Example Reflection – Learning Launch

Challenge

I am part of the IT team of a mid sized Indian consumer goods manufacturer which along with Digital  enablement of the company helps extend self service to employees through the launch of chatbots  &  apps to simplify the IT issue resolution experience. Over the past couple of years identifying the  need, we had launched a couple of these self service tools. As the usage was not in line with the  expectations, these apps were shelved. Less than 5% of the targeted users experienced and were  wowed by the apps,  relying on the traditional methods of calling or mailing issues to the service  desk.

The challenge was to promote and sustain usage of the apps post the launch in order to justify and  achieve the ROI calculated while seeking development budgets for the app and chatbots.  The  pandemic and regional lockdowns had resulted in restricting the physical availability of manpower at  multiple locations across India where the company has operations in, we decided to deploy an  advanced AI based self service ticket and issue resolution tool to simplify the user experience. This  tool was technically evaluated including parameters of ease of use, uniform UI/UX and supported by  other company customer references and experiences on these parameters. A 10 member team  including the partner support was engaged in the customization of the software framework for the  launch. A small cross functional team within IT worked on the strategy of sustaining the usage of the  app post the launch.

Selection

The cross functional team had heard about design thinking but not formally exposed to design  thinking concepts, its tools or techniques during the specific app launch. The reflection focuses on  our launch experiments and improvements that could be brought about having understood the  learning launch.  Learning launch is a series of experiments meant to quickly test an idea, prototype  and question our hypothesis.

Application

As part of our launch process, we had selected 2 different departments – the human resources and  finance function for prototyping the application who traditionally more likely to call up the service  desks. In addition, we had decided to use our consumer product launch insights and strategies of  branding, positioning and as an incentive prioritizing resolving service tickets coming through the  app than the traditional method of emails or calls to improve the app stickiness.

The results during the prototype was better than expected – usage of the app within the teams  having increased to 75% and people going back to the method of calling- or sending mails reduced to  20% within this target group within a period of a month.  We decided to scale up and do a full  fledged launch in March ’21 with the clearly defined success criteria and measurables. Currently, the  growth usage of the app is in line with the expectations, however sustenance as a parameter would  take a longer time to measure.

Insight & Approach

During the company wide launch, we did experience acceptance challenges of our sales employees  who due to their job roles are never online. Having understood the learning launch process,  improvements could be undertaken for the future launches like documenting our assumptions on  population sample selection, and measurable outcomes.

For the future, to inculcate design thinking within the IT design and launch process we have decided  to conduct a series of Design thinking training workshops to all our team members; incorporate  collective learnings from these workshops to  evolve our design thinking framework and incorporate  multiple learning launches prior to a full fledged launch.

