Learning Launch

Challenge   I am the proprietor of a manufacturing firm, of which we are trying to expand reach by making online  presence. I am also a member of my organization’s marketing department and our challenge is to align the  activities within the departments in order to facilitate the workflow of online channel and to spend marketing  budgets on the right campaigns. The project includes the marketing department composed of five employees,  as well as a digital agency, with whom we work closely. The project should not exceed 60 business days and  the solution should include an even distribution of working hours amongst the team members. We will focus  on understanding what our team members, as well as key stakeholders consider to be ineffective as well as  effective, when it comes to creating synergies between traditional channel and digital space.

Selection   Our team has brainstormed various activities/tools and after thorough examination, chose a tool for further  testing. The tool chosen includes launching certain social media campaigns a demo website for orders, both  for the current group of customers. So that we can get the insight from the customers as well, about our  efficiency. So, we are ready to try the learning launch tool, which will help us to quickly test the idea and  prototype.

Application   For our first learning launch, we focused on the structure/execution of our marketing and selling tasks. In  particular, we wanted to see if we could structure our tasks, projects, and processes to adapt to online order  fulfilment along-with the current duties and responsibilities or we are in need of workforce expansion, if yes,  by how much. This tested our assumption that the structure and execution were the main causes of our  workflow challenge. Our team went through a three-day training. Next, we went through several workshops to  structure our tasks and processes in a more agile way. These sessions occurred within in a month. We  expected to produce a document with a clear description of our new, more agile processes/workflow.   For our second learning launch, we focused on gaining clarity about our tasks and priorities. This tested our  assumption that our prioritization of tasks was the main cause of our workflow challenge. Our team completed  an anonymous survey. The surveys included questions about our new, proposed process, understanding the  process and the prioritization of tasks, and feelings about the change, and were conducted within a one-week  timeframe.

Insight   By applying the learning launch tool, our team identified our assumptions and designed launches to test these  assumptions. Additionally, we thought through anticipated results, expecting to find that our workflow, team  and the key stakeholders would be fairly open to the new prioritization of tasks and process. Our actual results  were in line with what we anticipated: current workforce will be able to handle the increasing workload, at  least up to 1 year. Although the key stakeholders in the marketing department expressed some concerns, about  prioritising between traditional media and online media. So, we are thinking of launching another launch tool,  or more than one if required, and test by hiring 2 part-time workers for digital marketing channel to see if the  extra cost will give us incremental benefits or not.

Approach   Given that our team has already gone through several design thinking activities/tools and are at this stage in  the timeline, the learning launch is the appropriate tool. As previously mentioned, our team needs to review  the insight gained from our first two launches and incorporate this insight into future launch designs. Future  launch designs should reflect insight gained, progress made, and come closer to a compelling solution ready  for full rollout.

