Intro

In 2018, I had the opportunity to work on a project for the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, tasked with delivering the FIFA Football World Cup 2022 in Qatar. My team and I were responsible for helping the committee create a digital strategy and infrastructure that would connect stakeholders from different governmental branches and companies.

The committee's goal was to create "the most digital World Cup ever," and we were tasked with developing a plan to deliver digital experiences for 30 different target groups and 21 key personas. I, personally, read and filtered all 2600 use cases, ultimately focusing on 1547 digital cases.

Qatar

We knew this project would be a unique challenge, given that the country was quickly developing and many of the necessary infrastructure and systems were not yet in place. For example, the metro was still being built, there was no card payment system for taxis, and no postal codes at the time.

The Qatar National Vision 2030, written in 2008, outlines a plan for Qatar's development and construction. It gave us an idea of where the country might be in 2022. 

Progress

Despite these challenges, we were determined to succeed and create a backend infrastructure that could work with any user interface. We wanted to remove the user interface from the equation, since devices and benchmarks will change within four years until the event. The services and platforms should be able to be accessible no matter the device or input - No matter if voice assistants, touch devices, PCs, public devices, or smart glasses.

To meet this goal, we analyzed and connected the use cases, ranking them by importance based on user need, cost-effectiveness, opportunity to amaze, and speed of implementation. We used a combination of hand rankings and automation to prioritize the use cases, ensuring that the most important and impactful experiences were at the top of the list.

Result

Our efforts resulted in a connected digital infrastructure map that included 8 platforms, 86 services, and at least 154 data points. We also developed a handbook and presentation to help our clients approach government agencies and companies and plan for the next few years of the project.