Example Reflection – Learning Launch

Challenge

I am a business development manager responsible for marketing and selling new technology from the  ASEAN country into my own country, Thailand. My assignment was to bring a banking packaged  solution, which has been proven successful operationally in Singapore, and sell it to the banks in  Thailand. The scope of the system was that it would streamline the banking operations from the front- end to the customer-bank-end, house the customer data in one system so that data analytics could be  performed, and customer agents could use this system to cross-sell further banking products. The scope  was to get several Thailand banks to consider replacing their existing in-house development systems for  this packaged solution.

Our initial assumption was that it was operating well in Singapore, and therefore, it should operate  equally well in Thailand. We assumed that the only solution challenge was the language. We invested in  the translation of the package from English to Thai. After the translation was completed, we assumed  that the product was ready to be showcased. During the solution presentation sessions, we invited the  product experts from Singapore to fly over to Thailand and showcase the product to several Thai banks.  During several sessions, the product experts would show each of the package features meticulously to  the clients, with additional assistance in language translation by a temporary translator. The result was  that the client didn’t understand the product in terms on the language translation and in terms of how  the features could improve their business operations. We had to go back to the drawing board to  understand why our product launch did not work.

Assumptions

We came back to the drawing board to question our assumption in the product success. Our  assumptions were that the Thai banks should readily adopt the Singapore banking model, which we  assumed to be more efficient. The second big assumption was that, if the product is sold well in one Asia  country, it should sell well in another Asian country. Our third assumption was that language was the  only product adoption barrier.

Customer Journey and storytelling are keys to success

We came back to the drawing board and realized that we were not empathetic to the client’s needs and  we did not understand their business. We also assumed that the clients would readily link the business  values to the IT functions. We did not give them a story or reason to want the product. We turned  around the situation by doing the following:

•  Hire a banking expert to share with us his current pains with systems in Thailand and key  processes.

•  Identified key banking processes that would solve key business issues.

•  Co-create with the banking expert on the customer journey of a banking user.

•  Create a story of the journey of the banking user on a power point and then showcase that on  the system.

•  Get the expert to work with the systems expert to showcase the system.

We practiced the system demo several times before going back to the client the next round.

Results and insights

The customer was delighted with our second shot of the system showcase. We explained the system in  the local language and relate it to their existing business practice. They were delighted at the outcome,  telling us that they now understand how the system could improve their business. They have identified  areas for product improvement, and they have now become one od the customers to help us co-create  and further develop the products for the next version.

