Category: Noticias

On the backend of our new Springshot Forms auditing platform, a complex template structure runs seamlessly, ensuring that auditors communicate effectively with their teams and efficiently capture data. The customizable auditing platform is set to its specific collection requirements before any Missions are performed, and through the entirely new user interface that emphasizes clean design, teams experience a consistent workflow. Springshot Forms helps ease task organization, improves collaboration, allows for immediate notifications about adjustments or fixes, and verifies completion. This is the logical quality platform you’ve been waiting for.

We recently caught up with Roshan Patel, VP Product at Springshot, who walked through the goals of Springshot Forms and highlighted its most useful tools and features.

Question: How does the structure of Springshot Forms work to ensure tasks completed by remote teams are done so on time and correctly?

A: The goal of Springshot Forms is to help our customers create a better quality product. We do this by allowing auditors to easily capture high-fidelity data, allowing crew members to get immediate feedback on their performance, and providing a platform for collaboration around the structured data. These goals can only be achieved through a backend that accurately and granularly models the real world and supports the intuitive interfaces created by Hannah and our design team. 

Springshot has experience supporting safety, facility conditioning, and customer experience audits, but I’ll focus on aircraft turns. For airline partners, we break down every section of the aircraft. We have sections defined as first class seats, economy seats, lavatories, galleys, carpets, and flight decks. Within each of those sections, our structure allows us to determine how many individual objects we want an auditor to audit. Because every part of every aircraft is modeled at the most granular level, we are able to build algorithms to smartly guide the auditor on where they should focus their attention. 

The auditor no longer has to carry the mental burden of trying to figure out “how many and which seats should I audit?” If an airline partner would like 30% of the economy class seats audited, Springshot Forms will highlight exactly which seats should be the auditor’s focus. Springshot Forms allows the auditor to complete an audit faster and increase the fidelity of the data by removing decisions that an algorithm can make.

Q: Tell us about Springshot Forms’ built-in feedback feature?

A: For us, Springshot Forms, as a quality platform, is not just checking if the work was completed to spec or not. The only way to drive systematic improvements — and drive up quality scores — is to provide immediate feedback to the crew performing the work. This is not auditing for the sake of slapping wrists. When an auditor fails an item on Springshot Forms, we immediately provide that feedback to the person who performed the work. We believe people want to do better, and with the closed feedback loop between the crew that performed the work and the auditor, everyone knows exactly how to do better. 

Additionally, positive feedback is also provided. Celebrating good work is just as valuable and bringing awareness to areas of improvement. As a result, Springshot Forms gives more context into what is being done, how it can be fixed moving forward, and what is going well. It’s an instantaneous feedback loop.

We actually take the idea of feedback even further: Because every object is structured and because we have built a community of users who are working on the flight with all the other necessary job roles, we have created a product that allows users to easily open channels of text or voice communication directly to the necessary people. The auditor has the ability to seamlessly bring the gate agent, cabin cleaner, and maintenance crew into a channel because of a broken seat and reduce the time it requires to fix the problem.

Q: How then does Springshot Forms use the data that’s collected during the auditing process to analyze for trends and, subsequently, to help further customize templates?

A: As I mentioned, our model has broken down and structured everything that could be audited. This has allowed us to build a scoring algorithm that helps easily highlight systematic trends in an operation and scores the audits based on the relative importance of audited areas. It allows us to identify where the team should focus efforts to drive operational improvements. For example, crumbs on the seat of a first class seat is going to be more impactful to the score of the audit than seatbelts not being crossed in economy. 

From our experience, we know that operational goals can move. Our scoring is built to be dynamic and change along with our customers needs and insights from previous audits. If our customer wants to focus on highlighting a clean entryway because that is the first impression for their guests, we can adjust the scoring to have a higher weight on the entryway. Over time, we may come to understand that the entryway remains clean but the restrooms are now a source of audit failures. In that case, we can rebuild Springshot Forms’ scoring feature to add more weight to the cleanliness of the restrooms. 

Our Customer Success team will sit down with our partners and identify the best way to break down an audit, determine the scoring algorithm, and consult on the optimal terminology of each string the auditor will have to read. Adding, removing, and editing audits on Springshot Forms is very easy and getting an entire quality program up and running from scratch can be done in a matter of days.

Q: What are some of Springshot Forms’ features that your users get most excited about?

A: Tagging and Reporting are two features that go hand-in-hand. A beautiful feature on Springshot Forms is the ability to add tags. Tags are customizable based on the customer’s requirements and structured inside of Springshot. An auditor doesn’t have to think about how to describe the crumbs that are on the ground in a free text box, for example. They would be able to tag “Crumbs on floor.” It’s very easy. These tags can be built based on customer requirements or built over time based on audit data that we collect.

