Latest / Technovation with Peter High (CIO, CTO, CDO, CXO Interviews) / USPS Transformation: CIO Pritha Mehra on COVID-19 Lessons, Employee Experience Enhancements, and Innovations in Logistics

Transcript

USPS Transformation: CIO Pritha Mehra on COVID-19 Lessons, Employee Experience Enhancements, and Innovations in Logistics · Technovation with Peter High (CIO, CTO, CDO, CXO Interviews)

• 0:00
  I think the most daunting of all of
• 0:02
  that was the website. And we had no
• 0:04
  idea how much volume we were gonna get
• 0:07
  on the first day. We were asked to
• 0:09
  prepare for about a million an hour, and
• 0:12
  I kind of did the back math, and
• 0:14
  I just quickly said, you know, it's free
• 0:17
  it's open to the whole nation. Test gets
• 0:19
  us scarce. Covid is rampant. There's no way
• 0:23
  it's only gonna be a million an hour.
• 0:26
  Welcome to activation. I'm your host peter eye.
• 0:29
  My guest today is P mara. Pre is
• 0:31
  the chief information officer and executive vice President
• 0:34
  of the United States postal service or Usps,
• 0:37
  a role she's held for a bit more
• 0:39
  than 3 and a half years.
• 0:41
  She's worked at the Us Ps for 34
• 0:43
  years in total. As Cio, Pre oversees 1
• 0:46
  of the world's largest technology
• 0:48
  infrastructures with 5 national deployments and solution centers
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  32000 network locations, 20000 servers and more than
• 0:55
  930
• 0:56
  applications on more than a hundred and 80000
• 0:58
  devices, processing more than a hundred and 10
• 1:01
  pet of data per year.
• 1:03
  Pre focused on modernizing the Usps ecosystem, platform
• 1:07
  a network to meet the demands of an
• 1:09
  increasingly competitive market environment
• 1:12
  overseeing a network that supports 640000
• 1:15
  employees.
• 1:16
  And the delivery of a hundred and 27000000000
• 1:18
  pieces of mail per year. I look forward
• 1:21
  to hearing more about the transformation she's leading
• 1:23
  through this conversation. Pre the welcome to techno
• 1:26
  innovation. It's great to speak with you today.
• 1:28
  Thank you, Peter. It's a remarkable scale as
• 1:31
  I was just just referring to and I'm
• 1:33
  looking forward to understanding how you and the
• 1:35
  team, grapple with all of that and indeed
• 1:37
  modernize it along the way as well. But
• 1:39
  I I think every, at least American listening
• 1:41
  would, have some familiarity with the
• 1:44
  Usps.
• 1:45
  Any aspect of the organization you'd highlight is
• 1:47
  perhaps less understood facets of what you all
• 1:50
  do.
• 1:51
  Oh, I guess there must be several that.
• 1:54
  You know? So 1 is we're a 250
• 1:56
  year old
• 1:57
  institution.
• 1:59
  And, you know, of course, you see or
• 2:00
  carry on the street. And everyone knows that.
• 2:03
  I don't know if everyone knows that we
• 2:04
  deliver to a hundred and 67000000
• 2:07
  addresses in the country. So we cover every
• 2:09
  state, every town.
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  And, of course, that
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  everyone pays the same price
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  for a first class mail stamp, you know,
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  from point a to point b. Right? And
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  we process over 44
• 2:22
  percent. Up the world's mail, and that's pretty
• 2:26
  big.
• 2:27
  1 of the things that people don't generally
• 2:29
  know is that
• 2:31
  we're an independent agency of the executive branch.
• 2:34
  So
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  we we
• 2:37
  are required to operate like a business. We
• 2:39
  don't get
• 2:41
  appropriation. We engage in both the competitive parcel
• 2:44
  business as well as a non competitive mail
• 2:47
  services.
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  And so really in the parcel space, we
• 2:51
  face fierce
• 2:52
  competition, and, you know, so we are self
• 2:55
  sustaining.
• 2:56
  And
• 2:57
  we have we're a retail giant. We have
• 3:00
  over 33000
• 3:01
  post offices, so we are larger than
• 3:04
  subway and Mcdonald's and all of that. Right?
• 3:08
  And
• 3:10
  on the technology side, you you set it.
• 3:13
  We have
• 3:14
  1 of the world's largest technology
• 3:17
  infrastructures we process
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  over a hundred and 15 terabytes of of
• 3:21
  data.
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  We have, you know, 5 solution centers,
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  lots and lots of
• 3:27
  applications. So, yeah.
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  We're big.
• 3:30
  Indeed, indeed that that is surely the case.
• 3:32
  I I wanted to also ask you to
• 3:35
  provide a bit of an overview as to
• 3:37
  your role as chief information officer. What's within
• 3:39
  your purview, please?
• 3:41
  So
• 3:42
  you know, I'm gonna start by giving you
• 3:44
  our mission statement because I think it's really
• 3:46
  cool. We came up with it, like, 4
• 3:49
  years ago and it's still very relevant, and
• 3:51
  it's a very elegant 1. So... And it
• 3:54
  goes like this. It like we create business
• 3:57
  value
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  through an adaptive talent rich workforce,
• 4:02
  inspired by compost
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  technologies that drive innovative solutions, build insights and
• 4:08
  since the future. That's our mission statement.
