Listening to users for better serving. First User Needs Assessment to support NESDIS products services portfolio.

The National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) is dedicated to ensuring its products and services meet the evolving needs of its diverse user base. In 2024, the User Engagement and Needs Assessment Branch within NESDIS's Office of Systems Architecture and Engineering embarked on a comprehensive initiative to incorporate user perspectives and emerging needs into its strategic decision process for the first time. Our research involved collecting user needs information from multiple sources, including reports from industries, literature, national assessments, direct inputs from key stakeholders, including users from industries such as energy, retail, insurance, architecture and engineering, and tourism. Additionally, we gathered insights from NOAA-hosted listening sessions to better understand the challenges and requirements faced by these sectors.

This user-centric approach allowed us to identify five key themes: enhancing climate services for underserved communities, supporting industry-specific needs, bolstering the marine and coastal economy, improving wildland fire products and services, and incorporating human-centered design principles. The results of our assessment allow NESDIS to initiate product discussions, make service investment decisions, define user engagement and response strategies, and verify user needs for satellite programs and instrument development. This presentation will discuss challenges we faced during this process and best practices we developed for integrating user needs into strategic planning. By aligning our findings with NOAA's strategic goals and directives, we aim to make satellite data, information, and products more accessible, practical, and valuable for all users. Through these efforts, we hope to enhance the relevance and impact of NOAA's services across sectors, ultimately ensuring they are more useful, usable, and widely used.