Design Thinking for Innovation – Reflection Assignment – Visualization    Challenge & Selection    Visualization is my go-to tool for Design Thinking, especially when working with various levels of  management as well as differing areas of business focus.  I am responsible for the end-to-end processing  of electronic payments to and from borrower for my organization.  If there is a failure during any one step  in this process, there is a downstream affect to multiple internal and external parties.  Using Visualization  helps all stakeholders understand each step in the process, and the potential impact of any failure.  The  two goals within the payments process are 1) Speed to Revenue and 2) Improve Borrower Experience    Application    The process starts with the high-level “As Is” process flow, and then drill down into the detailed, step-by- step process.  The process flow will provide a detailed picture of the end-to-end process from loan  approval to loan funded and loan payment due to funds collected.  There are swim lanes for each  responsible party, starting and ending with the Borrower.  In between, there will be IT, Treasury,  Accounting, Operations and the Bank.    Each step in the process is a potential point of failure and must be called out.  Redundancies in the process  must be noted.  Check points and monitoring of systems, schedules and tasks will also be called out.  Using  MS Visio, shapes will determine the type of activity, task or process.  Is the process automated?  Is it  manual?  Is there a decision to be made by a human or as part of the process?  The process flow will also  detail how long each process takes and if necessary, where files are transmitted and archived.      After the process flow is complete, additional data is provided that will  1. Document each point of failure in the existing process  2. Detail the number of failures   3. Provide the financial impact to the company due to the failure  4. Provide the affect to the borrower experience – i.e. Late funding    Once this is complete, all stakeholders will walk through their swim lane for the rest of the group to answer  the following questions:  1. Is this step necessary and if so, why?  2. Can we eliminate this step and if not, why?  3. If this step cannot be eliminated, can we complete it faster?  4. Are there any other changes we can make to meet these goals:  a. Speed to Revenue  b. Improve Borrower Experience    After all swim lanes are reviewed, a “proposed” process flow is completed and reviewed once more for  stakeholder approval.

Insight & Approach    When a process is complex and touches multiple departments/functions, it’s hard to gather consensus.   No one wants to own it.  No one wants to make the decision.  It’s too complicated.  You not only need to  see the big picture, but you also need to find a way to visualize the inner workings.  This is the reason why  I prefer the high-level along with the detailed process flows.  For a complicated process, you will lose your  audience if you start in the weeds.  This is especially important when working with Senior Management,  who rely on others to understand and advise on the inner workings.    Visualizing each functional department within a process allows for group ownership of the process, issues  and future simplification of a complicated process.