• 4:11
  And my role, well, you know,
• 4:14
  we had that my group heads the technology
• 4:17
  out of this
• 4:18
  organization. And by now I sure you might
• 4:20
  have heard of the delivering for America plan,
• 4:23
  which was drawn up by Lewis Joy our
• 4:25
  post master general,
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  3 years ago. And it's really a very
• 4:30
  exciting time to be a Cio because there's
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  a lot of investment
• 4:35
  in the growth of our business. So we
• 4:38
  have been modernizing
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  everything. So, you know, 1 of my mission
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  critical strategies is to modernize our mission critical
• 4:47
  ecosystems and platforms. So,
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  I mean, literally,
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  we're modernizing
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  payroll and visibility and data and logistics and
• 4:55
  fleet management
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  customer engagement platforms, which to me is very
• 5:00
  critical. So that's 1 of our primary roles
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  and very heavily involved in Saas because we
• 5:07
  don't want to build anything that's beautiful out
• 5:10
  there. So,
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  you know, so that's that. So
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  data is another very key strategy of ours.
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  We want to really maximize the value of
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  data as a strategic asset for the postal
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  service and really use data to drive value.
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  So, you know,
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  mission excellence across
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  logistics processing,
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  delivery,
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  and, of course, customer product solution. So data
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  is huge for us.
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  Of course, we also manage the infrastructure and
• 5:42
  the telecom network. And we're also modernizing
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  that.
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  We're actually replacing our entire telecom network with
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  a highly redundant
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  system that's highly performing with with capacity for
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  growth. 0 trust on the cyber side. We
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  cyber is very critical and everyone owns security
• 6:02
  in our organization. We've done a lot to
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  really promote security first.
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  The cis group used to be the most
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  hated
• 6:10
  organization.
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  Across the Cio,
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  but not anymore.
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  Everyone realizes how essential they are, and they've
• 6:18
  really matured in their practice
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  and in their
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  incident management and in their, you know,
• 6:25
  detection capability.
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  So we are very, very heavily involved in
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  setting up a 0 trust environment and we
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  do use those frameworks pretty
• 6:34
  vigorously.
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  And then, of course,
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  we want to
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  really make
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  workforce,
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  really do everything we can for promoting workforce
• 6:46
  productivity
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  whether it's enabling the workforce with a mobile
• 6:50
  device,
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  engineering the
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  environments for the for the workforce.
• 6:55
  So that that is also a critical strategy.
• 6:58
  And then 1, that's my favorite is of
• 7:00
  course, creating a really
• 7:02
  digitally, dexter next generation Cio
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  workforce because, you know, that is really the
• 7:08
  key to a legacy is
• 7:10
  just
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  promoting that,
• 7:13
  curiosity
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  around technology,
• 7:15
  which I think is very critical.
• 7:18
  Or like that digitally dexter,
• 7:21
  great great turner phrase and and appreciate that
• 7:23
  broader context stuff as to what you and
• 7:25
  your team do. Well, you you send it
• 7:27
  to your role,
• 7:29
  just a few months into the Covid pandemic.
• 7:32
  And I've read a bit about the remarkable
• 7:33
  role that the Usps plate during the pandemic
• 7:36
  ensuring that Covid tests were shipped in a
• 7:39
  timely fashion. Can you talk a bit about
• 7:41
  the the role your organization play to help
• 7:43
  me that challenge?
• 7:45
  Yeah. And IIII
• 7:47
  say Kudos to, lewis joy for this 1
• 7:49
  the post mass channel, when White House approached
• 7:52
  him. I think it was Christmas of 20
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  21 and said that they wanted to deliver
• 7:57
  these test throughout the nation. They wanted to
• 7:59
  start in 3 weeks.
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  Literally, I got a phone call on the
• 8:03
  20 sixth of December. I never forget this.
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  And and he I was asked to
• 8:08
  set up an ordering
• 8:10
  website for the nation in 3 weeks.
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  Now, we've we've never done anything crazy like
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  that. So,
• 8:18
  my my, the team's role was essentially to
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  be responsible for all the systems,
• 8:24
  ordering,
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  inventory, fulfillment and customer care, tracking.
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  All these systems, but I think the most
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  don't daunting of all of that was the
• 8:33
  website because that's very front facing. You know,
• 8:36
  if anything fails the back nobody knows. But
• 8:38
  when you go into order a test kit,
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  and and it was going to be free,
• 8:43
  and we had no idea how much volume
• 8:46
  we were gonna get on the first day.
• 8:48
  We were asked to prepare for about a
• 8:50
  million
• 8:51
  an hour, and,
• 8:53
  I kind of did the back math and
• 8:55
  I just quickly said, you know,
• 8:58
  it's free. It's open to the whole nation.
• 9:01
  Test gets us scarce.
• 9:03
  Covid is rampant. There is no way it's
• 9:05
  only gonna be a million an hour. So
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  I figured at least 1 third of the
• 9:10
  population would order test kits within the first
• 9:13
  2 days. And so I asked my team
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  to plan for 20000000
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  an hour. They were pretty mad me actually.
