Reflection –Visualization

Background:

During this COVID-19 lockdown, it is obvious to avoid touch things by bare hands and maintaining  hygiene of washing hands frequently. With the help of Design thinking, during this lockdown, I came  out with an innovative solution for my office and home, to open the doors by a foot.

Challenge & Selection:

The first tool I used was the tool of Visualization, or Visual Thinking, to achieve a common  understanding of a problem among the group of users at home and my office before attempting to  identify and define possible solutions to the problem. I use this approach often to find solutions to  various problems in day to day activities. Starting with innovations to modernize and invent new  product quality improvements and new products for business requirements.

I have used the technique of foot operated door opening using visualization of a problem with a set  of questions or prompts for discussion to allow my family members to learn from each other in the  process of defining the scope, boundaries, key elements, and relationships between elements to  consider when identifying pain points and opportunities for improvements or solutions.

Application:

In a scenario where a person walks in home from outside, he or she uses hands to open the door.  Assuming his/her hands are not safe to easily open the door handle. What to do? Perhaps, if the  door is already unlocked, they could press foot pedal under the door to open the door. This is a  spectacularly simple idea that for a number of people could be helpful. And no interface required!

If appropriate to the situation, the concept can be integrated with the mobile device through an  appropriate mobile app, currently, the idea is working manually and it is a simple idea and can be  replicated across. The template I often start with a white board and post-it or sticky notes & posters  to put down various ideas and solution and also has a column on the left of the board to identify  users. The post it is simple, and templates using simple shapes and icons available on the Internet.

For the activity, I will divide the stakeholders into groups of 2-3 participants each representing a  different area of interest. Each group receives a poster-size copy of the straw man graphic that they  can write on directly, or use sticky notes to make comments. I give them two-three questions to  answer, such as:

1) What is the current method of operation and the key elements that are missing from the new  idea?

2) What would you change about the idea to make it more effective for the problem?

3) What key insights do you have about the relationships between the objects the problem?

I give them approximately 30 minutes to discuss the questions and mark up the graphic. Then I will  ask each group to report their answers to those three questions while pointing to the mark-ups on  their poster. As each group reports out, I record similarities of each team member of the group, and  then additional insights that come from the group discussion.

After the session, I started mapping down each group’s ideas to create a view that combines the  shared and new insights from the group discussion, and then created a revised graphic that  incorporates their feedback and proposed changes that they agreed to as a group.

Insight & Approach:

What I have learned from conducting this exercise with group of people is that while the graphic –  especially the revised graphic that incorporates everyone’s feedback – is important for reinforcing  their understanding of the problem they are working to solve, the more valuable aspect of the  activity is the shared insights and shared learning that occurs while they are working to define their  problem scope. The graphic gives the diverse group of stakeholders a focal point for discussion that  allows them to share their perspectives and develop insights into potential root causes of their  problems. While they could create the graphic from a blank slate in a collaborative manner, starting  with a straw man jump starts the conversation for them. They can quickly identify where they are in  the graphic – or if they are missing – and can more quickly gain new insights. They can also identify  variables in the problem space – that is, it helps them to identify what they don’t know, in what  areas they need to obtain information or data to provide the values for the variables.

Since I discovered that the most valuable aspect is the shared insights and learning, next time I  would use the visualization activity as a starting point for a series of design thinking activities. Then  the revised graphic that incorporates their combined feedback can serve as a reference tool  throughout the remainder of their work.

