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West Whidbey Water Utility

A case study on how we build a solution for water relation communication and task management

A Keelworks Project

West Whidbey

A small water utility serving West Whidbey Island relied on fragmented, reactive communication during outages, leaving residents confused and administrators overwhelmed with repeated inquiries.

What started as a request for a simple alert system quickly revealed a deeper systemic issue: there was no structured way for residents, administrators, and field technicians to share information or coordinate actions.


I led the transformation of this problem into a multi-user product platform, redefining it from a basic notification tool into a communication and operations system that improved clarity for residents and enabled coordinated workflows across all stakeholders.

As the Product owner on this project, I was tasked with a simple-sounding yet deeply complex goal:

“Design a digital solution that helps residents, technicians, and system administrators stay connected and informed about their water system.”

Defining the Real Problem

West Whidbey Residents
Residents use the mobile app daily to track water usage, report issues, and receive alerts, often with limited technical skills or access.

Output: We need a system to alerts the residents on water outages.

Water Usage Tracking

View monthly and historical water consumption

Identify high-usage periods to support conservation

Report Water Issues

Submit issues like leaks, pressure drops, or service disruptions

Select issue type, add notes, and upload photos

Defining the Real Problem

Technicians

Technicians maintain water infrastructure using mobile and web apps to complete checklists, address issues, and update systems admin in real time

Report and Send

The ability to send report to system admins and clear incoming reports

Preventive Maintainence Checklist

Set and track goals with Preventive Checklist

Communication

Having a clear communication with all users: other technicians, System Admin.

Defining the Real Problem

System Administrators oversee water operations from the web platform, managing technician workflows,

monitoring infrastructure, sending alerts to residents, and ensuring accurate billing and service continuity across the system.

Report Issues and resolve issues

The ability to report issues to technicians and receive issues from residents

Goal setting and tracking

Set and track goals on technicians. Making sure technicians are accountable of their work

Why is this a big issue at

Why is this a big issue at

West Whidbey Water Utility?

West Whidbey Water Utility?

Sudden loss of water without warning

Report Issues

Accountability from Technicians

Sudden Loss of water without warning

Resident will suddenly lose water, because there are primary two reasons:

  1. Residents will lose water due to monthly inspection

  2. Sudden water line cut due to multiple issues( broken pipes, etc…)

To resolve the issue, we have to understand

how King water( water maintenance provider) works with the West Whidbey water board.

The challenges that we will face is:

  1. How keelworks works in the midst to resolve this issue?

  2. What resources does keelworks team have?