On the data side, it adds an element that someone can more easily analyze. A typical audit may ask an auditor to check that the “floors are free of crumbs and debris.” It is valuable to know if this passes or fails. But with tags, we make it very easy to create a list, such as “large crumbs, plastic bags, gum, food crumbs.” We can get insights into the fact that the floors are dirty, without being intrusive to the auditor. We are able to collect more granular data with tags to figure out what is specifically causing the failure. 

With Springshot Forms’ Rapid Photo feature, a crew member has the ability to quickly create a new form, take photos of any defects, and get out of the way of the operation. They can add any additional tags and additional comments later. It’s the ability to get in, document with photos, and then come back and sit down at a quiet time and fill all the information in. The auditor no longer has to feel rushed to document everything while feeling the pressure of being a bottleneck in the operation.

And finally, via My Crew, a crew member or manager can see the names and roles of everyone who is responsible for turning a plane around: caterers, cabin cleaners, flight attendants, baggage transfer drivers, etc. It makes messaging with other crew members more personable; you are no longer just talking to the cabin cleaner, you are talking to Doug. Creating a sense of belonging — with something as fundamental as addressing a co-worker by name — allows teams to work better together. My Crew allows the team to communicate directly with the people responsible for the work, rather than going through the current pathway of communicating via several lines of management to resolve an issue. 

The last person that’s going onto the aircraft is the auditor. With Springshot Forms, if the auditor finds a seat that fails because there are crumbs in the seat, they can directly communicate with the cabin cleaner who cleaned the specific seat to re-clean the seat, and if necessary, inform the gate agent of the current situation. This reduces defects because they’re caught before an airline customer sees them.

Springshot’s design team has created an intuitive platform that enhances collaboration and helps solve problems among remote workforces. This creative process takes an attention to detail that Hannah Andersen, Senior Product Manager at Springshot, knows all too well given her five years with our company. 

At its core, Springshot’s newest feature, our auditing platform called Springshot Forms, is an easy-to-use tool that simplifies communication between remote teams and ensures tasks have been completed. Its clean design buildout, led by Andersen, improves the experience when workforces connect while completing Missions and especially during the verification, or audit, process that is the key component to Forms.

Following the recent rollout of Springshot Forms, Andersen talked about the humanistic approach we take to our design and user interface solutions.

Can you talk through your design process for Springshot overall and for Forms?

We focus on making design simple, innovative, fun, and easy to use. The first step was deciding what we want to display to users, what relevant information they may need. The customer may tell us they want something specific, but it’s our job as the product and design team to go beyond that and really put our head in their position and think beyond the limits of what they may actually need, while also thinking about the persona of the user while on the application. 

Alot of the design and ideation process is focused on the Aviation industry, but whenever we develop any feature or product, we try to make it as generic as possible so it can be used for many different workflows and in any industry, such as restaurants or pet grooming. We always ask ourselves: Would it work in the same way? We are making sure that this feature can benefit all of the people within the operation.

Often users don’t come from a very technical background so it’s definitely important that a platform is easy to use for someone who isn’t that comfortable with technology. We are also thinking about the conditions and the person that’s going to be using the application. We think about whether the button placement will work. We also think about what the weather conditions are — is it raining? Is it sunny? Are the users on a cart, are they moving? Is English their first language? Should we use an icon instead of words? What makes sense when words are translated into German, Japanese and Spanish? Do we have an icon and text? Do the words still fit in the space when they are translated?

What does your team do once you understand users and how they would interact with Springshot?

Once we have an understanding of a customer’s issues and figure out how we want to tackle them, it is critical to start thinking about the real use cases of how this is affecting people in the operation using the application.This is an intensive collaboration, and we go through every single pixel and use case. We brainstorm what would happen if this occurs or if that takes place. We are anticipating what their questions are going to be, and what the issues are going to be to try to solve them in this phase. One design could have 20 different scenarios or answers for one user. The same treatment may not make sense for one person versus another. We run all the different scenarios, and we built it in a way that can make it adapt and be customizable.

Then, we begin to develop wireframes to bring the idea to life through innovative ways to display the information. We build out the wireframes and hand off a skeleton design to the design team. We meet internally and communicate different needs and requirements. It’s an intensive design review process. We are showing complex information in a clear way, and we try not to overwhelm users with too many data points. 

