Driver Exoneration Journey Mapping

Driver Exoneration Journey Mapping

UX Research

This piece showcases my research work to develop as-is journey maps that document the typical process surrounding driver exoneration in the fleet industry. This was a high priority research roadmap initiative in Q3 2025 that aimed to support future Product and Engineering initiatives for Verizon Connect’s product Reveal. These journey maps and supporting research have had a lasting impact on Verizon Connect’s understanding of driver exoneration, driver recognition opportunities, and the user needs of fleet managers and drivers.

Overview

Problem

Past research indicates fleet managers and drivers want to use Reveal as a mechanism for positive reinforcement, but most existing features have punitive applications. The business wants to invest more heavily in these positive experiences, such as driver exoneration functionality. To do so, the Product and Engineering teams need a better understanding of as-is journeys so as to best focus their solutions to user needs.

Project Goal

Understand the as-is driver exoneration experience from the fleet manager and driver perspective.
Identify customer needs and opportunities for potential future roadmap initiatives surrounding driver exoneration.

My Contribution & Impact

I was the lead UX Researcher on this initiative. My work:

Unblocked the product roadmap.
Filled gaps in foundational driver research knowledge.
Demonstrated new research readout methodology.

Team

Stephanie Baione, Mimi Lu

Timeline

June 2025 - August 2025

Tools

Figjam, userinterviews.com, Pendo, Dovetail, Quicksight

Background

In the business of driving, fleet managers have a strong incentive to keep a watchful eye on every aspect of the work. This includes but is not limited to areas like vehicle maintenance, cargo securement, compliance management, driver training, and the all-important topic of driver safety. Depending on company policy, fleet management can become a very thorough task that incorporates dashcam technology, AI hazard detection, and driver coaching to ensure drivers do not slip up on critical safety procedures (e.g. attentive defensive driving). Businesses like Verizon Connect have invested a lot of time and money into developing optimized tools to identify driver mistakes so they can be curbed and improved upon.

But what about when a driver does an excellent job?

Not all cases of harsh braking, tailgating, or even speeding are always the result of bad driving. Sometimes a good driver will swerve out of their lane to avoid a rear-end collision, saving their company thousands in repairs, and of course, triggering a harsh driving alert for their fleet manager to review.

We know these scenarios happen—and that some can be quite common—but fleet management tools as a whole are light on opportunities to proactively track and reward these scenarios that are worthy of driver exoneration. And for the experts at Verizon Connect to best build high value solutions, we need to know more about what fleet managers are already doing, how drivers feel, and how we can help.

Project Goal

Understand the as-is driver exoneration experience from the fleet manager and driver perspective.
- Examine existing Reveal functionality and its relationship to driver exoneration
Identify customer needs and opportunities for potential future roadmap initiatives surrounding driver exoneration.

Project Timeline

This project took place from June to August 2025 and consisted of fleet manager interviews, driver interviews, and a customer survey.

1. Exploratory Research

Research Methods

After leading research question generation with our cross-functional team, I designed a mixed method data triangulation research approach to incorporate a diverse array of feedback.

1. Fleet Manager Interviews

2. Driver Interviews

3. Reveal Customer Survey

Interviews

Method Selection: With our research focus on the as-is experience, testimonials and open conversation were our most valuable resource for defining user journeys.

We spoke to both safety managers and drivers during this research. After developing two complimentary semi-structured interview guides, I focused on managers while Mimi spoke with drivers. This allowed us to divide and conquer, conducting 19 interviews in less than 2 weeks.

Key Research Questions:

What does driver exoneration mean for you and your company?
Tell me about a time you exonerated a driver?
- How was [your fleet management tool] involved in this process?
What do you wish you could change about your driver exoneration process?
Does driver exoneration ever involve driver recognition?

Reveal Customer Survey

Method Selection: We hypothesized that existing Reveal features indirectly support driver exoneration. Proving or disproving this hypothesis would identify quick wins to better support this group and provide direct customer feedback.

We launched a simple 3 question Pendo survey that would appear when customers exhibited driver exoneration-related behaviors in Reveal. We planned to use this data in complement with customer usage statistics on Quicksight, painting a clear picture of user behavior and intention.

2. Research Analysis & Synthesis

Untangling the Data

With the primary goal of developing as-is journeys, my teammate and I got to work blocking out the core themes from each interview (e.g. examples of exoneration cases, Reveal integration into coaching, and positive recognition). That information was then distilled into rough flow charts—perfect for soliciting feedback and iteration. Once we were satisfied with the content of those flows, we defined four core exoneration use cases that would become the subject of our research presentation.

Part 2a: Flow Chart (Safety Manager POV)

Part 3: Defining the Four Exoneration Use Cases

As-Is Journey Maps

Flow 1: A Low Severity Event

Flow 2: The Collision Response

Flow 3: Call-in Complaint

Flow 4: Positive Recognition

Designing for Communication - A Flow 2 Deep Dive

Here are some of the notable design decisions that went into constructing these visuals:

Condensing the Safety Manager and Driver experience into one flow: The primary actor in these journeys is the Safety Manager. We wanted to visually convey the driver’s lack of control and agency throughout the process.
Utilizing AI to generate images: Our team is always experimenting with new tools. Without any images of our participants at work, we turned to Gemini to generate visual aids to bolster our user journeys and improve readability.
Color-Coding Actors: When detailing Safety Manager (green) and Driver (blue) actions, we color-coded our work to emphasize which users were taking action at each step.
Tools and Touchpoints: Our stakeholders are highly invested in how the as-is journey relates back to the business. This section provides additional context on which Reveal features and VZC Personas are being utilized at each step.
Pain Points and Opportunities: This section of the flow is our ‘so what?’, detailing the key areas of improvement that would solve core user problems.
Thoughts and Comments: We chose to conduct our readout with FigJam as our communication tool. As such, we created a space to invite stakeholders to engage with the work and get their questions answered.

Key Takeaways

Expand customer onboarding resources to derive maximum value from Reveal.
Reveal already offers a number of tools to make the driver exoneration process easier, but users need to be made aware of those features to make full use of them and get the most value out of Reveal.
Simplify the review process, and help drivers keep informed.
When you’re receiving hundreds of videos a day, it can be a challenge to pick out the ones deserving of exoneration. Safety Managers are interested in having those videos curated by Reveal and send to them proactively. Additionally, drivers are invested in their status when they’re under review, and being kept informed would help reduce stress and build trust between manager and driver.
Empower safety managers to take positive action.
Safety Managers and Drivers both care very deeply about positive recognition, so Reveal should too. Proactive tools will go a long way to making fleet management a positive actively rather than purely punitive.

3. Impact

Unblocked the product roadmap.
The team had driver exoneration solutions in mind, but they had no way of evaluating if those solutions would fit existing customer workflows and provide value. This research gave us the ability to make roadmap decisions, launch core driver exoneration features in 2025, and add additional solutions to our 2026 product backlog.
Filled gaps in foundational driver research knowledge.
This research lived on in our Dovetail research repository after project completion and has since been leveraged for multiple driver-focused innovation projects and high priority driver needs workshops.
Demonstrated new research readout methodology.
After participating in service design training in 2025, our team determined we were under-utilizing journey maps in our research process. I identified that this project would be a good fit. Not only did I demonstrate the impact of journey maps on collating research, I also designed a new readout strategy that blended the journey map content, strategic breakpoints for discussion, and mechanisms for gathering feedback/questions.