Yarded — Enabling Better Decision-Making in Military Logistics
Yarded explored how the German Bundeswehr could modernize decades-old logistics processes without disrupting critical field operations. Rather than starting with technology, the project focused on building a shared understanding of a highly complex operational system through observation, facilitation, and collaborative discovery.
Working alongside soldiers, engineers, and product teams, we identified opportunities to improve communication, coordination, and decision-making before defining a technical solution.
Role: Strategic Designer | Lead Researcher | Workshop Facilitator
Duration: 10 weeks
Outcome: Winner of the 2023 NATO Innovation Challenge for Military Logistics and Transport. There are now plans to implement Yarded european -wide for other NATO nations.
Details
Challenge:
The Bundeswehr’s logistics unit LogBtl 163 RSOM managed complex marshaling operations using a decades-old pen-and-paper system supplemented by improvised Excel spreadsheets. This made it difficult to coordinate updates, adapt to changing conditions in the field, and maintain real-time visibility of equipment and shipments. The scope of the project was to explore how a digital system could support (not replace) these operations without disrupting the realities of field work. However, the real challenge was not only to understand a decades-old logistics system, but also to establish a shared way of working that enabled rapid learning, continuous feedback, and informed decision-making within a short timeframe.
Core questions to be answered:
Where do communication and coordination break down across the operation?
How do different teams experience the same operational workflow?
Which improvements would create the greatest operational impact while fitting existing ways of working?
Responsibilities:
Established an iterative discovery process for a newly formed multidisciplinary team
Facilitated workshops that aligned military personnel, engineers, and product stakeholders
Introduced collaborative practices to support rapid learning and decision-making
Guided product strategy through iterative discovery and continuous validation
Key Contributions:
Upskilling of military personnel and key stakeholders on agile methodologies and best practices
Led field observation of live logistics operations
Workshop facilitations to create artifacts
Guided iterative, collaborative opportunity & journey mapping
Conducted stakeholder interviews to develop a project goal
Week 1 – Stakeholder Alignment
Aligned with stakeholders on research goals, operational context, and project scope.
Week 2 – Initial Journey Mapping
Created the first draft of the operational journey in Miro based on discussions with logistics personnel.
Week 3 – Operational System Mapping
Conducted a deep dive into the existing tools and infrastructure used by the unit.
Week 4–5 – Field Observation
Traveled on-site to shadow a live RSOM operation, observing how staging operations unfolded in real conditions.
Timeline
Week 6 – Collaborative Operational Simulation
Recreated the marshaling operation using Legos and toy vehicles, allowing the team to cross-check and refine earlier journey maps.
Week 7 – Opportunity Mapping
Mapped the capabilities of the Visitrans platform against the operational journey to identify areas with the highest improvement potential.
Week 8–9 – Ideation & Feature Prioritization
Facilitated workshops to generate and prioritize solution ideas using impact vs effort frameworks.
Week 10 – MVP Planning
Developed early MVP concepts and simulations to test ideas before committing to full development.
Building Shared Understanding
Beyond the basic, essential questions about processes, interviews and observations focused on capturing each participant’s perspective of the entire operation. Because the RSOM process has many interconnected roles, understanding how each soldier perceived the system was critical.
Example prompts included:
“From your perspective, what factors made the most successful operations until now a success?”
“Which parts of the process depend on other teams, and where do those handoffs sometimes break down?”
“When unexpected changes happen in the field, how does that information currently travel through the team?”
This approach helped reveal discrepancies between roles and identify structural inefficiencies within the workflow.
© Bundeswehr/Roland Alpers
Due to the complexity of the system we were observing, we created an iterative journey map. Each new iteration utilized different methodologies to maximize the benefits of varied perspectives.
1st Journey Map — Initial Understanding
Captured a high-level overview of the operation based on early interviews to identify the main stages and roles involved.
2nd Journey Map — Structured Workflow
Refined the journey to clarify task sequences and dependencies between different roles in the process.
3rd Journey Map — Operational Reality
Updated the journey map using insights from field observation to reflect how the operation actually unfolds in real conditions.
4th Journey Map — Detailed System View
Combined all research insights into a detailed system map used to identify bottlenecks and opportunities for improvement.
Impact and Outcome
The research conducted during the discovery phase became the foundation for the overall product strategy. Through a detailed understanding of the operational workflows, the team was able to identify which existing capabilities of the Visitrans platform could be reused, define new features required to support military logistics operations, and explore opportunities for introducing automation into the marshaling process. The impact of the solution was evaluated using two key operational indicators: operation execution time and item traceability, though the exact metrics remain confidential due to security restrictions. The project later received international recognition, winning the 2023 NATO Innovation Challenge for Military Logistics and Transport, validating the real-world applicability of the solution. Beyond informing the product strategy, the discovery process created something equally valuable: a shared understanding of agile methods across military personnel, engineers, and stakeholders. Through transparency, collaboration and the alignment of different perspectives, the team established a foundation for smoother workflows and better decisions before software development began.