Example Reflection – Visualization

Challenge & Selection

I work as a software product manager at a software firm which works as on the Supply chain logistics  software for procurement organizations. Often time when we think about a software product it is  driven from the perspective of the folks who are evaluating the software versus the folks who are  actually going to use the solution.

It is very critical for me as a software product manager to understand that the end user who would  be using the software designed by me will be using it.

I needed to convey to the bigger group in my organization and also to get feedback from the  customers.

I use combination of mock-up (using web pages) and PowerPoint as a visualization tool.

Application

I was tasked to create a new software solution in my organization. I first created a visual diagram  and the idea I had about the software in the PowerPoint. Worked with couple of technical folks to  create a click-through prototype which can be shown to the leadership in my organization and also  to bunch of our customers.

This worked very well as instead of using lot of words I was able to convey the message much more  quickly and accurately to the end users of the software solution.

Insight & Approach

I always follow this approach now instead of trying to keep things in text form having a visual  representation in paper or PowerPoint or an actual prototype using webpages helps end customers  to see how the software will look like before us even investing lot of time and energy in that  direction.

It saves us lot of time while communicating - more than that it saves us a lot of time we might have  spent in building software despised by the users.