As a team, we work well together. We all bring in very different points of view, and we are a great mix of analytical and creative brains.

How does the use of color factor into your designs for Forms and Springshot as a whole?

Everything we do is intentional in terms of colors, but we try to use color sparingly so that it’s for specific reasons. For example, a blue area means it’s clickable. We are also trying to stay consistent on the web interface as close as we can to the mobile application.

It’s also the small touches of color that make it fun. Users can choose a channel avatar or their own icons, and we spend time coming up with all the different colors, designs and choices. We often have so many ideas we need to have an internal vote on our favorite designs and color choices.

One area to note is that customers have been asking for years about adding a tagging functionality. And now with our Tagging feature within Springshot Forms, auditors can tag Mission outcomes with specific issues, such as broken seats. A failed outcome generates a discussion thread, where photos, tags and comments are added. Airlines look at the tags and recognize the most common tags; for example, on the 737’s, the biggest issue is broken seats. This tag is really beneficial for customers to identify higher level issues that are happening within the operation and then take action collaboratively in real time. A cleaner is tagged to try to fix the issue, for example.

The purple color of the tags add visual interest for the tags on the screen, and we chose that color intentionally. We tried many different colors of tags before we settled on purple for a balance with the rest of the color palette.

How does your design help engage users?

The term we like to use with the hierarchy of information is “progressive reveal.” This means showing the right information at the right time and not overwhelming the user. They just need: What it is, where they need to go, and what time does it start. We try to hide the secondary information, but also provide the flexibility that if users want to see everything, they can check all the boxes on the filter and it can show everything. We try and keep the messaging very light, such as, “great job,” “keep going,” or “we see you.” We definitely try to make the general brand messaging very friendly. 

Springshot also leverages gamification within Missions, and a great way to engage users is through XP points that they can earn during each Mission. If they complete all their tasks within certain criteria, such as speed or engagement, they can earn XP points. You can see everyone who worked on the Mission, and you can see who earned the most XP points. It’s kind of like a competition with a leaderboard. 

We want people to feel empowered to do their work through this app. We want them to feel proud of the work they did and for other people to see their accomplishments. 

What’s next for you to focus on at Springshot?

We’re brainstorming and strategizing how we can build upon user engagement and continue to help people feel empowered and recognized. We also are working on lots of creative solutions for the product in the upcoming months and excited to take the user experience to another level.

We are thrilled to announce that our team is expanding once again, with the appointment of brand-builder Thomas J. Marano to our Board of Advisors.

Marano, who will help craft Springshot’s broader growth strategy, is a seasoned sales and marketing executive who has built multiple global brands over his 45-year career. Given the three brands he helped build in aviation alone – AHL Services, Air Serv and Unifi/DGS – Marano has unique experience helping teams leverage enabling technology to deliver more productive, more effective and better-differentiated services in airport operations. His deep commitment to empowering businesses with data will push Springshot to new heights.

“Tom will help us accelerate the value Springshot delivers to its customers, both inside and outside aviation,” said Doug Kreuzkamp, Springshot Founder and CEO. “We’ve built a dynamic service delivery platform. Now is the time to partner with thought leaders like Tom to help us focus on the bigger picture, closer align with our customers and continue transforming the mobile workforce landscape.”

Marano spent the last 25 years in service industries predominantly in the aviation sector and shares Springshot’s commitment to helping employees engage with technology, create operational cost efficiencies and improve the airport passenger experience.

For Marano, who recently retired from leading the largest aviation services company in the United States (Unifi, formerly Delta Global Services “DGS”), partnering again with the Springshot executive leadership team — including Kreuzkamp, Chief Customer Officer Clint Powell and new Chief Revenue Officer Adam Taylor — is a perfect transition. He first began working alongside Kreuzkamp, Powell and Taylor in 2005 at aviation services company Air Serv, and looks forward to working with the team again to expand Springshot’s technological innovation and best-in-class data aggregation and analysis.

“I’m delighted to be part of the team. I believe that Springshot is the single biggest opportunity I’ve seen in many years. What Springshot has been able to establish is a platform for the future that is not only substantially important and delivers amazing value in aviation but that can be transitioned into other verticals, and this is exceptionally exciting,” said Marano. “We have a mobile workforce platform that engages employees, drives the experience of passengers, aligns objectives by combining human and technical systems and creates tremendous workforce productivity and retention.”

Marano knows first-hand how important it is to leverage technology to enable labor-intensive service industries like airlines to better collaborate with employees. Marano helped build three $1 billion aviation service brands. Most recently, he was the CEO of Argenbright Holdings for four years overseeing three business units, including Unifi/DGS, SecurAmerica and ERMC. There, he helped with the joint venture acquisition of DGS with Delta Air Lines and grew its aviation portfolio from $420 Million to over $800 Million.

