Challenge & Selection

The ﬁrst tool I used was the tool of Visualization, or Visual Thinking, to achieve a shared  understanding of a problem space among a diverse group of stakeholders before attempting to  identify and deﬁne possible solutions to the problem. I use this approach often with our  customers, who are private agencies working to improve their proﬁtability  through innovations in  technology or management insights to modernize their mission or the delivery of their services to  their customer, which may be Indian citizens, businesses, and non-citizens. I have used the  technique of using a  “Proﬁts = Revenue- Cost” visualization model of a problem domain with a  set of questions or prompts for discussion to allow a diverse group of stakeholders to learn from  each other in the process of deﬁning the scope, boundaries, key elements, and relationships  between elements to consider when identifying pain points and opportunities for improvements or  solutions.

Application

I start the process by creating an issue tree of Proﬁts written at the top and two branches coming  out it - 1. Revenue & 2. Cost. This is graphic of the problem domain. To develop the issue tree graphic,I will draw from many existing material available to understand the environment. The  existing material may be operational or procedural documents, training materials, marketing  materials, GAO or other auditing reports. If materials are not available, then I conduct informal  interviews with one-three of the stakeholders who serve as my main points of contact on the  initiative. Then I will typically ask about the background information in the C-C-P-C framework  that is Questions about 1. Company 2. Competition 3. Product & 4. Customer. This will help me  gain a holistic understanding of the case and also give me some starting points to investigate the  root cause of decline in proﬁtability for the client.

If appropriate to the situation, I will borrow the concept to market entry framework/ Cost reduction  or Revenue maximising framework  from previous research, and discussed in Ethan M. Rasiel’s  book, “The McKinsey way”. The proﬁtability  approach helps to reinforce the notion that every  proﬁtability problem no matter which industry the client operates in, can be solved and its root  cause analysed by using the aforementioned method.

For the activity, I will divide the revenues into number of units sold & price per unit. I will also  divide the costs into number of units sold & cost per unit. Then I ask the past trends of each of  these heads to understand which one is causing a decline in proﬁts and then ask why? On that  head to further dig deeper into the problem head to ﬁnd the root cause.

Insight & Approach

What I have learned from conducting this exercise with several groups is that while the framework   – especially the worked out framework with problem heads that incorporates the root cause  analysis – is important for reinforcing their  understanding of the problem they are working to solve, the more valuable aspect of the activity  is the shared insights and shared learning that occurs while they are working to deﬁne their  problem  space. The framework gives the diverse group of stakeholders a focal point for discussion that  allows them to share their perspectives and develop insights into potential root causes of their  problems.

Since I discovered that the most valuable aspect is the shared insights and learning, next time I  would use the visualization activity as a starting point for a series of design thinking activities.  Then the analysed framework  that incorporates their combined feedback can serve as a  reference tool throughout the remainder of their work.