• 9:20
  And we we built AA3
• 9:23
  pronged approach.
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  We did 2 cloud solutions and 1 on
• 9:27
  prem. We already had a a postal store
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  where people can go an order stamped. And
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  so we had 1 team working on that,
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  and we thought, oh, that's obvious. The other
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  smart thing we really did was it was
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  really smart was we... Within the first week
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  of this project, we started
• 9:45
  load testing.
• 9:46
  So we... The website wasn't... Wasn't completely built,
• 9:51
  but we just built the the portion where
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  someone can go in our order. And on
• 9:55
  all these 3 sites, and then it was
• 9:57
  almost like a competition with the 3 teams
• 9:59
  on who's going to get there first.
• 10:02
  And, of course, the cloud solution 1, and
• 10:04
  it was a very elegant design. We use
• 10:06
  a lot of capabilities that we already had
• 10:09
  in our organization like Half queues and asynchronous
• 10:14
  cloud processing
• 10:16
  and so it wasn't like everything was new.
• 10:19
  The website was new. And then we really
• 10:21
  partnered with the cloud providers,
• 10:24
  and we let everyone know. We took the
• 10:26
  entire journey of the order.
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  And we made sure that every system we
• 10:31
  touched
• 10:33
  was scaled and ready and load test it.
• 10:36
  So we even called all the email providers
• 10:39
  and said, you know, we're gonna get lots
• 10:41
  of emails coming to your systems because when
• 10:44
  someone comes into order. We send an email
• 10:47
  back to them saying, you know, your order
• 10:50
  been fulfilled and all of that. We've accepted
• 10:52
  the order. We're fulfilling it.
• 10:55
  So so I think we were very careful
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  and very meticulous about,
• 11:00
  you know, every step of that order, making
• 11:03
  sure that we had those systems tested,
• 11:07
  load tested,
• 11:09
  you know, calling all our partners that were
• 11:11
  involved in it, all the vendors that were
• 11:13
  involved in it. And I tell you it
• 11:16
  was Eu for on the first day because
• 11:18
  we had no idea, you know, how many
• 11:21
  orders we were gonna get. I think on
• 11:23
  the first day at peak hour was close
• 11:25
  to 9000000.
• 11:27
  So I wasn't that far off. And within
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  the first 2 days, I think it was
• 11:31
  over 40 to 15000000.
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  So... And I think the and the other
• 11:36
  thing that I must acknowledge is really the
• 11:40
  leadership of our post master general, bringing all
• 11:44
  the teams across the organization together. And designing
• 11:48
  a really elegant
• 11:50
  fulfillment system. So, you know, these test kits
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  came to us in palettes. We received them
• 11:55
  in 6
• 11:57
  distribution centers, and then we had
• 12:00
  fulfillment centers about 49 across the nation where
• 12:03
  these ballots were sent. They were broken down,
• 12:05
  and they were you know, put into envelopes
• 12:08
  and kidd it for to a pack of
• 12:10
  labels and then shipped out.
• 12:12
  And
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  quite a phenomenal story. We... I think we...
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  We have delivered about 885000000
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  tests to about 90000000 households.
• 12:22
  So pretty phenomenal story. Yeah. It's 1 of...
• 12:25
  It's a feather and the Cios cap for
• 12:27
  sure.
• 12:28
  No was doubt. No doubt a Federal story
• 12:30
  So I'm glad you've you've just told it
• 12:31
  now, a remarkable 1 you and your team,
• 12:34
  we're able to undertake. And And I wonder,
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  obviously,
• 12:38
  Nec is the mother of intervention and,
• 12:41
  quite a number of necessity were we're brought
• 12:43
  about as a result of the pandemic. But
• 12:44
  I wonder as a result of of the
• 12:46
  great work done.
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  If there are any new ways of working
• 12:51
  or innovating that we're developed that now have
• 12:54
  a shelf life or a means operating now
• 12:57
  sort of post pandemic or however you might
• 12:59
  refer to this period.
• 13:01
  Are there people applied?
• 13:02
  Yes. Of course. Lessen the organization, firstly, you
• 13:06
  know, we are uniquely capable to reach every
• 13:09
  door, well positioned to support agencies, customers in
• 13:13
  delivering product at high quantities and vas.
• 13:15
  You know, 1 doesn't think of the postal
• 13:18
  service that way. But, you know when
• 13:21
  when put to the test, the whole
• 13:23
  organization came together really mission oriented,
• 13:27
  this is a very mission oriented
• 13:29
  organization. I think on the technology side, we
• 13:32
  demonstrated that we can be very agile and
• 13:35
  dexter.
• 13:36
  We've also harness a lot of the technologies
• 13:39
  that we built,
• 13:41
  around Covid for other
• 13:43
  projects that require that
• 13:46
  you know, that evidence of scale. And mostly
• 13:49
  everything we do is evidence at scale.
• 13:53
  You know, the ka
• 13:54
  the technology is like,
• 13:56
  you know, 1 that we've now
• 14:00
  becomes so very familiar with. It drove a
• 14:02
  new level of excellence at high speeds
• 14:06
  among our technology team. So it was a
• 14:08
  big learning on the technology team on their
• 14:11
  ability to deliver
• 14:14
  such a big project in 3 weeks, working
• 14:18
  together, and I think it also brought a
• 14:20
  lot more camera
• 14:22
  across the technology
• 14:23
  organizations.
