##1 Hypothetical Project: Empowering Eco-Shoppers Many online retailers have failed to recognize ENERGY STAR® certification as a key starting point on the customer journey. Upon a review of leading online retailers, our team discovered a lack of native filters for ENERGY STAR certified products. (Alternate paths via keyword filter were circuitous and not intuitive for users.)
Because it is the actual purchase and use of ENERGY STAR certified products that will minimize greenhouse gas emissions, Aquilent identified the need to streamline this buying path with the “eco☆shopper” application.
To our knowledge, eco☆shopper is the only way by which users can exclusively view top-selling ENERGY STAR products (based on the Amazon sales rank metric) coupled with energy use metrics sourced directly from the EPA. Our initial Sprint focused on essential functions for the eco☆shopper prototype - primarily integrating the APIs from Amazon.com (Product Advertising API) and the EPA (Product Finder API) to offer this enhanced shopping experience.
##2 How Aquilent Works Aquilent’s user-centric Agile methodology guides all design and development efforts towards rapidly building off of the minimum-viable product (MVP) and iteratively adding functionality. In complete alignment with the U.S. Digital Services Playbook, we use modern, open-source tools and DevOps procedures to promote efficiencies and yield the benefits of continuous integration, automated testing, continuous deployment, and constant monitoring. The “continuous everything” mindset affords Aquilent the institutional processes to “always be shipping” quality products.
![alt text](doc/images/Figure2.jpg "Graphic Representing "Continuous Everything Methodology")
Our Agile methodology for eco☆shopper was driven by a highly integrated “Scrum” team that stayed in constant communication to plan short-cycle design and development releases to quickly elevate the MVP and provide a basis for continuous evolution. Central to our focus were the needs of users - in-depth interviews, persona development, and usability testing ensured eco☆shopper end-users were at the center of every business and technical decision.
The following GSA Labor Categories were fractionally used by Aquilent to execute the prototype:
- Project Manager
- Business Analyst
- User Experience Specialist
- Software Engineer
- Systems Administrator
- QA Engineer
##3 Future Improvements There are a variety of strategic directions to take eco☆shopper. The chief improvement covering the greatest unmet need would be including APIs from BestBuy, HomeDepot, Lowe’s and others to create a one-stop price and feature comparison destination for ENERGY STAR products. Beyond this, additional opportunities exist to incorporate social proof mechanisms to foster greater confidence in purchasing ENERGY STAR products and establishing it as the normative behavior.
##4 Relevant Digital Services Performance Aquilent maintains current and recent past performance supporting other federal agencies that require the same type of Digital Services support that EPA is seeking:
- Performing DevOps in close collaboration with 18F on the Cloud.gov portfolio
- Leveraged DevOps and Agile for the Healthy Living Assessment and MyHealtheVet portals
- Build and maintain management dashboards to facilitate total Navy Seaport program transparency
- Open Source, DevOps and advanced user-centered design techniques to re-imagine HHS.gov
- Facilitate aspects of the Affordable Care Act via Digital Services leadership and support