Design Thinking Innovation – Reflection on Learning Launch

Mlungisi Msibi, 05.02.2021

Challenge

As a DIGITAL FACTORY, the training and the development of skills, especially technical, of employees  remains among the main concerns of our company, knowing that the Digital IT domain is undergoing a  very important evolution at this time.

However, the planning and selection of classic training courses is subject to many constraints linked  mainly to circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic, the simultaneous unavailability of employees for a  specified period due of projects commitments, the uncertainty of quality of training and trainers and the  lack of visibility on the degree of learning per employee.

Selection

We decided to do a learning launch that allowed us to test very quickly & inexpensively whether we  were on the right track or whether we needed to pivot completely our thinking. Even if the outcome is  not as desired, the loss is minimal as the investment is low. A learning launch is in fact always beneficial:  you quickly know whether you are on the right track with something or whether you need to go back to  the drawing board and formulate based on the gathered insights a new or refined hypothesis.

Application

The online training seems to be the best solution that can meet our assumptions:

•  Respect for physical distancing (directive of the Minister of Health)

•  Flexibility in time, the employee can study in the evening, on the weekend

•  Multiple trainings in a short period of time

•  Monitoring progress and assessment of learning

The e-Learning platforms have become intuitive and interactive and offer a variety of confirmed courses  in partnership with internationally recognized universities as well as ways to monitor progress and  evaluate employees at the end of training.

We chose 2 online training platforms: Coursera and Pluralsight. In order to test the solution in action, we  created test accounts for 2 groups, the first composed of 2 project managers and the second of 4  developers. The trainings chosen are «Design Thinking» on Coursera for the 1st group and «DevOps» for  the other on Pluralsight and we started the training simultaneously with a period of one month to  finalize them.

Learning Launch

Solution to be

tested  e-Learning

Who  2 project managers and 4 developers

Where  online

How  Creating a test accounts on 2 e-learning platforms

Cost  NULL

Duration  1 month

As a member of the 1st group, the training of «design thinking» on Coursera was very satisfactory for  me in terms of content and quality, the learning path provides flexibility and content tracking of the  progress and the final exam allowed me to effectively evaluate the acquired knowledge.

Finally, all participants in this test confirm the reliability of the chosen platforms and the duration of one  month was enough to finalize the courses perfectly. We therefore decided to go to generalization by  creating accounts and collecting the training topics desired by the employees of the company in order to  develop a year training plan.

Insights

The learning launch has allowed us to reach the right solution with a total respect for the requirements  of our environment and in a rather limited period and with an almost negligible investment. In addition,  during the experiment, we discovered other opportunities and benefits offered by the chosen platforms  that can improve the sense of learning and sharing within our institution.

Approach

The learning launch has proven to be very reliable and it is a tool that can be particularly useful to us to  test all new concepts in a safe way in terms of time and money. It will also allow us to solidify our new  solutions in order to live a successful implementation both on the concrete side and on the satisfaction  of the various stakeholders!

