Design Thinking for Innovation – The Launch Learning Process for Application Prototypes

Challenge:

We provide technology solutions for restaurants franchises. One of our customers had a challenge with  the management of “Petty Cash” within their restaurants.

On a daily basis (Monday to Sunday), restaurant managers withdraw Petty Cash from the POS (Point of  Sale) Systems to make ad hoc purchases. On a weekly basis (Sundays), restaurant managers complete a  spreadsheet which lists all the Petty Cash withdrawals that were done as well as what the Petty Cash  was spent on. The restaurant managers then email the spreadsheet to Head Office in order for Head  Office to reconcile, enter and account for in the financial systems.

The issues and challenges with the current process include; restaurant managers forgetting to complete  the spreadsheet, Head Office having to spend time following up, restaurants managers not accounting  for all Petty Cash withdrawals, Head Office having to spend time reconciling, the time spent by the  restaurant managers to enter the spreadsheet, and the time spent by Head Office in collating and  entering the spreadsheets of 120 restaurants into the financial systems.

Selection:

The tool I selected was that of the “Launch Learning Process”.  The Launch Learning Process is a Design  Tool that can be used when you are looking to conduct a small experiment that will test an idea in the  real marketplace.

We had previously developed and implemented an App that catered for various restaurant business  processes (Purchase Orders, Deliveries, Invoices, EDI (Electronic Document Interchange) etc). The App  had been running in all of our customers 120 restaurants.

We went through the various stages of the Design Thinking Process and we prototyped some additional  functionality into our App which we believed could address some of the issues that had been identified  within the current process.

We were now looking to test the additional functionality.

Application:

We had made some hypothesis and assumptions that the additional functionality would simplify the  Petty Cash Process and would save time for the restaurant managers as well as save time for Head  Office.

With the additional functionality, we were looking to:

-  Assist restaurant managers in remembering to submit their Petty Cash information (By provided  an automatic reminder (On Sunday’s) to restaurant managers to submit their Petty Cash  information),

-  Save the restaurant managers time (By automatically extracting Petty Cash withdrawal data  from the POS Systems so that restaurant managers would not need to spend time extracting the  data themselves)

-  Simplify and Automate the Petty Cash Process (By providing a platform for restaurant managers  to enter what the Petty Cash was spent on)

-  Save time for the restaurant managers as well as save time for Head Office (By automatically  sending and collating the Petty Cash information entered by the restaurant managers to Head  Office)

To run the “Launch Learning Process” we selected 5 restaurants to pilot test the additional functionality  we had prototyped into our App. We trained the restaurant managers, we implemented the additional  functionality and we let the 5 restaurants use the additional functionality over the course of 3 weeks.

Insight:

The pilot test of the additional functionality at the 5 restaurants went well. We held discussions with the  restaurant managers as well as with Head Office during the pilot test. We also held joint sessions with  the restaurant managers and Head Office together following the pilot test. All 5 restaurant managers  remembered to submit their Petty Cash information on time. All 5 managers confirmed the Petty Cash  Process was now easier and that it saved them time. Head Office also confirmed that the Petty Cash  Process was now easier and saved them time.

The “Launch Learning Process” assisted us in testing and confirming that the additional functionality that  we prototyped in our application would improve the Petty Cash Process and would save time for the  restaurant managers as well as save time for Head Office.

As a result, we went on to complete the additional functionality and then went on to implement and  scale the additionally functionality to all 120 restaurants.

During the pilot test we also identified additional functionality that could be added to further improve  the Petty Cash Process. (E.G. By automatically loading the Petty Cash Information entered by the  restaurant managers into the Head Office financial system).

Approach:

We were satisfied with the approach we had taken. The “Launch Learning Process” assisted us in testing  and confirming that the additional functionality that we prototyped in our application would improve  the Petty Cash Process and would save time for the restaurant managers as well as save time for Head  Office.

What we would have liked to have done differently and which we will do on our next “Learning Launch”,  would be to actually measure and understand exactly how much time we saved the restaurant  managers as well as exactly how much time we saved Head Office. In our initial “Learning Launch” we  relied on the feedback provided by restaurant managers and Head Office in our discussions and joint  sessions. The discussions and joint sessions have the potential to fall victim to confirmation bias.

We would have also liked to have included more functionality into the prototype for the pilot test, this  could however have resulted in the process taking longer and requiring more resources. We were  looking for the “Learning Launch” to be small and quick.