• 14:24
  You know, in my own team, the development
• 14:27
  group, the infrastructure group, the Cis group the
• 14:30
  data group. You name it, you know,
• 14:33
  definitely, our endpoint technology group. And then I
• 14:37
  think we also learned the power of saying
• 14:40
  yes. You know, It's easy to say no,
• 14:42
  And it's impossible.
• 14:44
  But, like, you know, when we were trying
• 14:46
  to buy printers to print that labels across
• 14:49
  a covid. You remember the supply chain issues,
• 14:52
  so printers were not available. So we had
• 14:54
  to call
• 14:55
  all our partners, and
• 14:57
  and we got the job done. So, yeah.
• 15:00
  It's just a whole new energy and a
• 15:02
  whole can do attitude.
• 15:04
  That's fantastic. Real really interesting and and can
• 15:07
  imagine how how much pride that must give
• 15:10
  the organization as well.
• 15:11
  You, I mentioned at the outset that you've
• 15:13
  been with the Usps for roughly 34 years
• 15:15
  now. So you've seen many waves of of
• 15:18
  technology,
• 15:20
  come and go as a result of that.
• 15:22
  And and you've you've been part of,
• 15:24
  catalyst for change and modernization within the organization
• 15:27
  to ensure that a better foundation continues to
• 15:29
  be weighed upon which the organization innovate. And
• 15:32
  I wonder if you can reflect on some
• 15:33
  of the recent
• 15:35
  transformations, and activities associated with modernization that have
• 15:39
  particularly propelled the organization forward? What what comes
• 15:41
  to mind?
• 15:43
  I'll start by talking about sort of some
• 15:46
  of the the constructs that these...
• 15:49
  That I saw to achieve here. 1 is
• 15:52
  technology curiosity.
• 15:54
  And I feel that these enough things you
• 15:57
  forced down somebody's throat. You have to create
• 16:01
  a culture of technology curiosity.
• 16:03
  So we've done that.
• 16:05
  We we actually... When I first started, that
• 16:08
  was the biggest thing I thought of. We
• 16:11
  were not... Not a cloud shop
• 16:13
  minimally a cloud shop? You know, we we
• 16:16
  built a lot of things. So how do
• 16:18
  you create the technology curiosity. And I don't
• 16:20
  know. 1 day, I just woke up and
• 16:22
  said I'm gonna do tech chats.
• 16:24
  III was listening to something about fireside side
• 16:27
  chats, and that just came to mind, and
• 16:28
  we started tech chats.
• 16:30
  What we did was we brought in vendors,
• 16:34
  solution providers, it was pretty much open to
• 16:37
  anyone. It is open to anyone. And they
• 16:40
  could come in and they could describe
• 16:42
  a technology. And my only requirement was that
• 16:45
  you have to talk about technology
• 16:48
  because this is a Cio team. And so
• 16:50
  the first 1 we had, I remember, I
• 16:53
  had asked
• 16:54
  the guy who leads
• 16:56
  architecture, Jerry Wheeler. Said. Can we do 1
• 16:58
  on Ai? So why don't we let just
• 17:00
  have everyone listen to a podcast and then
• 17:03
  you just do a chat?
• 17:04
  With them. And he did that. He picked
• 17:06
  the... He picked the podcast,
• 17:08
  sent it out, and then he invited all
• 17:11
  of Cio. And I said, you know, even
• 17:13
  if 20 people join, I'll be happy, and
• 17:16
  we had over 500 people join.
• 17:19
  So people love this, and we are very
• 17:22
  open to the market. The other thing that
• 17:24
  we have sought to change is really promoting
• 17:28
  market awareness.
• 17:29
  And looking
• 17:31
  outside of the
• 17:33
  organization.
• 17:34
  We really promoted people going out to conferences
• 17:38
  to
• 17:39
  trade shows,
• 17:41
  especially technology
• 17:42
  to all the, you know, the cloud workshops,
• 17:45
  the Rs say conferences
• 17:47
  because I think that's really important in people
• 17:50
  understanding what's out there. And then whenever we
• 17:52
  select a mission critical
• 17:54
  operation that we want to modernize.
• 17:56
  Like, 1 of the ones I'm most proud
• 17:58
  of is our logistics
• 18:00
  operation. When we started, this journey 3 years
• 18:02
  ago, we literally were doing setting of,
• 18:06
  suppliers and and
• 18:08
  transportation carriers with Excel spreadsheets and phone calls.
• 18:12
  And then we stitched together,
• 18:14
  5 Saas products,
• 18:17
  1 for
• 18:18
  transportation management, 1 for visibility, 1 for contracting,
• 18:22
  1 for fuel management, 1 for fleet management.
• 18:26
  Best in class, we stitch them all together,
• 18:29
  and that's our new logistics ecosystem, and we
• 18:32
  did this in a year, and it's huge.
