Example Reﬂection - Learning Launch

Challenge

In 2009, the bank I work for, embarked on a major digital transformation program. A stream  in that program, was dedicated to the re-design and digitisation of the ‘Account Planning’   approach and process in the bank. Complete reimagining of how the bank’s relationship  managers (RMs) plan for, and develop their client-relationships, in order to achieve their  ambitious targets. I was appointed the project manager of that stream.

‘Account Planning’ (AP) is an annual process (with quarterly/monthly follow-ups), during  which the RMs are thinking, and planning rather strategically, about their assigned portfolio  of clients. It is done via set of interactions b/w the RMs and, both, internal (i.e. risk,  compliance, product specialists, etc.), and external (i.e. the clients themselves) stakeholders.  The purpose is to deﬁne set of targets, product offerings, client-interactions (meetings, calls,  events), for each client in the portfolio, with reviews throughout the year. Think of it as a  client proﬁling and journaling at the same time; turning insights into value.

The issue was, until 2009, the entire process was done rather off-line, with the support of  conventional tools - i.e. emails, frantic exchange of excel, power-point and doc ﬁles, kept in  PC ﬁle-folders - and with no real structure. This kind of approach (“what-is”) had the  inherent risk for client-insights to remain ‘hidden’ in the RMs’ heads and archives (at best)  with no accountability, or even worst - to be completely lost in case the RM has left the bank,  or change position. This impedes building clients-intelligence on bank level.

In order to tackle this, the idea was to come up with completely redesigned, and more  structured AP process ﬂow. But even more importantly - develop (in-house), from scratch, a  new AP web-app, designed to reenforce the planning process (“what-if”). The web-app was  designed to keep all interactions standard, and all related ﬁles under the hood of a single  application.

The main challenge - get the ‘buy-in’ from the RMs. Bank RMs are famous for their  reluctance of using “yet another” bank application. They are also jealously guarding their  clients’ insights. On the other hand, the new AP approach + web-app had the attributes of a  muscle - the more you use it, the better it gets. That is why it was absolutely crucial to design  the web-app’s UI/UX* to be as simple, intuitive and easy to use, as possible (“what-wows” &  “what works”), in order to get the RMs’ buy-in.

Selection

In hindsight, having gone through the course now, I’ve come to realise we have been using  number of Design Thinking tools unknowingly. For example - Visualisation - during the  initial stages of the AP approach/web-app re-design. Even, Storytelling - when we ﬁrst  presented the new approach/web-app to the RMs and the broader stakeholders. But perhaps  most crucially, in order to get the said RMs’ buy-in, we resorted to experimenting with the  web-app - or what we called the ‘Account Planning Prototype’. Similarly to the IBM story,  we launched a “Learning Launch” in a selected market with number of RMs, in order to test  the AP web-app’s UI/UX* in a real environment, and see what works.

* User Interface / User Experience 1

Application

We’ve asked our internal team of code-developers to create a prototype of the AP web-app,  based on the initial designs. Then we’ve selected and invited 40 relationship managers, from  a certain market area, to participate in the ‘Learning launch’. After a short presentation and  training, we have given the 40 RMs access to the prototype. And invited them, in the course  of two weeks, to complete the Account Planning process for all their clients in their  portfolios, using solely the prototype app. In parallel, we have created also a web-based  feedback form (similar to surveymonkey), that was accessible directly through the prototype  app. We used it to collect any feedback, suggestions, insights, comments from the RMs  during the 2 weeks of testing/experimenting with the app.

The response was overwhelming. We have received hundreds of suggestions from the RMs:  what they did and didn’t like, suggestions for improvements, what they’d do differently, etc.

Insight

The response from the 40 RMs, during the testing/experimenting, helped us conﬁrm some of  the app design features. While others had to be changed or improved. This prototyping helped  also our developers gather further insights for the next phase - from prototype to the  industrialisation of the web-app.

I particularly liked the ‘Learning launch’ tool, because it brings the end-users (the RMs)  directly into the design process. As in our case, the RMs were a direct participant in shaping  the AP approach and web-app. And this was very important for me, as it ensured seemingly  their ‘buy-in’.

Approach

I’ve come to realise, in such a project the ‘Learning launch’ (or broadly experimenting/ prototyping) in combination with ‘Storytelling’ tools can be a particularly powerful pair. The  latter is used for telling a compelling story of why the changes to the approach were needed,  and communicate, to all stakeholders,  a common understanding of the ‘bigger picture’.  While the former brings the end-users (i.e. RMs) directly into the design process, and  elevates them to co-creators. Both deliver the so often required ‘buy-ins’. Thus I will try to  always resort to those two techniques, where applicable.

* User Interface / User Experience 2

