Permizon is a platform that will reduce the leaking of time and money due to ineffective and inefficient planning, collaboration and information sharing.
I was lead designer, responsible for guiding the team on the design process; discovery, Ideation, and conceptualization for the project. My role included visual and UX design.
FOR
Oil and Gas Company, USA.
COLLABORATION
Researchers
Business strategists,
Client SMEs.
DURATION
7 weeks.
Unearthing the problem
Our
methods
In-person Ethnography
Engaged and observed multiple ecosystem players in their environment to generate a deeper perspective on pain points and develop rich insights by combining observational findings with verbal responses.
Intercept Interviews at the Permian international Oil Show
Spoke with a number of individuals to discuss their experiences working with others, pain points, and areas to improve collaboration at a three-day gathering of producers, service companies, investors, and innovators.
Expert Interviews
Engaged several Deloitte Subject Matter Experts with extensive, and sometimes very recent, experience running and managing operations for O&G companies
Phone Interviews
Talked to numerous employees on the phone in order to surface their perspectives on macro and specific topics regarding their experience in the Permian.
The mission
Concept development with aim to reduce inefficiencies in planning, collaboration and information sharing across operators, service providers and other stakeholders in the Permian Basin region.
THE SOLUTION
Creates visibility to promote services to potential clients, facilitates opportunities bidding on jobs, offers insight into client schedule and delays to optimize deployment of crews and trucks, and enables an “investment lite” transition to digital.
Makes it easy to find and book reliable service providers on demand, simplifies planning and scheduling across vendors, creates visibility into real-time progress, and streamlines communication.
Value to Stakeholders
Operators
(owner of the right to drill or produce an oil well)
FOR…
The company man -a representative of the Operator at the drill site- overseeing drilling and completions in the Permian Basin…
WHO...
Struggles to secure required service providers on short notice, coordinate activities across multiple parties, and adapt to schedule changes…
Service providers
FOR…
Sales representatives and schedulers / dispatchers working for OFS and logistics companies in the Permian Basin…
WHO…
Are looking to grow their business, improve client relationships, and maximize utilization of crews and physical assets...
Discovery and Insights
Through our conversations and analogous research elsewhere, we quickly understood that a lot of money and time is being lost by all stakeholders due to mostly avoidable inefficiencies in planning, insecurities around collaboration and information sharing.
Key insights
Unexpected events trigger a scramble to find real-time support to get back on track, whether in drilling, completions, or production.
On the flip side, Oil Field Services (OFS) companies book 80%+ capacity in advance, yet promise to squeeze in customers for on-demand needs to deliver on a “say yes” mentality.
Operators hesitate to share key information with OFS companies and involve service providers too late in the planning process for them to shape the strategy, forecast, or anticipate needs.
“With some our operators, we get their drilling schedules, completion plans, water curves, and their forecasts 6 to 9 months out, so we try and stay ahead of all that. The more they communicate with us, obviously the better their needs are met. It doesn’t make sense why operators don’t share their information.”
Master coordination often falls on the shoulders of the company man or superintendent, and without shared, real-time insight into hold-ups, one issue may have a ripple effect on the operations of all service providers and their next clients, raising idle time across the ecosystem.
Analog working methods and ad hoc text- and phone-based communications limit the ability to track behaviors, derive patterns, and identify opportunities for improvement, and manual data entry invites human error. Data and analytics is not widely used on the surface operations.
“I have 62 notebooks. I date it on the top and once that book ‘s full, I get another book. So if we go fix a pump that was replaced a year ago, I can go to that book and see who installed it.”
To keep up with demand, companies must hire individuals with limited experience in the Permian or in oil at all, luring in outsiders with high wages. Furthermore, the urgency and “all hands on deck” outlook shortens the formal training process, favoring “on-the-job” learning over formal mentorship and training.
The inconsistency in talent poses a barrier to team effectiveness and quality of work. New OFS employees are simultaneously learning the norms of their company, their crew, and their client, but can lose a person a different crew and client. Meanwhile, operators seek consistency in crews for clear expectations of quality and the ability to learn together.
“It could be they offer more over time, they pay better. Maybe there was a dispute with their boss. It’s just so easy for them to jump ship because there’s such a high demand that they just leverage the industry dynamic right now.”
Without time to take a step back, anticipate what’s coming next, and evaluate more effective approaches, reactionary and silo-ed decision-making penalizes the ecosystem, driving up costs and time associated with rework.
Prioritization of resources and attention relies heavily on human judgment and personal relationships, rather than on consistent application of analytics or formalized business processes.
“We’re building the plane while we’re trying to fly it. We don’t necessarily have the time and the tools we need internally to keep up with our pace and our development at a level that is going to be always safe and economically feasible.”
Building a marketplace-based solution
An information platform and marketplace to create enhanced supply and demand connections and facilitate improved cross-company collaboration, initially focused on drilling and completions.
On Desirability; What aspect of the solution should we begin with? What are the necessary features to drive differentiated value over the status quo?
On Feasibility; Will the current technology infrastructure support/be able to handle a digital-first solution? What level of data-sharing would be acceptable and ‘comfortable’ for participants?
On Viability; Will users see this platform as a better alternative to existing (competitive) offerings or just another tool? What is the investment case for pilot?
A bird’s eye view of the connections of stakeholders with a breakdown of the proposed solution in relation to identified issues in the system.
A bird’s eye view of stakeholder relations and responsibilities
Service Catalog
A online directory to search local vendors, review company information, certifications, and verified reviews, and filter by priority characteristics
On-Demand Scheduling
A scheduling tool to request availability, schedule vendors on-demand, and make estimated arrival times transparent
Workflow tool
A collaboration tool with dynamic schedules, task lists, and shared visibility into project status, activities, and expected delays / timelines across company men, consultants, and vendors
User communities
A digital and online community connecting individuals across the Permian Basin to create learning opportunities, share best practices, and organize local events / meetings
Path forward
For this client, our final deliverables included, a comprehensive research analysis report, annotated feature specific for the proposed solution, different pathways to an MVO and a product in market with considerations for the desirability, feasibility and viability of the offering.