• 18:34
  And and the way we were successful was
• 18:37
  previously,
• 18:38
  we would as a technology
• 18:40
  organization go out and put out a bid
• 18:43
  and wait for people to come back,
• 18:45
  and we weren't even clear what we what
• 18:48
  we should ask for because we were so
• 18:50
  legacy in our thinking that we didn't really
• 18:53
  know what best in class was. Today, what
• 18:56
  we do is we just invite people
• 18:59
  come in and chat with us. And, you
• 19:01
  know, everyone loves to talk the postal service
• 19:03
  because we're such a big
• 19:05
  player. So
• 19:06
  just come in and talk to us about
• 19:09
  transportation management, and we look up the magic
• 19:11
  quadrant and find the 5 best players and
• 19:14
  just have them chat with us.
• 19:16
  I tell you in a matter of a
• 19:17
  week, you've learned so much.
• 19:19
  So that... And then the other thing we
• 19:21
  really did was we really grew
• 19:25
  architecture team. There were 8 people when I
• 19:27
  started,
• 19:28
  it's in excess of 50 people now.
• 19:31
  Journey mapping is really important. So whenever we
• 19:34
  are trying to modernize or anything,
• 19:37
  we first journey map the current state. It's
• 19:40
  really important to understand legacy a And way
• 19:42
  you're coming from before you can define where
• 19:44
  you wanna go to.
• 19:46
  Especially an organization like ours. Where no system
• 19:49
  is on its own. It's always integrated with
• 19:53
  tons and tons of applications. So the power
• 19:55
  of journey mapping is all over the Cio
• 19:58
  group. Everyone knows, you know, when you do
• 20:01
  modernization,
• 20:02
  we have a very strong
• 20:04
  architecture team that has laid out this process
• 20:07
  of journey mapping. So really, those are some
• 20:11
  of the constructs that we sought to
• 20:14
  sort of perm
• 20:15
  across the organization. So there's a lot of
• 20:18
  segment.
• 20:20
  And then the last paradigm is really understanding
• 20:23
  the business that you're automating. So previously, we
• 20:27
  would receive a requirements from the business and
• 20:29
  then do exactly as we were told.
• 20:32
  Whereas now, we've changed that whole paradigm and
• 20:35
  in in the Cio group where we back
• 20:37
  actually developed verticals of excellence where our folks
• 20:41
  are required to know the business that they
• 20:44
  are modernizing. So if you a modernized payroll.
• 20:47
  If you need to understand this the extreme
• 20:50
  payroll process, what other the deductions, you know,
• 20:53
  all of that how does a paycheck get
• 20:55
  created? And that's very exciting to see because,
• 20:58
  when you really partner with the business at
• 21:01
  that level, the van you of your organization
• 21:04
  really
• 21:05
  advances. So those are some of the constructs
• 21:07
  that we've changed, and that has allowed us
• 21:10
  now to really
• 21:12
  catapult out into bringing in
• 21:15
  modernization at a scale and speed that's unprecedented.
• 21:18
  Right? So we've modernized our logistics platform as
• 21:22
  I told you, we've also created an entire
• 21:25
  the data group. We've got chief data and
• 21:27
  analytics office.
• 21:29
  And we're really now thinking about... We've got,
• 21:32
  you know, an Ai policy and Ai
• 21:35
  implementation, a data policy, the data
• 21:38
  implementation because an organization as large as ours
• 21:41
  as has massive amounts of data. So we
• 21:44
  have to make sure that when we modernize,
• 21:47
  we're not creating these silo data sets, data
• 21:50
  is no longer owned by an organization, it's
• 21:54
  enterprise,
• 21:55
  and we treat it as an enterprise asset,
• 21:58
  and we make sure that when you're modernizing
• 22:01
  1 1 system that needs scan data of
• 22:04
  every package.
• 22:05
  We propagated it against every consumer of that
• 22:09
  that information. So it's it's truly enterprise.
• 22:13
  Oh, and the other... I think the other,
• 22:17
  modernization initiative that I'm really proud of is
• 22:19
  that we have deployed and Api platform for
• 22:22
  our customers. I think that's going to be
• 22:24
  the beginning of some really cool things to
• 22:27
  come. So this really helps are really wide
• 22:31
  and
• 22:32
  diverse
• 22:33
  industry, engage with us and create technological
• 22:37
  solutions whether it's for package delivery or whether
• 22:39
  it's for mail delivery.
• 22:41
  Fascinating examples all. I appreciate those p... And
• 22:44
  among innovations, I've also,
• 22:46
  learned that Usps has implemented has been digital
• 22:49
  twins to track parcels and packages. Can you
• 22:51
  talk a bit about the the the use
• 22:53
  of digital twins in that way?
• 22:55
  Oh, sure. So every package
• 22:58
  that touches our system,
• 23:00
  we
• 23:01
  basically create a digital
• 23:04
  representation of of the pack.
• 23:06
  The journey starts with a notice from our
• 23:08
  shipping partners telling us that a product has
• 23:10
  been offered.
• 23:12
  It's in the fulfillment process
• 23:14
  and it'll be tender shortly to the postal
• 23:16
  service. Right? So there's there's your first event.
