Reflection – Visualization

Challenge & Selection    As an external consultant, my task was to advise a product team on the development of a new  online education offering. This specifically involved taking a strictly user-centered approach,  understanding how their views and requirements shape the delivery of the service and, going  forward, ultimately identifying value propositions.    During the exploration of the current reality (the What is) through ethnographic research, the  number and/or inhomogeneity of

-  actors (teacher, learner, buyer had been identified to start with),

-  tasks (knowledge transfer, staff training, content creation, production of physical  education material, etc.),

-  stakeholders across different locations and time zones,

increased the complexity of the project and affected sharing, collaboration and decision-making.    I chose visualization as a central lever to take ownership of this complexity, bring every team  member on the same page and lay the groundwork for the phases to follow (and, not least, to  apply established best practice).    Application    A crucial step to set our future direction was exploring what the product is and where it might  lead, i.e. making the leap from What is to What if. In combination with early visualizations –  examples included basic scribbles and sketches, user and task models, or system and customer  journey maps – a “no constraints” approach was particularly effective whenever ideating.    We then took our condensed learnings and concepts to inform later phases, What wows and What  works, e.g. by translating them into visual mockup-ups or interactive prototypes to be evaluated.    Throughout the process, I was paying particular attention towards

-  creating a broad variety of formats and fidelities which complement another and enable  taking new perspectives.

-  keeping “the user” always present, to constantly remind us who we were designing for  (e.g. in form of personas).

-  surrounding ourselves with rich contextual imaginary showing both the status quo (e.g.  through photographs or videos) as well as our envisioned future (storyboards, mood boards).

In order to accommodate for remote team members, I introduced appropriate tools such as a  digital whiteboard that allowed them to collaborate (view, edit, etc.) in real-time or leave  annotations for later consideration.  Whenever possible though, in-person creative sessions were most effective, e.g. by “playfully”  arranging our visual building blocks (printed visuals, Post-its, etc.) on a physical whiteboard.    Insight    A broad selection of relationship maps, e.g. between all actors and the product, along a customer  journey or as part of a wider ecosystem, revealed hidden opportunities across all stages. The

exercise proved to be particularly valuable when not only examining our knowns (nodes), but  determining how the “missing links” (connections) in between could contribute towards the  successful delivery of the service, e.g. through:

-  additional actors or segments and what they can “do” for the service (e.g. advise,  recommend, promote)

-  supporting services or things to provide better experiences (e.g. through personalized  learning materials, progress reports)

-  design requirements or human factors that may encourage utilization (e.g. motivational  drivers, behavioral patterns)

-  external factors (e.g. third-party influencers, advertising & media, etc.)

Being able to “conceive” data aided our decision making by putting a weight – or business value –  on equally appearing alternatives with a sufficient level of confidence. Interactive prototypes took  this positive aspect of visualization further, by enabling the team to experience how a solution  would actually feel.    Approach    Visual thinking (out of the box) allowed us to take an in-depth, holistic approach to – literally –  understand the big picture.  In order to prevent staying in “envisioned realities” for too long, it is crucial to test concepts in  the real world rather sooner than later, e.g. in a Learning Launch (as discussed in the course) or in  less formal (ad-hoc) customer feedback sessions.    Going forward, I will be trying to transport the special feeling of in-person group dynamics more  authentically through relevant technology, as they spark the highest creativity and inventorial  spirit. Being a central part of Design Thinking, collaboration should not be limited by a team  member’s physical location in an era where distributed workplaces are steadily increasing.

