NCEI’s User Engagement Section: Connecting with Users to Understand and Fulfill Their Needs for Past Weather and Climate Information

NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) operates a User Engagement Section, which interacts with users across a host of economic sectors in order to better understand their use cases and requirements for past weather and climate information. These interactions form the basis for effective relationships where users are informed about data and products that can effectively serve their needs; and NCEI gains insight into gaps and requirements, which can then inform the development of new products and services. Additionally, a team of customer service representatives provide dedicated support, from consultation on the best data and products to meet users’ needs to order fulfillment and data certification for those seeking information to support their decisions. This presentation will provide an overview of the various support services and engagement activities conducted by NCEI’s User Engagement Section. It will discuss how data is collected as a part of conducting user engagement activities and filling support requests as well as how these data are used to inform NCEI’s product development process. It will also describe and provide examples of unique and significant requests encountered.