Prior to Argenbright, Marano was the CEO of Air Serv, where he grew the business to over $1 Billion in sales in 15 years before eventually helping sell the company to ABM Industries. He subsequently ran ABM’s aviation services business as a member of the executive committee, repositioning and transforming its aviation offerings.

Before Air Serv/ABM, Marano served as Chief Operating Officer of AHL Services, where he grew the company to a $1 Billion global workforce management company over six years, contributing marketing and strategy to help take the company public in 1997.

Passion, purpose and energy

Marano’s career also includes 20 years outside aviation, in consumer goods roles at Apple Computer, Coca-Cola Co., Pepsi Cola Co. and Procter & Gamble in offices across the Americas. He has deep expertise in helping companies gain market share and, and in his words, “overcome unique challenges.”

Notably, Marano worked alongside Steve Jobs at Apple Computer as VP of Sales and Marketing for the U.S., where he was responsible for $2.4 Billion in annual revenues. Marano played a role reorganizing the company in 1985 and improved Macintosh sales by 150% in the midst of that decade’s financial crisis, while simultaneously eliminating $600 Million in costs.

After leaving Apple, Marano was VP of Sales and Marketing in the fountain division at Coca-Cola for nearly eight years. He led the global reintroduction of Coca Cola Classic into chain restaurants and launched the company’s global account management system.

Marano also worked at Pepsi Cola Co. (now PepsiCo Inc.) where he held multiple marketing management positions and ultimately became VP of Business Development in the foodservice division. He led the growth of Pepsi market share and secured brand positioning via the success of the Pepsi Challenge, the legendary blind taste test against Coke in the mid-1980s.

“I’m a big believer that if you align your team around a culture of caring, high performance, and collaboration like Springshot does,” said Marano, “then you are supporting workers. We are always there to make sure people get the right tools to do their jobs better, and if they can’t, how can we help solve their issues?”

Marano holds a ​​master’s degree in systems management from the University of Southern California and a bachelor of science degree in education from the University of Virginia.

Marano is a member of the advisory board at robotics company Brain Corp and the CEO of Thinc, a consulting company focused on enabling labor services businesses by implementing digital service delivery systems that leverage high-touch new tech.

Please join us in welcoming Tom Marano to Springshot’s Board of Advisors!

About Springshot

Springshot digitally transforms operations. Through its “Springshot” platform, the San Francisco-based software company helps essential workers perform repetitive tasks with greater speed and reliability. Its collaboration, task distribution, and performance management features help airlines, airports and ground handlers reduce labor expenses and costly service failures.

Springshot has a large and growing global footprint. Founded in 2011 by former aviation operators, the Company has master agreements with many of the world’s leading airlines and aviation service providers and has recently expanded its footprint to include dynamic industries outside aviation like facilities cleaning, restaurants, healthcare and city management. In 2021, the company supported operations at one of the world’s premier annual sporting events, the National Football League’s Super Bowl LV.

There are several ways we keep our DEI philosophy top of mind. We are committed to having ongoing conversations with our employees that give them a voice regarding our DEI efforts in action and our plans for the future. For example, in March 2021, we sent out our first employee engagement survey to measure engagement from team members, track and ensure growth as a team, and celebrate areas of wellbeing.

From the survey, employees overwhelmingly agreed that Springshot is committed to diversity and inclusion. The majority of team members surveyed also agreed that the company provides an environment for the free and open expression of ideas, opinions and beliefs. We plan to send out a survey annually.

Additionally, we keep a shared global holiday celebrations calendar to help build and strengthen our teammates’ relationships. We promote birthdays, work milestones, and regional and religious holidays.

Each quarter Springshot also highlights one employee who brings to life our values, and this person receives our Crew Member Appreciation Award. This recognition is important because having a clear way to showcase our DEI values through an employee’s achievements will hopefully inspire other employees to strive to reach similar goals — and elevate them.

Looking ahead, we plan to expand on the DEI efforts that we have in place in a collaborative way that emphasizes empathy and respect. We will prioritize our inclusion goals surrounding race, gender, orientation, and underrepresentation of any kind. We intentionally built Springshot as a safe place that values diversity and we will continue to do so as our business grows.

We can’t wait to share our further progress related to diversity, equity and inclusion, and we hope you’ll help us honor our amazing employees as we move through the next 10 years.

