TENURE AT CFPB

3 years
BLAKE the OPERATIONS ANALYST OCCUPATION

Financial Analyst
DETAIL ORIENTED PROCESS FOCUSED DILIGENT LOCATION

“
Washington, D.C.

”
I don’t expect everyone to be a budget expert, but if they’re BLAKE’S CORE TRAITS
not sure on something I want them to come to me first.
Goals
BIO • Limit personal emails by training those he works
Blake works as an Analyst in the Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) performing budget preparation for the CFPB. He spends most of with on standard CFPB financial operations
his time in Excel spreadsheets, integrating changes between the four different offices he supports. He is challenged by having to juggle the • Ensure timely and correct tracking of financial
statuses of multiple processes such as incoming control sheets, grabbing follow-up information for the budget cycle and tracking burn rates inputs from the offices he oversees
on spending. He works within complicated but structured processes that require a high degree of attention to detail, as well as frequent back
and forths. To store his numbers and assumptions, he relies extensively on his email for all aspects of his job.
Collaboration

TO BLAKE, THE INTRANET SHOULD BE • He is in near constant communication with key

POC’s within each office, ensuring questions
An educational resource for CFPB employees to familiarize themselves with his processes in the OCFO, an intake and tracking resource for the
around the numbers he receives get resolved
many forms and sheets he handles, as well as a collaborative space for him to combine and finalize changes with his fellow Analysts.
• Once his sections have been finalized, he then
works off collective drafts within his group before
CORE DIMENSIONS OF BLAKE’S INTRANET USAGE submitting final deliverables to the CFO

Usage: Frustrations:
Environment
Since he doesn’t trust staff information in Outlook, he uses the As an Financial Analyst: HEADQUARTERS
wiki to look up internal resources almost daily ⁃ Despite putting ample information on the wiki about his financial processes, Works primarily at his desk in Excel
When questions come in, he will try to link others to budget he still feels like he’s fielding the same questions over and over spreadsheets, stopping only to
guidance on the wiki ⁃ Policies touching the financial sphere can be hard to find, though he needs answer clarifying questions or call
to find them and navigate these quite often his POC’s in other offices.
Information Accessed: ⁃ Coordinating corrections and information gathering between multiple
⁃ Policies touching financial aspects of the CFPB versions of budget documents requires a keen eye for detail TELEWORKING
⁃ Information related to business processes or financial ⁃ Lack of a budget system forces him to rely on hand-made Excel templates He teleworks once a week and is
management encouraged to do so by his boss.
Because he needs two monitors,
he won’t do as much Excel work at
home.
 TENURE AT CFPB

3 years
HANNAH the OPERATIONS ANALYST OCCUPATION

Procurement Analyst
TASK-BASED PROCESS-FOCUSED TRUSTED GUIDE LOCATION

“
Washington, D.C.
Lots of new folks need to be coached…even seasoned people

”
HANNAH’S CORE TRAITS
need to be reminded how to go through the process correctly.
Goals
BIO • Ensure all incoming procurements are handled in a
Hannah works in procurement within the Operations division. At any given time she is shepherding 25 or so procurements through the timely manner
process, talking to 3 or 4 ‘clients’ as she calls them each day. She tracks her active procurements in an Excel tracker housed on their • Answer her clients’ calls for one-on-one
Sharepoint site, with distinct next actions listed out. Each new procurement requires her to assess the best acquisition strategy for the information to complete their procurement
request, and she must walk her clients through the complicated federal procurement process.

