Reflection – Visualization

Challenge & Selection

The problem I encountered was a lack of understanding between the Sales and Design departments.   The Sales department was looking to sell the most products with a higher margin or products that are  stock pilled and need to be sold-out before the new material arrives, however the Design department  had a tough job of coordinating the current design layouts and environmental themes with the Sales  desired products. My idea was to take these two diverse groups and form a workshop with the goal of  reaching a higher level of understanding. The approach was to use a Visualization tool, a Visual Mood  Board, to achieve a shared understanding of the problem among a diverse group of analytical and  creative stakeholders in order to define possible solutions to the problem and develop a mutual  understanding.

Application

I start the process by gathering the team members for a quick brainstorming session. To develop a  general idea of what the problem is we first need to focus on each of the teams goals and aims. After  the quick brainstorming session we start to select, split and group various ideas and aims in order to  form a complete picture. The existing idea groups will later on in the process be useful as a stepping  stone into a more defined project outline. Next, to solidify the problem I split the sales and design teams  and mix the members together into 5-6 groups, such that there are two sales personnel and two  designers in each group. For the following step each group will be given a different room of the house to  make a quick project, which they will later on present to the other groups along with what the goal was  and what findings did come out of the joint project, allowing for discussion to develop between the  various teams. Teams will make the Visual Mood Boards from catalogue cutouts and inspirational  printed material that they find most appropriate for their space and theme. Creating visual  presentations that highlight the most desired products of the theme, along with ancillary products and  the design carrying products. The goal of the quick project is for the members to pick together the best  products, those who are best for sale, with the higher margin or need to be sold-out, and those which  will complement them and the overall theme of the space. The goal is to allow each member of the  opposed team to grasp the understandings of what make for good space design and what makes the  customer feel the space as appropriate for them, to overall increase the sales as a result of a successful  design driven approach. By this time there should be a general understanding between the thought  processes of the sales and design members, as well as an overall feeling of teamwork and the need to  bring out each others thoughts, needs and ideas to the table, with an even better design as an end  result. After the session, I scan and print each groups visual mood board, to create and share new  insights from the group discussion. After that I will make a feedback report from all the groups and point  out the proposed changes to the design process they agreed to as a team.

Insight & Approach

What I have learned from this exercise with these different groups of individuals is that, while the visual  mood board is important for jumpstarting the creative process it is more important for figuring out the  problem and creating an understanding between their goals as they work to solve the problem. Maybe  even more valuable is the activity that brought out the insights and the learning process that occurred  along the way, while creating their designated spaces. The visual mood board gives the Sales and Design

departments members a point for joint discussion that allows them and encourages them to share  perspectives and ideas in order to think up a better solution and better design while driving more  successful sales.