• 23:19
  Right? Then continuing through acceptance of a package
• 23:23
  whether it's a physical scan performed by an
• 23:26
  employee or a passive scan that's performed by
• 23:28
  1 of our state of the art package
• 23:31
  orders
• 23:32
  there you get more events. Right? When that
• 23:35
  package then gets loaded on to transport, you
• 23:38
  get wet crumbs from, you know, your vehicles
• 23:41
  as they're transporting
• 23:43
  our packages through surface. We get
• 23:46
  notifications from my air carriers. Right? And then,
• 23:48
  of course, as the last mile intelligence when
• 23:51
  it reaches the post office when it's out
• 23:54
  for delivery when it's in the vehicle and
• 23:56
  then when it's delivered. All of these events
• 23:59
  are captured as a digital
• 24:01
  representation so that we can
• 24:04
  have a complete knowledge
• 24:06
  in intelligence
• 24:07
  out the whereabouts of a package. And the
• 24:10
  value is twofold. It's internally to make sure
• 24:13
  that we are processing it, efficiently correctly
• 24:17
  promoting the service excellence that our market wants.
• 24:20
  And then also advising
• 24:23
  as you know by now,
• 24:25
  customers
• 24:26
  because there is an incredible need to know
• 24:28
  exactly where the package is and when it's
• 24:30
  gonna show up at the door. And if
• 24:32
  they have been any reasons for non delivery
• 24:35
  or, you know, the persons moved or whatever.
• 24:39
  So, yeah. I mean, and we're getting
• 24:42
  we're spending a lot of investments on really
• 24:44
  getting better at
• 24:47
  understanding
• 24:48
  locations. Of our assets because that brings a
• 24:51
  lot of value, and especially in in as
• 24:54
  we wanna promote service excellence,
• 24:56
  it's really, really critical.
• 24:59
  Fascinating example, again, I really appreciate you sharing
• 25:02
  a bit more about the the way in
• 25:03
  which you thought about that. I... Another area
• 25:06
  I know that you've put a lot of
• 25:07
  thought into is role a tech and digital
• 25:09
  play and enhancing employee experience. Can you talk
• 25:12
  a bit about the conclusions you've drawn and
• 25:14
  as a result, some of the solutions you've
• 25:17
  defined order to, to aid that employee experience?
• 25:21
  You know, when I think about employee experience,
• 25:23
  it's twofold full. It's
• 25:25
  us as a Cio group making sure that
• 25:28
  we have the right technologies for every employee
• 25:31
  in our force, but it's also
• 25:34
  how do you keep the Cio
• 25:36
  employees engaged and excited. And, you know, we
• 25:39
  spent a lot of energy on both both
• 25:42
  sides of the coin there.
• 25:44
  We are... We believe in strongly and invest
• 25:48
  in the development of our employees.
• 25:50
  When we first started this journey, we actually
• 25:52
  created digital badges.
• 25:54
  Where we did an assessment of the skill
• 25:58
  sets that were lacking in our organization, and
• 26:00
  then we
• 26:02
  identified courses
• 26:03
  and we created almost curriculum for our employees,
• 26:07
  and we posted it and said, go forth
• 26:09
  and have fun, you know, whether it's a
• 26:11
  cloud
• 26:12
  certification whether it's a data scientist whether it's
• 26:15
  algorithms,
• 26:17
  statistics,
• 26:18
  math, lots of math. And so we put
• 26:21
  this out and said, okay, folks, we're all
• 26:24
  for it. And and that was very exciting
• 26:27
  because... And then we also toll folks, you...
• 26:29
  You're not limited to these courses if you
• 26:32
  find courses you like. The only requirement is
• 26:34
  that you come back and tell. And maybe
• 26:37
  enhance our curriculum.
• 26:38
  We do offer a lot of training, a
• 26:41
  lot of Sandbox
• 26:42
  opportunities.
• 26:43
  I talked to you about the tech that
• 26:45
  has been
• 26:46
  super successful,
• 26:48
  not only do we encourage outside vendors to
• 26:51
  come in, but we also encourage people from
• 26:54
  our own organization. If you have a topic
• 26:56
  you wanna talk to people about
• 26:58
  have added. Come on We continuing to draw
• 27:02
  over 500
• 27:03
  participants from our group, and we've covered a
• 27:05
  wide range of topics, you know, whether it's
• 27:08
  Ai, machine learning,
• 27:10
  devs sec ops, Ka, you name it,
• 27:13
  you know, there's been a tech chat on
• 27:14
  it. We're really creating a culture of empowerment
• 27:18
  transformation, agility, flexibility.
• 27:20
  We are also making sure that our
• 27:23
  organization is exposed to to the business side.
• 27:26
  So in our tech chats, we have tech
• 27:29
  chats. And then we have Cio chats. And
• 27:31
  in the Cio chats, we actually invite other
• 27:34
  leaders in our organization to explain their business
• 27:38
  to the Cio team. So that's also been
• 27:41
  very useful because as people build, it's important
• 27:44
  for them to to understand the big picture
• 27:47
  where all the technology
• 27:49
  progress,
• 27:50
  what kind of value it's driving. We've done
• 27:52
  a lot to recognize
• 27:54
  employees, we we have a Cio or newsletter
• 27:57
  where we actually promote.
• 27:59
  Anytime someone puts out a project
• 28:01
  you know, we do a lot but promoting
• 28:04
  the stories.
