Instructor: Isabel Yomna

BY: Isabel Yomna I  12 August 2021

DESIGN THINKING FOR

INNOVATION - PEER-GRADED  ASSIGNMENT: REFLECTION

Challenge:

I work as a senior analyst at Abu Dhabi Quality and Conformity Council (QCC). My role is to

gather and interpret data of different clients in order to suggest reasonable actions. However, I face

a few challenges that come in my way to produce the best strategies. One major challenge is the

relationship of some performance indicators with the strategic objectives of external parties, as

well as the absence of a timely response from the relevant parties. Sometimes the quality

performance indicators differ from the strategic objectives of external parties which results in

certain discrepancies. Similarly, another challenge is the delay in the delivery of scorecards in

some sectors due to their working association with other third party service providers. This

challenge results in a delayed outcome from our organization as well because of the overall delay.

Such delays can also ultimately impact the quality performance of those sectors, when they fail to

deliver on time.

Selection:

As per the challenges mentioned above, I used the storytelling tool in order to understand the

objectives of their parties and at the same time compel them to switch to better alternatives by

emphasizing on the stories and their positive outcomes.

Application:

In order to deal with the challenges, I used the storytelling tool. I started by telling the relevant

parties a story in which a company failed to reach its optimum production capacity and outcomes

because of its poor performance indicators that did not match with the strategic objectives of that

company. I was able to empathize with them and know their challenges in detail, so that I could

provide them possible solutions for their quality performance. It is extremely important for the

performance indicators to be designed and measured across the strategic objectives of the

company; otherwise, there is no point of focusing on them. I explained to them that strategy is a

main part of any business and in order to achieve the strategies, a business has to be on the right

path in terms of measuring its performance as well. The performance indicators need to be relevant

or else they can lead to incompletion of strategic objectives. The story part also included a scenario

in which a company’s quality was highly compromised due to its delay of delivering the timely

information. It was meant to target the sectors that delay the delivery of scorecards due to delays

by their third party service providers. Such sectors also receive a negative customer feedback.

However, the story helped them in realizing the importance of timely deliveries by pushing their

service providers as well to deliver information on time.

Insight:

The idea of implementing storytelling tool overall proved to be beneficial, as the external parties

shifted to a more responsible approach of devising performance indicators that matched with their

strategic objectives, and ultimately helped them in gaining better results. However, it could not

really prove the best for those sectors that faced delays from their service providers because

ultimately they are dependent on them and can only rely on them to deliver on time, even after

emphasizing the need of urgency.

Approach:

The overall approach opted for the challenges at QCC proved to be fruitful for certain businesses

and not all businesses. This is because all businesses have their own different modes of operations

and performance indicators that comply with their overall strategic objectives, and so a storytelling

could not prove beneficial for all, as it could not deal with the situation of every business. In future,

I wish to focus more on a tool or approach that could cater all kinds of businesses and their quality

needs.

