CHALLENGE

We recognized that peoples’ shopping behavior in pharmaceutical stores are changing. In Hungary,  these stores are still following the old styles when the industry lacked advertisements and people  either purchased the prescribed medicine, or asked for a medicine telling his or her problem or sickness  and the competition was low. However, today we are being overwhelmed with TV advertisement,  billboards and so on, offering us a discount on medicines and brands competing heavily against each  other. Our challenge was to uncover peoples’ behavior and problems and align drugstores to these.

SELECTION

I selected the visualization tool. This tool is a way of visually representing somebody’s thought or idea.  It includes drawings itself, but also colors, charts, diagrams, contexts, interrelations, etc. Talking about  something can be misleading, as everybody has a slightly different way of understanding things. Visual  representation  of  an  idea  helps  participant  to  achieve  a  common  understanding.

I selected this tool to understand or customers’ problems. This is one of the first stages in the process.  As the video lecturer stated: “when the environment to solve problems is dependent on other people  being able to understand you and align their ideas to yours”. Mutual understanding on a problem is a  prerequisite to proceed on solving it.

APPLICATION

I organized a workshop where we aimed to collect the problems from customers. We invited 15  randomly selected people who regularly purchase in drugstores. The participants included young  people who already visit drugstores, mothers who purchase for different people (husband, children,  themselves) and elderly who the most often visit drugstores and probably with the greatest attention.   In nutshell, I described them our aim with this project and their importance in participating for the  outcome. Then, I asked them to recall their last drugstore visit as also their regular visit in drugstores.  I asked them to write down their feelings and frustrations about it starting before they even enter to  the store. After that came the visualization part, when they had to draw exact situations on a  chalkboard and share it with the others. Working alone on the problem and then sharing and  visualizing them in groups helped to be more effective as it gave time to first recall their experiences.

INSIGHT

The workshop helped me to realize that customers’ have different types of problems, and this tool  helped to reflect on problems that someone brought up and others did not mention first as a  frustration but helped to recall a situation when they had similar experience from a different angle.  Visualization helped us to organize frustrations and helped to find the similarities in different people  problems. When a group member told his or her problem it did not bring up much related ideas in  others. But when he started drawing the others found similarities. Drawings helped members to  identify themselves with the problem. Visualization showed me that expressing a problem in different  ways help people to find a lot more similarities with their own problem that were not uncovered  before. When you express yourself in different ways (and visualization is essential part in it) people  will achieve a mutual understanding and they can easier identify themselves with it.

APPROACH

Next time I would apply the same tool at the same (ideation) stage as it brought us useful results and  input for the next stage. However in the next time, I will give them exact situations and ask them to  visualize themselves in that situation. It would help to guide them through the situation and easier  that being leaved alone with thoughts. It would also help to stay at one exact situation, visually share  the situation and the reactions, feelings etc. Hence, participants can easier relate to it. To sum up, this  tool is a great one to reflect on the slight differences in understanding but also to uncover similarities  when people first think that the other one is talking about something completely different.


CHALLENGE We recognized that peoples ’ shopping behavior in pharmaceutical stores are changing . In Hungary , these stores are still following the old styles when the industry lacked advertisements and people either purchased the prescribed medicine , or asked for a medicine telling his or her problem or sickness and the competition was low . However , today we are being overwhelmed with TV advertisement , billboards and so on , offering us a discount on medicines and brands competing heavily against each other . Our challenge was to uncover peoples ’ behavior and problems and align drugstores to these . SELECTION I selected the visualization tool . This tool is a way of visually representing somebody ’s thought or idea . It includes drawings itself , but also colors , charts , diagrams , contexts , interrelations , etc . Talking about something can be misleading , as everybody has a slightly different way of understanding things . Visual representation of an idea helps participant to achieve a common understanding . I selected this tool to understand or customers ’ problems . This is one of the first stages in the process . As the video lecturer stated : “ when the environment to solve problems is dependent on other people being able to understand you and align their ideas to yours ” . Mutual understanding on a problem is a prerequisite to proceed on solving it . APPLICATION I organized a workshop where we aimed to collect the problems from customers . We invited 15 randomly selected people who regularly purchase in drugstores . The participants included young people who already visit drugstores , mothers who purchase for different people ( husband , children , themselves ) and elderly who the most often visit drugstores and probably with the greatest attention . In nutshell , I described them our aim with this project and their importance in participating for the outcome . Then , I asked them to recall their last drugstore visit as also their regular visit in drugstores . I asked them to write down their feelings and frustrations about it starting before they even enter to the store . After that came the visualization part , when they had to draw exact situations on a chalkboard and share it with the others . Working alone on the problem and then sharing and visualizing them in groups helped to be more effective as it gave time to first recall their experiences . INSIGHT The workshop helped me to realize that customers ’ have different types of problems , and this tool helped to reflect on problems that someone brought up and others did not mention first as a frustration but helped to recall a situation when they had similar experience from a different angle . Visualization helped us to organize frustrations and helped to find the similarities in different people problems . When a group member told his or her problem it did not bring up much related ideas in others . But when he started drawing the others found similarities . Drawings helped members to identify themselves with the problem . Visualization showed me that expressing a problem in different ways help people to find a lot more similarities with their own problem that were not uncovered before . When you express yourself in different ways ( and visualization is essential part in it ) people will achieve a mutual understanding and they can easier identify themselves with it . APPROACH Next time I would apply the same tool at the same ( ideation ) stage as it brought us useful results and input for the next stage . However in the next time , I will give them exact situations and ask them to visualize themselves in that situation . It would help to guide them through the situation and easier that being leaved alone with thoughts . It would also help to stay at one exact situation , visually share the situation and the reactions , feelings etc . Hence , participants can easier relate to it . To sum up , this tool is a great one to reflect on the slight differences in understanding but also to uncover similarities when people first think that the other one is talking about something completely different .