Reﬂection on Visualization

Challenge

I work in a middle-sized ﬁnancial organization in the Project Management department. A  new project was arising, and I saw an opportunity to use design thinking visualization  techniques at the early stages. The goal of the project was to build a new smartphone  application to increase customer engagement in ﬁnancial services and to increase  revenue from them. Based on previous knowledge and experience of how projects were  kicked-oﬀ, I suggested starting this one diﬀerently to increase its probability of  success.The challenge was to align two teams at the early stage of the project, ﬁnancial  analysts, and software developers. Both teams were equal in sizes, ﬁve people from each  department (Analysis and IT) including team leaders, both had never worked together  before. Selection & Application

To align two teams that never cooperated before the shared language, and mutual  understanding was needed. That is why the visualization technique seemed appropriate  to me to establish that language. I did research, and selected canvas for teams approach  (AKA The Graphic Game plan Board, Team Charter Canvas, The Team Canvas, etc.). This  type of canvas help teams to align quicker and to focus on a single shared goal; manage  expectations, values, and energy; build a productive environment and bring everyone  involved on the same page; determine what success and failure look like.

I decided to run it like an interactive workshop, and reserved 2 hours for the whole  process (approximate calculation based on the length of the steps, plus some additional  time in case something goes not as planned). I printed canvas out on a big sheet of paper  so that everyone could participate without interfering with one another. Additional  materials are: big and small sticky notes, markers, and emoji-like stickers.

Both teams gathered in a conference room, modiﬁed to provide comfort and a relaxed  environment, with printed out canvas on the wall and all additional materials. As a  facilitator of the workshop, I came up with a schedule beforehand and planned to get  through it with participants to address three main areas. The “What” area - goals and  roles; the “Why” area - purpose and values; the “How” area - rules and guidelines. Each  round, 6 in total, from 5 to 15 minutes long and consisted of several steps participants  should take.

Everything started with “Hello, my name is …, and my role is …” exercise so that  everybody could meet, greet and get the ﬁrst glimpse with whom they'll work alongside.  After that team shared individual and common “Goals” and presented their “Skills” to  address the “What” area. Then, they deﬁned the “Purpose” of what they are going to do  and “Values” to address the “Why” area. Finally, they established “Rules” and  “Guidelines” to address the “How” area. Some of the questions were: “What do they want  to achieve as a group, for real?”; “Why are we doing that in the ﬁrst place?”; “How do we  make decisions?”. Participants worked individually (individual goals) and in the group  (shared goals and voting), used a ton of sticky notes, and had their time to ask if  something wasn’t clear.

As a result, the team had ﬁlled the canvas with all the necessary information. A photo of it  was uploaded in the dedicated space on Conﬂuence for everyone to have access to it at  every time. After the main goal was established they agreed that they are working on it  together.

Insight & Approach

To be honest, I didn’t expect any good results at all, as it was my ﬁrst attempt to do such  an activity, but I was pleasantly surprised by the outcomes.

At the beginning of the workshop, participants weren’t clicking at all with one another, but  in the end, oh boy, it wasn’t the same group of people that came in 2 hours earlier. They  were starting to show signs of the team. The mood in the room was diﬀerent: it was  elevating. Members of opposing departments were supporting each other's thoughts and  agreeing on a common goal. But it wasn’t all roses, and few participants were actively  against this activity during the ﬁrst part of it. They didn't see how it can help and consider  it a waste of time that could be spent on the real work, thanks to the engagement of the  team leaders it was possible to include them after all. The idea of the second workshop  was in the air at the end, and one of the team leaders expressed that that kind of activity  could be beneﬁcial in the future.

Sometimes there are people with whom you can't win. Not those teams, though. They  never had any design-related exercises ever before, and next time, in a similar situation,  I'll try to better address the value of such an activity to avoid skepticism.

Also, next time I could use some background music, the tip I stumbled upon Stanford  d.school guide on how to run a workshop.

Overall I can say that using the visualization technique was beneﬁcial, applicable, and  ﬁtted to the purpose of establishing the common ground, and it was received warmly by  the participants.

