KIPP Public Schools Northern California · UX Research + Product Strategy

Who actually needs a work phone?

I combined behavioral data, staff research, and operational analysis to understand how different roles used work-issued phones—and turned the findings into a role-based provisioning strategy.

My roleUX Designer · Research + Data

ScopeFinding & data discovery workstream

ToolsExcel · Power Query · Looker Studio · JAMF

1,357phones represented in the usage dashboard

research → strategy

investigate before assuming

Problem Research Analysis Findings Recommendation Impact

01 · The business question

KIPP was spending about $40K every month on mobile service—but did not have a clear picture of who needed cellular service or why.

The question surfaced during exit conversations: we spend a lot on staff phones, but we don't actually know who needs them or how they're being used.

The initial goal sounded simple: identify potential over-provisioning and support cost efficiency. But the real UX challenge was separating apparent low usage from legitimate role needs.

The project charter framed success around mapping role-based usage, documenting user journeys, and creating recommendations that aligned operational needs with financial resiliency.

Scale of analysis

1,357

phones represented in the dashboard, with 1,343 active lines shown in the usage data.

Pattern investigated

226

users showed zero cellular usage—an important signal that required context before action.

Business context

$40K

approximate monthly mobile spend discussed during discovery.

02 · What I owned

I owned the finding and data-discovery workstream end to end.

That meant managing discovery meetings, communicating across groups, developing research questions, analyzing messy usage data, reconciling records, building the dashboard, synthesizing user stories, forming recommendations, and presenting the findings.

Regional / RSO

Work from Wi-Fi-heavy environments

Research explored communication tools, office/school Wi-Fi reliance, mobility, and when cellular service was genuinely necessary.

School-based staff

Communication is operational

Phones supported parent communication, staff coordination, student safety, emergency alerts, and school-specific applications.

SPED

Mobility changes the need

Travel between campuses and remote work made reliable cellular connectivity more important for specific roles.

03 · From hairy data to usable evidence

The dashboard was not the product. It was the research instrument.

I combined quantitative device behavior with qualitative staff context so that unusual numbers could be investigated instead of automatically treated as waste.

Carrier + JAMFUsage, apps, lines, device context

Excel / SheetsInitial cleanup and reconciliation

Power QueryTransform messy records

Role mappingConnect users to teams and work patterns

Looker StudioExplore trends and outliers

Research synthesisInterviews + data → recommendations

04 · Making the data explorable

I built a dashboard to surface patterns worth asking about.

The dashboard let me inspect total phones, active lines, minutes, messages, data consumption, high-usage accounts, low/zero cellular usage, and changes over time.

Redacted KIPP mobile usage dashboard showing usage metrics and charts

Mobile Usage Overview

Built from manually reconciled carrier, employee, and device data to make patterns and anomalies visible.

Identifying staff details are redacted for portfolio privacy.

05 · The number wasn't the whole story

Quantitative signals told me where to look. Research told me why.

What the data appeared to say

226 users had zero cellular usage.

On its own, that could look like hundreds of unnecessary devices or lines.

→

What investigation revealed

Most were still using their phones—on Wi-Fi.

Low cellular usage did not automatically mean low device value. Connectivity context mattered.

What the data appeared to say

Russell Mendoza’s RSO account used about 242 GB.

The number was dramatically higher than typical RSO usage, which averaged below 1 GB per person across the six-month view.

→

What investigation revealed

The data supported laptop setup reliability.

The employee used cellular connectivity during laptop setups so device provisioning would not fail because of an unreliable connection.

KIPP presentation slide showing Russell Mendoza as the RSO data outlier

My assumption going in

“A lot of these phones probably aren't necessary.”

What the evidence changed

Phone requirements vary dramatically by role, environment, and workflow.

School staff

Phones were closely tied to parent communication, staff coordination, safety, emergency alerts, and school operations. School staff also represented the highest-data-use group in the presentation findings.

RSO staff

Most work happened on school or office Wi-Fi using internet-based communication tools, creating a credible case for Wi-Fi-only devices for some roles.

SPED staff

Cellular connectivity mattered when traveling between campuses or working away from reliable office Wi-Fi, making a blanket reduction strategy risky.

06 · Synthesis → strategy

07 · What changed

The research moved from findings to operational decisions.

Leadership approved the recommendation and began using the work to change how KIPP thought about mobile provisioning and technology spending.

Provisioning began to changeDevice decisions started shifting toward the actual requirements of staff roles.

Wi-Fi-only options entered considerationAppropriate RSO roles could be evaluated differently from mobile school-based staff.

Lines were cleaned up and canceledThe discovery work helped identify opportunities to reduce unnecessary mobile service.

Findings informed budgetingLeadership could use actual staff behavior and role needs to guide future technology spending.

Reflection

I started with a cost question. I ended with a role-design problem.

The most important lesson was not that some phones were over-provisioned. It was that usage metrics needed context. By pairing behavioral data with staff research, I could distinguish low cellular use from low value—and recommend a strategy that balanced operational needs with financial goals.