Use of Visualization tool for solving business problems

Challenge & Selection:

Visualization is a great design thinking tool which I feel I can make good use of in my work place. I work  in the product management function of an automobile company which is primarily into the sales of  mining trucks in India. In my role, I am supposed to interact with sales managers for gathering ideas for  development of new products, to train them on various product features, explain the customer value  proposition of various products/features etc. Often I find it challenging to explain a feature in our  product (truck/lorry) to our internal employees(sales managers, marketing professionals etc) who are  from non-technical background or who don’t  have prior experience in the field.

I am of the strong opinion that ‘’Visualization’’ tool can bridge this gap effectively in our discussions.  Visualization will help all team members to have a clear understanding of the topic, avoiding confusion  and enable them to bring onboard new ideas to solve any challenges being discussed. For example, if  the feature of the truck is explained through diagrams, pictures or videos in actual working conditions in  layman’s terms, it will help in bringing an easy understanding for all team members. As Ms. Angela  Mayer rightly explained in the video lecture, it will help in unlocking different parts of your brain and  open up new ideas.

Application

I will provide an example of a situation in which I effectively used the tool. We had conducted an  internal workshop in our company in which we were brainstorming ideas for pitching our products in  new segments. Participants had a closed mindset initially because they were not able to imagine the  scenarios in which our products can be used in the segments in which we are currently not present.

Then we started listing down a sample segment and bifurcated the segment further into different sub  segment on a drawing board. We put pictures of the segment on a presentation format for the  participants to visualize easily. We asked participants to list down the opportunities and challenges in  each sub-segment. Once we had a comprehensive understanding of the segment and all points were  noted on the drawing board, we could relate various points easily and find opportunities for our  products knowing the strengths and weaknesses of the same.

Insight & Approach

My learning from the above experience was that in a group, people will always have different levels of  understanding of the same situation or a problem at hand. Some of them will be able to visualize a  scenario in their mind without any graphical representation or pictures and others may not. Some of  them will have better expertise or knowledge of the situation over others. Visualization tool will enable  us to bring a common understanding of the problem within the group if even it could be more time  consuming. If you are leading a discussion or any similar idea generation workshop in your workplace or

anywhere else, it will help in more people contributing to your objective. A mistake people often make is  that we don’t take the effort to bring this common understanding within a group and end up in non- constructive debates and arguments on the problem statement with different understanding.

Another design thinking tool which I feel I can use in similar situations is “Storytelling’’. All of us love  stories and stories can grab the attention of your audience like nothing else. Storytelling combined with  Visualization tool can ensure that your audience is engaged and aligned with your thoughts. I rarely use  Storytelling in my day-to-day life and I will have to make conscious efforts to develop this skill knowing  what difference it can make.

To summarize, visualization tool is so powerful that it can be used in all four stages of design thinking  process – what is, what if, what wows and what works. Those who master this tool will find the whole  design thinking process lot easier and will bring better results in all walks of their life.

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