STRATEGIC PLANNING TOOL

ROLE:
UX Designer

SKILLS:
Research, Wireframe, Figma, Miro, Sketching, Prototyping, Information Architecture

TIME SPAN:
Oct-Dec

TEAM:
Jian Bautista

Background

Southcentral Foundation’s Nuka Strategic Planning Software helps align employees with organizational goals, supports continuous improvement, builds shared accountability, and makes it easy to track progress and report successes.

Problem Statement

The strategic planning tool had become difficult for users to engage with. The interface was cluttered, the information hierarchy was unclear, and the overall experience felt confusing rather than supportive. As a paid product, it needed to deliver a more intuitive and user-friendly workflow, but users often struggled to understand where to begin or how their roles fit within the system. These challenges highlighted the need for a refreshed, reorganized design that clarified structure, improved usability, and made the tool easier to navigate.

1

User Research

2

Persona

3

Ideation

4

Wireframe

5

Prototype

Research

Key Problems Identified:

  • The interface was cluttered and visually overwhelming.

  • Users found the tool difficult to understand and navigate.

  • The information hierarchy lacked clarity.

  • As a paid product, it did not meet user expectations for ease of use.

  • Users could not easily identify their roles within the tool.

  • The overall structure needed reorganization to support a smoother workflow.

The More the Marrier!

After interviewing with the SME's, we realized that creating personas with different needs would be a perfect solution

General

“What’s going on?”

All users land on this page first, so it needed to surface key organizational information at a glance.

This section includes:

  • Organization WP Completion Status

  • Organization AP % Approved

  • “Work Across SCF” highlight (name, description, quick Kudos)

  • User subscriptions

Work Plan

"What should I be working on?"

This section supports users who own specific Work Plans by highlighting upcoming deadlines and overall progress.

This section includes:

  • Work Plan due dates within the next 30 days

    • With a link to view all “My Work Plans”

  • Total Work Plans and status breakdown (Complete / In Progress / Not Started)

Initiative

“Is adequate progress being made on this initiative"

Each Initiative includes an Initiative Report that gives a quick snapshot of progress and historical trends.

This section includes:

  • Current-year totals (Complete / In Progress / Not Started)

  • All-years Work Plan list with % complete and priority

  • Comparison of Work Plan count to the org-wide average

  • Line chart showing Work Plan totals over time

Annual Plan

“Is my Annual Plan ready?  If so, how is progress coming on it?"

This section helps users identify gaps in planning and review the status of each Annual Plan.

This section includes:

  • Initiatives with no work in the current year (based on the last 11 months, excluding the most recent)

    • With instructions for adding the initiative to a plan

    • Optional: ability to select a plan and add it directly

  • For each Annual Plan:

    • Overall status (late / on time)

    • Work Plans with names and % complete

    • QR Report status

Approver

“What needs attention?”

The Approver view focuses on items needing review and provides a clear snapshot of approval performance across APs and QRs.

This section includes:

  • Items currently waiting for approval

  • For the APs I approve:

    • Status chart (late / on time)

    • Recent status changes

    • Leaderboard: Rank • Approver • % Approved on Time

  • QR Status:

    • Status chart (late / on time)

    • Recent status changes

    • Leaderboard: Rank • Approver • % Approved on Time

  • “Highlights” section with recent QR accomplishments

Solution

Southcentral Foundation’s Nuka Strategic Planning Software helps align employees with organizational goals, supports continuous improvement, builds shared accountability, and makes it easy to track progress and report successes.