At Springshot, we’re all about helping partners collect and operationalize data to increase worker engagement and accelerate digital transformation. To help our own company achieve new heights, we’re excited to announce that aviation industry veteran Adam Taylor has joined Springshot in the newly-created role of Chief Revenue Officer.

Taylor begins on May 10 and will be headquartered in Atlanta, where he will lead our customer team and help elevate our platform to meet the increasingly sophisticated needs of those working in aviation, healthcare, live events, education, hospitality and other complex operations.

As an innovative and entrepreneurial 16-year airline executive, Taylor is uniquely suited to lead Springshot into the next 10 years and beyond.

“There’s not a person who better understands the complexities of leading a dispersed workforce performing physical tasks, especially in dynamic and complex operations that involve dozens of supporting technologies and vendor business partners,” said Doug Kreuzkamp, Springshot Founder and CEO. “Throughout his impressive career, both directing service delivery from the corporate office and leading matrixed supply chain operations from the frontline, Adam has shown what it takes to increase worker engagement and deliver value for all stakeholders.”

Taylor will oversee our entire customer lifecycle, including the customer success team and business development. He will work closely with our Product and Engineering teams to scale Springshot to meet its customers’ evolving needs.

Taylor is excited to use Springshot’s mobile platform to help teams effortlessly collect data that answers critical performance questions.

“Technology should inspire, empower, and augment the mental and physical capabilities of the human worker, and I’m really impressed with the technological innovation at Springshot,” Taylor said. “I look forward to being part of a senior leadership team who is passionate about driving performance, innovation and value to the most challenging and complex industries, not only through day of operations execution and engagement, but through the conversion of data into actionable information.”

Taylor understands day-to-day airport operations and has spent a career building systems and teams that solve the same problems Springshot has addressed from a technology standpoint. Most recently as President of Unifi, the largest aviation services company based in the United States (formerly Delta Global Services), Taylor led the business through organic and acquisitive growth overseeing 24,000 employees across 180 airports. He focused on implementing human and technology systems that increase engagement, productivity and service levels while decreasing operating costs. This provided him with deep experience crafting enabling technology that supports workforce planning, recruiting and other operational needs.

Taylor, who holds an M.B.A. from the University of Georgia, has known Kreuzkamp for over 15 years, from when Kreuzkamp recruited Taylor from graduate school to enter the aviation industry at Air Serv Corporation (later acquired by ABM Aviation). Taylor then worked at Air Serv/ABM for 12 years in multiple leadership roles, culminating in the role of Senior Vice President of U.S. Operations, in which he led performance management, enabled technology, safety, training, process improvement and global customer account management. He oversaw 12,000 employees in 50 U.S. markets.

Taylor is a relationship builder with a vast business acumen and knowledge of operations. He has formed trusted partnerships with global customers of all sizes, including some of the largest aviation firms in the world and many growing companies.

It’s clear his experience meshes well with our Springshot platform, which is configured to support increasingly elaborate workflows to collect critical operational data and activate data real-time for the user community. “The value of our platform is how we can easily make the necessary tweaks to help customers with their unique workflows,” said Taylor. “We are experts, but we also listen, take that feedback, and integrate it into the product. It’s our constant collaboration that sets us apart.”

As a former Springshot customer himself, another compelling component to Taylor’s experience is his deep connection with our platform. During his many years in aviation, Taylor implemented Springshot in a large U.S. airline’s hometown operation to help save a critical business relationship. In addition, Taylor implemented Springshot to support another major U.S. airline’s operations in its largest hub. In just two weeks, Taylor brought a large workforce online overnight with ease.

The world is becoming smarter and more efficient with how to leverage artificial intelligence,” said Taylor. “Our customers’ needs have evolved over the years, their demands have increased, and the requirement to be more sophisticated with integrated solutions around human engagement and technical systems are changing.”

Springshot is more ready than ever to meet these needs with Taylor’s expertise on the pulse of the market.

About Springshot

Springshot digitally transforms operations. Through its “Springshot” platform, the San Francisco-based software company helps teams perform repetitive tasks with greater speed and reliability. Its collaboration, task distribution, and performance management features help airlines, airports and ground handlers reduce labor expenses and costly service failures.

Springshot has a large and growing global footprint. Founded in 2011 by former aviation operators, the Company has master agreements with many of the world’s leading airlines and aviation service providers and has recently expanded its footprint to include dynamic industries outside aviation like facilities cleaning, restaurants, healthcare and city management. In 2021, the company supported operations at one of the world’s premier annual sporting events, the National Football League’s Super Bowl LV.