• 28:05
  On the side of, you know, promoting,
• 28:08
  we've really done a lot of work in
• 28:11
  growing our endpoint experience for our employees. We
• 28:16
  have a helped test that used to have
• 28:18
  a average wait time in line was I
• 28:21
  don't know. 2 hours, 3 hours, and now
• 28:23
  it's, you know, under 10.
• 28:26
  Not where we it to be, but really
• 28:28
  moving.
• 28:29
  We're trying to strive to be the organization
• 28:32
  that a person never has a problem with
• 28:35
  their
• 28:36
  experience their technology
• 28:38
  experience to do their job. We've really crept
• 28:41
  done a lot to make our supervisors
• 28:43
  and managers
• 28:45
  mobile with their technology.
• 28:47
  And, yeah. So there's been a lot of,
• 28:50
  very proud of the walk that my team
• 28:52
  has done in this space.
• 28:54
  Rightfully so. Rightfully so.
• 28:56
  We've talked about numerous trends through this conversation.
• 28:59
  Those associated with data, Apis, the cloud. We
• 29:02
  we talked about digital twins a few moments
• 29:04
  ago, among other topics. As you look to
• 29:07
  the future,
• 29:08
  pre... Are there other trends that particularly excite
• 29:10
  you, whether technology or or other trends beyond
• 29:13
  them?
• 29:14
  The first trend in our organization is the
• 29:17
  delivering for America plan. I am really excited
• 29:20
  about what Lewis is doing. I think just
• 29:23
  the way red withdrawing the entire network to
• 29:27
  be so efficient, so
• 29:29
  optimized,
• 29:31
  really promoting excellence and then long term viability
• 29:35
  of our organization,
• 29:36
  very important trend in our organization. And it's
• 29:39
  almost like a fever now in our organization
• 29:42
  for folks to read take
• 29:44
  ownership of their portion of the delivering for
• 29:47
  America plan and really grow it out. It's
• 29:49
  what we're doing in our organization for sure.
• 29:52
  I am also like everyone else, I'm actually
• 29:54
  very excited about Ai and ml. We have
• 29:58
  brought it into our organization in a big
• 30:00
  way in many areas.
• 30:02
  And I think the possibilities
• 30:04
  are endless. We are now looking at... I
• 30:08
  mean, we've harness
• 30:09
  this
• 30:10
  machine learning our Ai in many, many areas,
• 30:13
  1, you know, whether it's customer service excellence
• 30:16
  of
• 30:17
  using natural language processing,
• 30:19
  for our help tasks,
• 30:22
  definitely using many different,
• 30:25
  Ml models for predicting delivery.
• 30:28
  I think there is a tremendous opportunity for
• 30:30
  using that for really
• 30:32
  optimizing our processing and logistics
• 30:34
  operations,
• 30:35
  you know, getting a lot my intelligence on
• 30:38
  volume
• 30:39
  predictions and workload
• 30:41
  predictions,
• 30:42
  I think the possibilities are endless there. On
• 30:45
  the business of the Cio,
• 30:47
  I think that is also where we have
• 30:51
  started playing. If you look at the entire
• 30:53
  software development life cycle, I think whether it's
• 30:57
  called creation, whether it's code understanding,
• 31:00
  legacy code understanding, whether it's code test saying,
• 31:05
  we've actually started
• 31:07
  playing around a lot with that.
• 31:09
  And that's actually folks are really excited about
• 31:12
  that because
• 31:13
  we have a we have about 900 legacy
• 31:17
  applications.
• 31:18
  And,
• 31:19
  you know, for the ones that, and we're
• 31:22
  not marked recognizing all of them. We're modernizing
• 31:24
  them based on a priority of the d
• 31:26
  D that's delivered for America plan. But
• 31:30
  as we modernized, we're harnessing a lot of
• 31:32
  these
• 31:34
  technologies to understand what the legacy code is
• 31:37
  because like everyone else. I'm sure we don't
• 31:39
  have great practices in in in
• 31:43
  documentation and all of this. So let technology
• 31:45
  do it for you. The other area where
• 31:47
  I'm really excited about it it is in
• 31:49
  organizing our data
• 31:51
  because we are an organization that just has
• 31:54
  an
• 31:55
  growing an unlimited amount of data? And how
• 31:58
  do you harness that? And how do you
• 32:01
  really drive the value from the data. I
• 32:04
  think that's another area where And Ml plays
• 32:08
  a huge role.
• 32:09
  So, yeah. I
• 32:11
  I'm I'm 1 of those that loves to
• 32:13
  jump into new technologies, so
• 32:16
  I'm having a field day.
• 32:18
  You're at the right place. It sounds like.
• 32:20
  I will also ask P.
• 32:22
  As you reflect on your career, especially the
• 32:25
  your your career with Usps and the heights
• 32:27
  that you've reached,
• 32:29
  have been some of the different speakers along
• 32:30
  the way that it helped propel you to
• 32:32
  now your current post as chief information officer.
• 32:35
  I think curiosity.
• 32:37
  I always question the work I'm doing. So
• 32:40
  I I look at outcomes to see am
• 32:43
  I making a difference?
• 32:44
  I'm 1 that really loves change.
