Reflection – Learning Launch

Challenge

I work in the digital solutions department of my organization/bank. We focus on delivering digital  services to our customers in a time efficient and cost-effective manner. The customer can still avail all  of the services that a bank would offer such as paying bills, transferring money, checking balance etc  but through the digital channel – the mobile banking app.

I was working on one of the candidate processes, for digitization, in the legacy system. Looking at the  current data and volumes, we could tell that a number of customers were reached out to avail this  ‘confirmation service’ through either phone or SMS. The hypothesis was, that if the same confirmation  is sought through the digital channel, it can improve customer response rate and at the same time  decrease the load on call centres.

Selection

Although we had the data and volumes for the legacy approach, but this was not a guarantee that the  service would appeal to the customers on the digital app as much and bring the benefits and revenue  that we expected.

Therefore, we had to test the hypothesis, in the real market place, in a cheap and fast way – learning  launch was just the right tool! As suggested in the lecture by Kevin Born in the design thinking course,  the learning launch tool would allow us to gather the right quantity and quality of data from a set of  carefully selected customers, which we can then analyse of confirming and disconfirming facts and  decide to either pivot or shelf this idea.

Application

We quickly shaped the idea into a basic design through visualization tools and drafted a UI. We came  up with a basic prototype with least complexity.

We then selected a set of customers to test our hypothesis. The customers had to be very carefully  selected in order to get the right quantity and quality of data. The group was around 20 customers.  Diversity was the key. We had customers from different age groups and varied skills at using apps and  digital services.

During the test exercise, the customers had to go through the prototype as if they were using the  service. They would then rate the service, as well as take a survey, to rate the different features and  options for the same service.

The data that was then collected was analysed by the cross functional team and decision makers from  across different departments to exclude any bias and to evaluate the confirming and disconfirming  facts to determine the best way forward.

Insight

The analysis of the data gathered through learning launch showed us that that idea was more likely to  succeed. Majority of the customers felt it was more convenient as well as safe to rely on the digital  version of the service. There were a lot of confirming facts – ease of use, time efficiency, safety and  security.

However, there were a few suggestions and areas for improvement in the way the information was  presented to the user/ user interface. These should be addressed and accommodated for a successful  final service/product.

Approach

As the results from the learning launch were promising, the next step would be to accommodate the  customers feedback and suggestions into the next prototype in a quick and cost-effective way, and  run it past a set of customers to evaluate it – learning launch phase 2. This will help us shape and  deliver a successful final product.

