Reflective example – Visualization

Challenge

Getting consumers to articulate what they feel is a very difficult task. This is not only because of the fact  that they do not wish to admit some of the not-so-popular feelings but, in many cases, they find it difficult  to articulate any feeling. Due to this, it becomes very difficult for researchers and product developers to  identify the need gaps in the customers life and identify solutions that will help them address the need  gap.

I am a career market researcher and I have been working with varied customers from the under- privileged to the largest of the businesses and I have seen this inability to clearly articulate their feeling  to be consistent across all the segments. It is only that the extent differs.

Selection

Based on my experience, I have witnessed that Visualization as a tool does wonders in eliciting  subliminal feelings and perceptions of individuals and help them build on their thoughts a lot more. I  have used visualization in one-to one scenario and in group scenarios with my research respondents  and I have found them to be able to articulate their views a lot more robustly. Also, I have found that  the respondents are able to build on from one aspect to another as they start seeing a pattern emerging  in front of them

Application

I have used visualization in several scenarios. However, as a case in point, I am describing the manner  in which I have effectively used the tool in driving service level efficiencies in an online delivery system.  Apart from several other modules that we used including home visits, we also invited a few of the  delivery agents to a room to talk to us about their experience of delivery and identify areas of  improvements. We realized that the delivery agents were not really comfortable talking about it at all.  There were multiple reasons for that

-  They were doing the task the same way and did not know what else could change

-  They were in a group who were potential competitors too. They did not want to look poorly in  front of them

-  They did not want to show their organization in poor light in front of an external person (after  all, we were external consultants)

As moderators, we started sharing photos with them of different instances of deliveries. We made sure  that these photos were not linked to them or their organization and, thus, they could find out potential  positives and negatives on each of the photographs. The respondents were happy to share their views  as they were able to externalize the problem through the photos. Based on the feedback, we started  grouping the positives and negatives into groups based on the type of activities. We ran this through  multiple photos and images.

Once done, we started reconstructing the process the agents followed themselves, bringing in the  positives that we learnt from the exercise and removing the negatives…. this was drawn as a flow chart  and each agent started adding value to the process. The most rewarding part of the whole process was  that, after a point in time, the agents walked up to the board and started making changes on their own  without our intervention.

Insights

The process provided significant insights to us in terms of redefining the process for the online delivery  organization. What was really pleasing to note was the fact that the respondents walked in to add their  value to the whole process by the time we were closing the process.

Other key insights that I learnt through this process were:

-  Externalizing is a great way to weed out the fears of the respondents and get them to share

-  Visualization helps the respondents connect and build a cohesive narrative

-  Photographs and images are wonderful ways to build scenarios and connect the process flow

Finally, images speak 1000 words! The visualization approach helped in eliciting responses from the  delivery agents inspite of their lower articulation abilities and being low on creative thinking. Thus, we  were able to provide inputs for redesigning the entire delivery process

Approach

The overall findings came out very well and the recommendations were well accepted too. Given this,  there are not a lot of reasons for changing the approach. Some modifications would definitely be helpful.  Some of these are:

-  Getting the respondents to draw or identify photographs of scenario that best explains their  perspective of the process. They could be actual photos of delivery or could also be used as  metaphors.

-  Engage the respondents in co-creating visualization process rather than initially leading the  visualization process

-  Close loop the process with the end customers to get them to visualize the output and share  their views

