STREAMLINING THE IMPORT PROCESS

In 2014, there was an executive order signed to streamline the import and export process for products into the US. The system, maintained by Customs and Border Protection (CBP), allows agencies to obtain data quicker, process cargo faster, and identify unsafe, dangerous or prohibited shipments. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) was the last agency to fully integrate with the system and USDS was asked to help facilitate the integration between the FWS and CBP systems.

The project needed alignment between all of the stakeholders at the two agencies before the team could move forward. I facilitated a workshop to level-set project expectations and create momentum on this project that had been stalled. We got into a cadence of working sessions where I worked with the team to identify the product owner. Once the product owner was identified, we worked together to define the system requirements and develop user stories.