Challenge:

I am an operations manager in a large B2B office products company and one of the biggest problems  faced by my company is effective “key account management”. Challenges around key account  management exist because sales representatives in the company sell different products to the same  customers and they lose out on the opportunity that exists for the company to become a streamlined  and effective business partner. Adding to the problem that already exists, there is confusion around the  definition of the problem. As a team, we would like to apply learnings from the course to refine the  company’s understanding around the problem and clearly articulate the problem that the company is  trying to solve.

Selection:

The team has not yet clearly defined the problem, so we are selecting the mind-mapping tool to better  understand the problem and gain alignment on the definition of the problem from key internal  stakeholders.

Application:

As stated by Rodriguez in the video about mind-mapping, the key difference in how mind-mapping is  used for design thinking is that it is not a one-person exercise.  In an ideal situation, end-users of the  product or process develop the mind-map. In the case of our problem, internal stakeholders who will  play an active role in addressing the key account management problem were invited – these were sales  representatives, account executives supporting key accounts for the company, regional and national  sales directors, internal marketing directors as well as external stakeholders who will reap the benefits –  vendor managers in major accounts for the company. Two different prompts were provided for the  internal and external stakeholders – internal stakeholders were asked to visualize and mind-map how  our sales teams could serve as trusted advisors for the external stakeholders and improve our key  account management capabilities; External stakeholders were asked to develop a vision (mind-map) of  how our company’s sales team could engage with them. These exercises took place in 2-hour workshops  for two sets of internal and two sets of external stakeholders. The internal stakeholders used  photographs and whiteboard markers to develop the mind-map – they aggregated common themes  together. This was a foreign idea to external stakeholders but an overall fruitful exercise as they were  able to share how other companies in the same industry were able to successfully partner with them.

Insight:

Internal stakeholders: The key insights from the exercise were a lack of consensus about the

problem the team was trying to solve – on the flipside this meant there were very different problems  that the group was trying to solve – some groups wanted to have improved coordination between  different sales teams, others wanted to have streamlined contracting for major accounts, still others  wanted more effective marketing efforts and white-glove treatment for the biggest business customers  of the company. Other themes that emerged were compliance challenges imposed by internal legal

departments and government enforced policies that restrained what the company could and could not  do to stay competitive.

External stakeholders:

A low frequency of live meetings, strong virtual collaboration were clear themes that emerged

from the external stakeholder discussions. There was interest in receiving data about buying trends of  the buyer and anonymized data of other buyers – this will help the buyer keep up with their competition  where it makes business sense.

Approach:

This is the first set of design thinking activities undertaken by the team and it has yielding interesting  insights. We believe we will benefit from better understanding the context of the problem, what that  looks like and the emotions associated with it – this will help us develop solutions that will better serve  the end-user. As a next step, we would like to embark on a visualization exercise with photographs to  gather more context around the problem.


Challenge : I am an operations manager in a large B2B office products company and one of the biggest problems faced by my company is effective “ key account management ” . Challenges around key account management exist because sales representatives in the company sell different products to the same customers and they lose out on the opportunity that exists for the company to become a streamlined and effective business partner . Adding to the problem that already exists , there is confusion around the definition of the problem . As a team , we would like to apply learnings from the course to refine the company ’s understanding around the problem and clearly articulate the problem that the company is trying to solve . Selection : The team has not yet clearly defined the problem , so we are selecting the mind - mapping tool to better understand the problem and gain alignment on the definition of the problem from key internal stakeholders . Application : As stated by Rodriguez in the video about mind - mapping , the key difference in how mind - mapping is used for design thinking is that it is not a one - person exercise . In an ideal situation , end - users of the product or process develop the mind - map . In the case of our problem , internal stakeholders who will play an active role in addressing the key account management problem were invited – these were sales representatives , account executives supporting key accounts for the company , regional and national sales directors , internal marketing directors as well as external stakeholders who will reap the benefits – vendor managers in major accounts for the company . Two different prompts were provided for the internal and external stakeholders – internal stakeholders were asked to visualize and mind - map how our sales teams could serve as trusted advisors for the external stakeholders and improve our key account management capabilities ; External stakeholders were asked to develop a vision ( mind - map ) of how our company ’s sales team could engage with them . These exercises took place in 2 - hour workshops for two sets of internal and two sets of external stakeholders . The internal stakeholders used photographs and whiteboard markers to develop the mind - map – they aggregated common themes together . This was a foreign idea to external stakeholders but an overall fruitful exercise as they were able to share how other companies in the same industry were able to successfully partner with them . Insight : Internal stakeholders : The key insights from the exercise were a lack of consensus about the problem the team was trying to solve – on the flipside this meant there were very different problems that the group was trying to solve – some groups wanted to have improved coordination between different sales teams , others wanted to have streamlined contracting for major accounts , still others wanted more effective marketing efforts and white - glove treatment for the biggest business customers of the company . Other themes that emerged were compliance challenges imposed by internal legal departments and government enforced policies that restrained what the company could and could not do to stay competitive . External stakeholders : A low frequency of live meetings , strong virtual collaboration were clear themes that emerged from the external stakeholder discussions . There was interest in receiving data about buying trends of the buyer and anonymized data of other buyers – this will help the buyer keep up with their competition where it makes business sense . Approach : This is the first set of design thinking activities undertaken by the team and it has yielding interesting insights . We believe we will benefit from better understanding the context of the problem , what that looks like and the emotions associated with it – this will help us develop solutions that will better serve the end - user . As a next step , we would like to embark on a visualization exercise with photographs to gather more context around the problem .