Example Reflection – Visualization

Challenge & Selection

Formulating and Implementing a project in the financial services sector requires concurrence and buy- in from a large set of stakeholders. Visualization as a design tool helped to achieve a shared  understanding of the problem and interpret on the possible solutions to overcome them. I have used  the approach of chalking out the current customer journey in a flow chart and highlight various road  blocks / possible ways in which it can be elevated to effectively achieve customer satisfaction and  improve company economics.

Application

I needed a more demonstrable way than written documents to showcase an existing problem and  provide solutions to eliminate the same to a large group of stakeholders within the institution. I  started off by demonstrating the entire customer journey lifecycle in a pictorial flow chart, highlighting  the areas or touchpoints which can be looked at to improve the overall customer experience. The  existing journey was very important to be showcased among the group in a visually appealing manner  to have the group relate to the problem statement.

Now that the group has identified the existing problem, the solution proposed need to be spelled out  in a manner that was interpreted quickly. This was done initially by developing a rough prototype of  the revised customer journey using office tools. The group could instantly visualize the proposed  solution, being on the seat of the customer and co-relate the difference to the existing journey. This  instantly resulted in a positive response and the proposed solution was given an in –principle go  ahead. Without the visualization tool, group would have resorted to reading documents with  increased time gap of understanding the change proposed and accepting the same.

Once the group in-principally agreed on the solution, the next step was to create wireframe  representing customer journey from start point till the end. Wireframe were developed enhancing  customer UX, taking feedback along the way from various set of customers.

The enhanced wireframe depicted how customer journey can be simplified and can be a more  engaging experience. This set of wireframe developed were then presented to the entire group of  stakeholders, the visualization helped the group to gage on the change quickly with implementation  go ahead received swiftly in AGILE form.

Insight

What I have learned is, visualization as a tool is key in trying to communicate to a group effectively.  This helps a group to relate to the speaker instantly and speeds up the entire process towards  implementation. Traditional methods of large documents were eliminated in idea generation stage  going forward with a more notable approach, visually.