Collaboration
TO HANNAH, THE INTRANET SHOULD BE
A key resource for her clients to educate themselves on the procurement process, but also understand where they are in the process itself. The • She is usually looking over documents sent over
more visibility she can provide to her clients, the easier her job is because they know what to do and she knows where they stand. by previous clients and walking them through
corrections or next steps
CORE DIMENSIONS OF HANNAH’S INTRANET USAGE • She works with her managing supervisor to divvy
up the inbound procurement requests based on
Usage: Frustrations: availability
• She regularly communicates with finance on
She refers many clients to the acquisition planning materials on As a member of the procurement team: requested funds
the public Sharepoint site. ⁃ Many clients don’t understand the timing of the procurement process, so
She tracks all procurement activities through their group they try to rush what is usually a multi-month set of activities Environment
Sharepoint site ⁃ Despite having tremendous amounts of information on the wiki, she still
feels like she “hand-holds” departments through the procurement process HEADQUARTERS
Information Accessed: ⁃ Accessing the relevant policies (for example, food procurement) can be Spends most of her time at her
⁃ Examples of previous contract awards that can be used as tedious, and rarely does the search help desk processing the inbound
templates for future procurements ⁃ She is sensitive to permissions on policy pages, sometimes noticing that requests and inquiries.
⁃ Common procurement questions stored in FAQ’s on the wiki procurement policy pages have been edited incorrectly
⁃ When using control sheets, she is never sure if she is using the most up-to- TELEWORKING
that can be forwarded to clients
date version Many of her activities remain the
same from home, but she thinks
she is more productive in the office.
 Journey Applies To
Experience Map Intranet and Information Usage for Operations Analyst (OCFO Focus)
The below user journey map outlines a standardized journey that Analysts within the Office of the OCFO take
when accessing the Intranet and other information resources to support the financial health of the CFPB .
Blake
Operations
Analyst
PHASES

Detect and Search Locate and Act

Trigger Navigation Result

Control Sheets Required Track & Service Submit Control Sheets

A division needs to track
Control sheets must be Through meetings and
their budget allocations
tracked as they come in email, I submit my analysis
through a control sheet
and are applied to budgets and reports to teams
ACTIVITIES

Budget Cycle Send Out Templates Collaborate & Synthesize Finalize budget
Inputs needed for next Excel templates serve as Analysts must trade I publish reports that are
year’s budget and future the primary sharing information with their intended for broader
estimates mechanism POC’s and team members consumption

Audit of Statements Pull Personal Docs

The OCFO must comply Distribute Reports
Spending Reports In an audit, I go to my
I have been put on a team with an audit of their Outlook and personal I save documentation of my
to help drive insight into submitted figures folders work on the research server
rules being written by Regs for later reference and further
collaboration
DESCRIPTION

The Operations Analyst within the OCFO worked off a regimented schedule of events, often requiring them to use tempting tools to collect refined budgetary information
that fits into a process that has only recently been standardized. Each step of the way was predictable and established at the high level. However, execution of these
missions often involved collecting additional information from their POC’s across the CFPB, providing knowledge and materials to support this mission, and setting
themselves up for success in the integration phase.
Microsoft office, primarily Excel and Outlook, make up the bulk of tools utilized throughout the process.
Most interesting was the ad-hoc nature of file management within the OCFO. Many users relied extensively on Outlook as a file management system, leveraging it as a
place to store conversations and commentary around financial decisions. In the case of collaborating on the budget and pulling files for auditors, email and personal files
were the go-to source. In terms of servicing control sheets and other inbound requests, each user had their own tracking system either in Outlook or Excel, and any
reconciling between different systems was sorted out in person or via email chains between the Analysts.
The inflow and outflow of information is critical for Analysts, as they have to ensure that they are processing inbound needs while pushing the relevant guidance to support
their POC’s. Knowing where certain individuals were in the process and how that affected the status of the overall process was highly manual.
Submitting finalized deliverables was almost always a formality at the end of a heavy analysis and synthesis period. Copies of
most saved items were saved to the Z Drive or the user’s desktop, and email was treated as the authoritative source of truth
for these final decisions.
Finalized budgets are then pushed to the CFO, which is then approved and pushed to the Director of the CFPB. All Analysts
described an intense integration effort across Excel documents before CFPB-wide financial documents were pushed to the
next level up.

