Product Engineering Case Study
AIESEC GLOBAL FINANCE BOARD - Product Engineering Case Study
Platform to manage the organization's financial data in a centralized location.
Project Overview
AIESEC is a global youth-led organization that seeks to develop leadership skills in young people while providing them with the opportunity to positively impact their communities. AIESEC operates in over 120 countries and territories and manages many financial data across its global network. To help address this data, AIESEC developed the Global Finance Board, a financial management tool that streamlines financial reporting and enables better decision-making.
Project Objectives
The main objectives of the Global Finance Board are to:
Target Audience
The Global Finance Board is primarily used by two types of users: GFB Admin and Organization Unit Users. GFB Admin is responsible for managing the platform and ensuring that financial data is accurate and up-to-date. Organization Unit Users are responsible for inputting financial data into the platform and generating financial reports for their respective units.
Challenges
The implementation of the Global Finance Board faced several challenges. Firstly, the AIESEC team used Google Sheets to conduct the auditing activity and it was very hard since most of the time they can’t add custom logic to generate results from the data submission. There was resistance from some Organization Unit Users who were accustomed to using their own methods for managing financial data. Secondly, there were technical challenges in integrating the platform with existing financial systems, which required significant customization and testing.
Product Engineering Process
The product engineering process involves understanding the problem, analyzing it, generating ideas, prototyping, testing, implementing, and evaluating the success of the solution. Engineerings and designers cycle back and forth between these stages as they refine their ideas and gather feedback to create a solution that meets the needs of users or stakeholders and solves the original problem.
Glimpse of Process
User Stories
After listing several user stories for the project, we have selected specific stories to build happy paths for the case study.
User Flow
We selected the "Submission Task Creation by GFB Admin" user story to explain a user flow.
Wireframing of User Flow
Before starting the design & development, we created wireframes to lay out the basic structure and functionality. By creating wireframes first, we can quickly iterate and refine our ideas, ensuring that we have a solid foundation for the final design.
Walk through the Flow
Create Submission Task
A Global Finance Board Administrator can create a submission task by accessing the Submission task tab. At the top right corner of the table, they can find the 'Create' button.
Previous Tasks
A Global Finance Board Administrator can select a previously created task here and go to the next step or skip to create a completely new submission task.
Select Entities
A Global Finance Board Administrator can select entities from various regions and move to the next step.
Other Details
A Global Finance Board Administrator should add other details to create the submission task. These details include,
Data Type Selection
First, select which data type that needs to form the submission task. Each data type holds different accounts.
Data Schema Selection
A Global Finance Board Administrator needs to manually enter the Data Schema for the submission task.
Setting Submission Task Deadline
A Global Finance Board Administrator needs to select the deadline for the submission task.
Timestamp Creation
Select which year & month to create the submission task.
Tagging and Notes
Global Finance Board Administrator can add additional notes for the submission task. GFB Admin can create the submission task after filling in all necessary details.
Realtime Task Creation Progress View
Toaster messages appear upon each submission task creation completion.
Toaster Message
A toaster message appears upon all submission task completion.
View Multiple Tags
Added tags will appear in the submission task row. More tags can be seen while hovering the mouse pointer.
Experience the Flow
You can experience our craft below.
Conclusion
The AIESEC Global Finance Board is a powerful tool that has helped to transform AIESEC's financial management processes. Through a combination of training, customization, and technical expertise, AIESEC was able to successfully implement the platform and overcome the challenges it faced. As a result, AIESEC is better positioned to manage its finances and make informed decisions that will support its mission to develop young leaders around the world.
Organizational Unit User
| Baseline Solution | AIESEC Global Finance Board | |
|---|---|---|
| Financial Date Entry | Google Sheets | Automated Data Submission Entry Module |
| Data Validations | Primitive | Advanced and Logical |
| Error Messages | Generic | Specific to usecases |
| Awareness on pending tasks and deadlines | via Email based communication | Submission Tasks Module |
| Request data resubmission | via Email based communication | Resubmission Request Module |
| Analysis of financial data | - | Integrated with Looker Studio |
GFB Administrator User
| Baseline Solution | AIESEC Global Finance Board | |
|---|---|---|
| Submission task creation | - | Submission Tasks Module |
| Submission task deadline extension | Manually tracked | Submission Tasks Module |
| Resubmission requests management ( View, Approve, Reject ) | Email + Manually Tracked | Resubmission Request Module |
| Analysis of data submission statuses of entities | Google Sheets | Submission Analytics Module |
| Analysis of financial data | Google Sheets | Integrated with Looker Studio |
Scalability and Performance
| Baseline Solution | AIESEC Global Finance Board | |
|---|---|---|
| Coverage | Member Committees only | Member Committees + Local Committees |
| Ease of Management | Not scalable to thousands of entities | Scalable to thousands of entities |
| Analytical capacity | Difficult to manage data of member committees | Scalable to analyze data of thousands of entities |
| Processing Speed | Not applicable | Very fast operations |
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