• 32:48
  And so I give this piece of advice
• 32:50
  to folks that if you ever come into
• 32:52
  your job and you feel that you're stealth
• 32:55
  or you're like.
• 32:57
  You're not moving at it, you're bored or
• 33:00
  it's just I don't wanna do this for
• 33:02
  another day,
• 33:03
  then seek to change. So,
• 33:06
  you know, this organization... I've stayed here for
• 33:08
  34 years because it's really allowed me to
• 33:12
  really jump careers
• 33:13
  on and on. You know, it's a it's
• 33:15
  a unique organization where someone who has a
• 33:18
  technology background like me, then jumped on to
• 33:21
  sales. I worked in the sales and product
• 33:23
  development group. And then, you know, I
• 33:26
  I learned the business side and then, you
• 33:28
  know, went back to technology. So I think
• 33:30
  that that is really important is when you
• 33:33
  feel like around day and you're stuck,
• 33:36
  drive yourself to bring change, which I did.
• 33:38
  And I always volunteered,
• 33:40
  you know, whenever there was anything to do,
• 33:43
  I would just say I'll do it. You
• 33:44
  know, even if it wasn't mine to do.
• 33:47
  And then this is what my dad taught
• 33:49
  me, which It sticks to me. Is it's
• 33:51
  like, Any job we're doing is worth doing
• 33:54
  well. So always put your best foot forward.
• 33:56
  Even if it's boring,
• 33:58
  you know, if you're taking the time to
• 34:00
  do it, you might as well do the
• 34:02
  best you can. Then, you know, in an
• 34:04
  organization like ours, it's very easy to
• 34:07
  use the word bureaucracy.
• 34:09
  And I coined the phrase for myself. I
• 34:12
  said, you know, you are the bureaucracy you
• 34:15
  experience.
• 34:15
  And by that, I mean, if you really
• 34:18
  wanted to break down the barriers you could.
• 34:21
  And so don't blame the bureaucracy.
• 34:23
  And that I've invested in myself. I've, you
• 34:26
  know, gone to school a lot. I love
• 34:27
  going to school. So,
• 34:29
  you know,
• 34:31
  we used to we take a team to
• 34:33
  Silicon Valley almost every year. We haven't done
• 34:35
  it for a bit. Was very exciting because
• 34:37
  you just think differently when you meet people
• 34:40
  that are in... That are 4 runners in
• 34:43
  their space.
• 34:45
  I think the most important thing
• 34:48
  for me is developing people.
• 34:51
  Building high performance teams. I think that is
• 34:55
  really
• 34:56
  where the teamwork is really important.
• 34:59
  And how do you build high performing teams?
• 35:02
  I think my
• 35:04
  organization,
• 35:05
  my direct reports, it's it's a wonderful comrade
• 35:08
  now. It's just... I think we've got a
• 35:10
  really
• 35:11
  high performing group, you know, and you we
• 35:14
  couldn't be if we we couldn't do it
• 35:17
  if we had... With the amount we have
• 35:19
  to deliver. We've got to have that ins
• 35:23
  need for excellence and drive
• 35:25
  and to really look at spending your time
• 35:28
  on things that are meaningful to the organization.
• 35:32
  Very well put. Well, you you spoke earlier
• 35:35
  about the importance of learning, and now the
• 35:37
  fact that curiosity is among the secrets to
• 35:39
  your success. I I know you're also a
• 35:41
  reader and consumer of content would be, an
• 35:44
  interest of learning among other reasons.
• 35:46
  Wonder... Is there anything you've recently read or
• 35:48
  listened to and or watch that you would
• 35:50
  particularly recommend, P?
• 35:53
  Oh, boy.
• 35:54
  I listened to a lot of podcast. I
• 35:56
  think I was telling you earlier that Friedman
• 35:59
  podcast are very interesting to me. Let's.
• 36:02
  Yeah.
• 36:03
  And then I read... I recently read a
• 36:06
  book that was really interesting. I think it
• 36:08
  was called the chip wars.
• 36:11
  Yes.
• 36:12
  Was it Chip wars? Am I saying the
• 36:14
  name right? Did you think have ship war.
• 36:16
  That this 1? Chip war. Right. Right. Right.
• 36:19
  I found that book fascinating.
• 36:21
  I mean,
• 36:22
  the whole
• 36:24
  chip story. I'm, it's fascinating and a bit
• 36:27
  scary too.
• 36:30
  Yeah.
• 36:31
  But III do like podcasts a lot. And
• 36:34
  I listen to a lot of them. I
• 36:36
  like to listen to. I haven't found
• 36:39
  enough
• 36:39
  in the spaces that I'm looking for, but
• 36:42
  Friedman podcast is really good. I do enjoy
• 36:45
  his.
• 36:47
  Wonderful. Well all the great recommendations.
• 36:49
  And and moreover, a great conversation at Boot
• 36:51
  pre I really appreciate you taking your time
• 36:53
  with me today. Sure a good about your
• 36:54
  journey
• 36:55
  across your time at the Usps, as well
• 36:57
  as the the recent journey under your leadership
• 36:59
  as chief information Officer has been a great
• 37:01
  conversation.
• 37:02
  It was great to be here, and thanks
• 37:04
  for inviting me to speak.