Reflection – Visualization

Challenge and Selection:

I work in the innovation team at my organization. A core part of my role is to assess and evaluate new  and adjacent markets wherein we can develop a new technology or offer solutions customizing our  existing technology to those specific end markets. A key challenge for me is to understand the end  market value chain, nature of operations in the market from supply chain, product development,  distribution network and the end customer needs. In this scenarios the visualization tool creating  pictures and flowcharts of the industry structure, different entities and their needs or characteristics.  This helps not only in understanding the market dynamics but also easy to present and discuss with  colleagues or senior leaders to get their inputs and refine our analysis.

Application-:

I usually start by creating a value chain diagram of the industry.  This will include for example raw  material suppliers, component companies, system integrators, end product owners and customers. For  each of them we try to map out the distribution of product value across the whole chain. We then add  further details on the market like market size, profitability of players, market shares, product types and  customer segments.  Also I create supplier customer mapping charts and illustrate any strategic tie-ups  between industry players and vertical integration strategies of some companies. After the industry  insights we work on creating product scorecard considering key potential competitors to score our  position against the NBA (next best alternative)

Insight & Approach:

I have experienced that following this approach of using more visualization manner of data helps in  multiple ways -:

•  Helps depict a quick picture of an industry

•  Makes it easy to present to different stakeholder and facilitate discussion

•  Easy to refine and identify gaps in analysis

As a next step I am planning to leverage visualization techniques in scenarios wherein we are thinking of  an innovation idea or a completely new product. A visualization of the daily lifecycle will help in  illustrating/understanding key requirements of potential customers and help in identifying unmet needs.  I believe this will be immensely useful in refining our product/service ideas and defining a much more  compelling value proposition for our end customers!

