Transforming Enterprise Operations Through Systems-Level Strategy
Background
Alaska Airlines operated across multiple legacy and third-party systems supporting pilot training, scheduling, and compliance workflows for 13,500+ employees.
Problem
Disconnected systems forced users to navigate multiple tools per workflow, leading to high error rates, duplicated work, and slow reporting.
Challenge
40+ integrations, complex data dependencies, regulatory constraints, and limited engineering capacity made it difficult to implement scalable solutions without disrupting operations.
Business
Impact
Consolidated 8 legacy systems → 1 unified platform
Reduced error management time by 85%
Improved reporting efficiency by 65%
Reduced system switching and workflow friction across enterprise operations
Enabled scalable, long-term product and platform strategy
The Approach
4
Initiation
1
Shifted from “What should we build?” …to “What problems are we actually solving?”
Discovery and System Understanding
2
User interviews, workflow and system analysis, surveys, operational data, leadership and business objectives….to service blueprints, ecosystem models, opportunity areas, KPIs and OKRs
Future State Definition
3
Requirements and Solution Shaping
Developing new workflows and information architecture
Partner with BIs and engineering to translate insights into 1500+ requirements that address business needs, technical feasibility, and data constrants
Vendor Evaluation and Selection
5
Evaluated external vendors against future-state architecture and requirements. Selected vendor for immediate needs and scaling.
Identified gaps between vendor capabilities and business needs. Facilitated stakeholder workshops to align on tradeoffs, prioritize features, and define MVP.
Led hands-on rollout with users, including individual configuration workshops, developed documentation and training, and conducted satisfaction surveys.