-service capabilities.
84% decrease
in customer service help desk volume
A combination of more robust, self-explanatory features and in-depth guidance dramatically drove down customers’ need for technical assistance.
in unique sessions with errors
Customers had been continually frustrated with bugs, slow page load performance, and inefficient design elements. Our work radically improved speed, stability, and reliability.
A Few More Views
This was easily some of the most fun I’ve had on a project and the results were beyond gratifying. I hope you’ll indulge me while I share a few more photos.