Hardware Asset Management

Keeps people, seats, and hardware in sync.

Role
Lead product designer
Year
2024
Research
2 rounds · 10 participants

The problem

Hardware should move with the person.

Hiring, moves, and departures created work for IT, but employee and device records lived apart.

The gap

Both systems had the records. Neither could connect them.

Seating Chart had Maya and her seat. Asset Management had five devices. Neither showed what belonged to Maya versus the seat.

Workplace system

Seating Chart

Employee
Maya Chen
Location
Austin HQ · Floor 4
Workspace
Seat 04-18
Assignment ID
Not available

Hardware system

Asset Management

MacBook Pro 14HW-2148Unlinked
MX Master 3SHW-2191Unlinked
Keychron Q1HW-2204Unlinked
UltraSharp 27HW-1842Unlinked
CalDigit TS4HW-1930Unlinked
01 / 03

Research and discovery

I tested the model with the people who would use it.

Two rounds with PM, engineers, the Seating Chart team, and IT tested ownership and check-out language.

Round 01 · Discovery

Add and view worked. Ownership and check-out did not.

Seven sessions found friction in ownership and check-out.

DoneFrictionBlocked
Round one results for seven anonymized participants across three tasks.
SessionAddViewCheck-out
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
“You could use a different type of language rather than check in and check out. It’s very, very ambiguous.”
Session 04
“Ownership is kind of confusing for me. I could add lists of names here.”
Session 05

Round 01 · Prototype

The first round exposed the language gap.

Maya, Seat 04-18, and five assets stayed consistent across screens.

Help
WorkplaceAustin HQ
WorkplaceAssetsOverview+ Add asset

Assignment overview

Austin HQ · Floor 4 · connected ownership

5Assets
3Personal
2Workspace

Hardware inventory

5 records
AssetAssignment
MacBook Pro 14HW-2148 · C02MAYA2148Maya Chen
MX Master 3SHW-2191 · MX3S-MAYA-2191Maya Chen
Keychron Q1HW-2204 · KQ1-MAYA-2204Maya Chen
UltraSharp 27HW-1842 · US27-0418-1842Seat 04-18
CalDigit TS4HW-1930 · TS4-0418-1930Seat 04-18
01 · DashboardMade ownership visible.

Round 02 · Validation

Three participants completed all five tasks.

Clear assignment. Fewer statuses. Renamed check-out.

  • Primary assignment
  • Fewer statuses
  • Clearer actions
Round two results for three anonymized participants across five tasks.
SessionAdd assetView assetCheck outDecommissionDepartment tags
08
09
10

Competitive landscape

Most tools tracked devices or people. Few connected both to a seat.

Compared six products. Seat context was the gap.

SupportedLimitedNot established
Capability comparison across six hardware asset management products.
ProductInventoryPeopleLifecycleMobile / QRHCM / seat context
Asset Panda
Snipe-IT
ServiceNow HAM
Rippling
Freshservice
AssetExplorer

Stakeholder archetypes

Two roles shaped the model.

Both needed clear ownership across people, seats, and hardware.

Archetype

Desktop administration supervisor

Context
Owns day-to-day hardware inventory across a large office.
Core job
Keep every device assigned, current, and recoverable.
Friction
Asset work is split across spreadsheets, service tools, and physical walk-ups.
Design need
Fast reconciliation with clear ownership and fewer places to update.

Archetype

IT asset operations lead

Context
Sets process across IT, facilities, and employee lifecycle teams.
Core job
Standardize how hardware moves from acquisition through retirement.
Friction
Employee, location, support, and asset records fall out of sync.
Design need
One auditable model that connects people, seats, hardware, and tickets.

The relationship model

Every asset had one primary assignment.

Laptops followed people. Monitors stayed with seats.

Austin HQ contains Seat 04-18. Maya Chen sits at Seat 04-18. Three personal assets are assigned to her employee record, while two workspace assets remain assigned to the seat.

The product

One workspace connected inventory and seating.

Find a person, see their seat, and know what moves.

A browser window displays 312 seats across Austin HQ Floor 4. Maya Chen is selected at Seat 04-18 with 3 employee-assigned assets and 2 workspace-assigned assets.

Personal hardware moved. Workspace hardware stayed.

Workplace · Assets

Maya Chen · Seat 04-18 · 5 assets

MacBook Pro 14HW-2148
MX Master 3SHW-2191
Keychron Q1HW-2204
UltraSharp 27HW-1842
CalDigit TS4HW-1930

Five asset records

01 / 03

On the floor

Technicians could update assets on the floor.

Scan. Confirm. Update.

Current mobile workflow step: Scan. Read the asset label

  1. 01

    Scan

    Read the asset label

  2. 02

    Review

    Compare current and target assignment

  3. 03

    Confirm

    Save the owner and seat

Validation and reflection

Testing made ownership visible.

I reduced statuses and held back automation until the data was reliable.

The final model separated assignment, availability, and lifecycle instead of forcing them into one status list.

Before

One overloaded status

RequestedReceivedAvailableAssignedIn useRepairRetired

After

Three explicit fields

Primary assignment
Maya Chen · Seat 04-18
Availability
In use
Lifecycle
Deployed

More Work