Learning Launch

Challenge and Selection

I am part of a team which works on a product that captures metrics of all projects initiated in a  service based company and based on the metrics, the application provides insights into project  performance, areas of concern, achievements, etc. The data is submitted once in a month for  an entire month and then it is followed by a review, post which the same data shall be shared  with the organization leadership for further review/analysis and action if required.

We noticed that the data at the time of review by the leadership would be almost as old as 1.5  to 2 months. We wanted to cut down on this delay and make the data submission cycle weekly.  In doing this we had to consider the various categories of projects and their data capture  templates. This meant the expected change was complex and had to go through a lot of  planning, impact analysis and mitigation plans in case of issues.

To deal with this chose Learning Launch as our design tool, as we could learn better in a  working environment with a fewer projects. Learning Launches help us to test an idea quickly  with lesser cost. At the end of a learning launch, we should be able to arrive at a decision  whether to go ahead with the idea or not.

Application

For the learning launch, we selected only one category of project. We developed a weekly  system, and the selected a handful of projects for the launch. The project leaders were trained  on the system and were asked to submit their data on this new system. During the process, I  noted all the pain points and they were addressed. We did this for a couple of weekly cycles to  test the outcome of this process change.

Leadership at organization level were also consulted to understand if there were any  suggestions/concerns. The reviews were made available anytime as opposed to previous ‘once  in a month’ process.

Insight and Approach

Throughout the learning launch, the key was to stay connected with the application users to  gather their feedback, identify areas of improvement, in general to understand what works best  for both parties. I held multiple demos/live working sessions, feedback sessions after the launch  in order to make this transition easy for the users. The data captured were analyzed  thoroughly, and appropriate enhancements were done on the data review application.

During the learning launch, we got an opportunity to understand various problem statements.  We were able to come up with a better solutions to these problems. With the knowledge  gained during learning launch, we were able to make the transition for other project types with  much ease.

This whole process has given so much of learning that I have realized for complex changes  where the investment in time and money is higher, Learning Launch is the best way to quickly  test the approach/idea for the outcome.

I must admit, that the organization leadership are now able to view nearly real time data at any  given point of time and are able to intervene in cases where they foresee an issue.

