Reflection – Visualization Tool

Challenge

Our business and product organization is considering applying an existing technology to another line of  business. The business team is not engaged in customer acquisition yet, and different business models  and service solutions need to be explored. The current solution is a business-to-consumer solution that  we are looking to apply to a business-to-business environment.

Selection

I chose the Visualization tool to come to a shared understanding among stakeholders across several  functional areas of the organization. I planned to use the tool to synthesize what the stakeholders views  of opportunities and challenges were that need to be considered before developing the business models  and product concepts. I was expecting the exercise to surface opportunities as well as challenges that  might not have been expressed or considered in the discussions and meetings so far. I also hoped the  exercise would possibly yield unexpected insights into the problem area.

Application

I started thinking through the participants that I would like to include to get a good sample size and  include feedback from the critical parts of the organization. I was planning to include the sales and  business team, an expert on distribution channels, the business strategy team and my own organization,  the product team.

I drafted a straw man that showed the business challenge at the center and just hinted at additional  visual elements to prompt the participant to add on to the graphic. I distributed large hard copies of the  draft to six participants across the aforementioned teams, and explained the exercise. I prompted them  to think about the following:

a) Which key areas of the business problem need to be addressed?  b) Which key areas are missing?  c) How are they related? Where might we find dependencies?  d) Where are particular business opportunities?

I encouraged to be creative with writing or drawing directly on the straw man and to highlight the  related business opportunities or challenges in whichever way preferred (shapes, colors, sizes). I  returned at the end of the day to collect the results individually. Every participant would walk me  through the graphic and explain the thought process and details. Back at my desk I would synthesize the  findings and highlight new areas that had not surfaced in earlier conversations yet. I am planning to walk  through the results in the next weekly meeting on the topic.

Insight

The participants really seemed to enjoy the exercise. To develop a visual artifact rather than a linear list  or slides on a topic seemed to be much more engaging and stimulating. It was surprising to find that  some graphics would analyzed the topic more broadly while others were very narrowly focusing on one  aspect but going very deep into the detail of this aspect.

Reflection – Visualization Tool

Some details and aspects surfaced that had not been considered so far which was very enlightening.

Approach

I am excited to apply visualization exercises more often going forward. It seems a very productive way of  soliciting input from various teams to increase shared learning.

I will probably spend more time preparing and thinking through the particular questions to prompt the  participants with. With more specific questions a particular topic can be explored more in depth. It  probably also be helpful to record the questions in the top section of the straw man as a reference.

It would be further beneficial to include additional participants that might not have been exposed to the  topic yet. That would offer the possibility to collect ideas and insights with a fresh perspective and might  surface even more interesting insights.