“I send monthly reports to each “Audits occur on a nearly ongoing “We send out a budget guidance “The budget team is a 5-person “Now we send T&I our spreadsheets
MOTIVATIONS

Common Themes:
division. There is a larger report
Two formal budget cycles
for management, more high level,
encapsulated next year’s needs
but then the smaller division
and estimates for the future.
breakdowns are more detailed.”
“Halfway through the year we do a
mid-year review to adjust budgets,
add money or reduce it.”
“They have to submit each control
sheet; I have to review them and
then submit them to the budget
system.”
basis and everyone is subject to
them.”
“The financial statement audit is
usually about 6 to 8 months… then
there are separate audits from that.”
memo to all budget contacts to
kick off this process.”
“We try to limit the personal emails
by getting as much info out there,
like on the wiki through the budget
checklist, for example.”
“Each office has a budget and it is
broken down by budget lines,
which are not uploaded into the
accounting system… the process
is really manual for Analysts.”
“You get in data from across the
entire CFPB; it all comes in through
emailed spreadsheets.”
“Being subject to an audit creates a
scenario where context in an email
around deliverables is needed, so we
utilize email to store that
information.”
“I always have a folder with all my
work where all my files build up.”
team, so we are cc’d on everything
and are checking each other’s
work and passing sheets around.”
“We’re collaborative and meet
impromptu in person; an email
goes out when you want things
confirmed.”
Common Themes:
and they put them into Tableau… the
Managing the inbound flow of
actual reports live in our shared drive
control sheets can be stressful, as
and the management ones are on
it has high consequences in the
Tableau.”
budget if they are mistakenly not
submitted, submitted incorrectly or
submitted twice.

“Folks don’t have access to the “Since we don’t have a budget “We don’t have a system to route “I don’t expect anyone to be a “With Word we’ll track changes. “I think people outside the budget are
FRUSTRATIONS

accounting system, but they want “It’s difficult if someone like T&I “I use follow up flags in Outlook,
system yet, this is all done in Excel. I control sheets, so I have to budget expert, but I want them to Personally I save like a million things frustrated with the tracking process
to.” sends you 10 control sheets at a and I have a control sheet tracking
send out a template to all offices download from email, save, review come to us so I can direct them to to my desktop and then I track because I can’t just spit out reports…
time… you can process maybe 5 but spreadsheet, it’s a lot of manual
asking them to fill it out and justify the and send back through email. I have the correct resource before they do versions through the last email I they need to track their spending
it’s really difficult to remember who not applicable tracking.”
Common Themes: not applicable not applicable budget with details.” to track where the control sheet is in something wrong.” received.” themselves as well.”
Users often express frustration at has the control sheet and where it is
the process because, God forbid, I
not having visibility into the in the process.” Common Themes:
submit it twice.”
information on their spending and Managing inbound documents was
budget. tedious, but few alternatives exist.
COMMON CASES

• Regular reports would be posted
up through Tableau after prepping
the numbers in Excel
• Both the budget team and the
offices themselves had to track
their own numbers, causing some
tension with the divisions
• T&I was the most intense user of
control sheets due to extensive
contracting services and
procurement needs
not applicable
• SEFL had simplified line items like
“travel” that needed to be adjusted
- this was seen as much more
manageable
• GAO and other auditors will ask
for the justification of numbers
submitted for an audit
• OCFO employees worked under
the assumption that any numbers
they put forward would be audited
eventually
• Limited POC’s will actually work
with the OCFO on this task, as
each division has its primary
budget POC’s that then
coordinate
• This inflow and outflow of
documents to be checked and
crosschecked is representative of
much of the work discussed
• People often mentioned that
accessing the correct versions of
control sheets was a frequent
problem
• Tracking control sheet processes
was the pinnacle of manual
processing across disparate
systems and methods
• Outside of the OCFO, Analysts will
work closely with their budget
contacts in each of the offices
• CORs also act as key sources of
information on individual contracts
• Collaboration with procurement is
also common to advance plans for
their procurement pipeline
• Analysts reported using
conversations from email as a
starting point for understanding
how numbers were arrived at
• In the case of an audit, email was
a useful tool for backtracking work
• Iterating on Excel sheets via email • Each month detailed spending
was very common reports are emailed to budget
• Final budget documents will live in owners
the Z Drive
• Using email as a document not applicable
management system and version
control system was common