Challenge & Selection

I am an employee at a leading global technology research and advisory firm. Within the daily  business of external project-related work, we also have a lot of intern-related projects ongoing.  I recently was challenged by one of these intern projects regarding the development of a  unique & flexible MBA program for extra-occupational studying in the company.

Being able to deliver an innovative, unique & flexible program, we decided to use the Design  Thinking Approach and therefore started with the Visualization Tool.

Application

I started with the Visualization Tool by identifying the most critical stakeholders within the  model and drawing them on a whiteboard - the student and the company. Both stakeholders  have a relationship to each other within they can deliver different values. Furthermore, both of  them have different requirements, prerequisites, wishes, and needs. Therefore, to be able to  design a high-quality model that even more is flexibly adjustable to various study programs, I  had to get to know the environment.

So, I knew that I first had to identify all the crucial criteria of both stakeholders. There are  already a lot of existing models of companies supporting extra-occupational studying. That  enabled me to visually draw up the essential support possibilities and requirements of the  company on myself. Identifying these for MBA students was quite trickier since human-related  values often differ a lot. To overcome this problem, I decided to start a survey with 20 recent  MBA students in our company. The survey had the following key questions: 1) What were the  biggest challenges of your studies? 2) What kind of support would you have liked to have during  your studies?  3) What is the most significant benefit you could deliver to your company after  you finished your MBA?

After the survey, I started to use the results to develop a graphic overview with my already  existing most essential stakeholders. Since I already knew what kind of support our MBA  Students wanted to have and what benefit they would, therefore, be able to deliver to the  company, I only needed to know what and how the company itself would be able to provide it  and what benefit they wanted to have for it. I designed a graphic overview of all crucial answers  that were given by the students and invited our 15 members of the People & Organization  board to a meeting. I did split them up in three groups with five people in each group. Each  group had one of my designed overviews printed out and had 30 minutes to discuss and make  notes to it. Afterward, we had a big group discussion about the different offerings and ideas of

how to provide them. In detail, we worked out the approaches of the three different groups,  discussed them, and put everything together to one big graphic overview.

Insight & Approach

What I first recognized within this experiment was how powerful visualization is. By first listing  up all crucial criteria of the customer (the MBA students), I was able to create a customer- centric discussion with the leaderboard which resulted in finding new ways of different thinking  as well as new approaches to help to create a model that both delivers value to the customer  and the company. However, that wasn't the only thing that amazed me. I never thought that a  split-up discussion/visualization could have such a high impact and could give such a variety of  different approaches and ideas. The high variety of approaches allowed us to see the necessary  assistance for upcoming MBA students in different viewing angles and enabled us to dive  deeper into discussions than usually.

Since I now know the positive impact of the visualization of problems, I will not only try to use it  more often for myself. In my opinion, this should be the state-of-art tool for every discussion  with big stakeholder groups to be able to deliver high-value products/models within little time  and effort.


Challenge & Selection I am an employee at a leading global technology research and advisory firm . Within the daily business of external project - related work , we also have a lot of intern - related projects ongoing . I recently was challenged by one of these intern projects regarding the development of a unique & flexible MBA program for extra - occupational studying in the company . Being able to deliver an innovative , unique & flexible program , we decided to use the Design Thinking Approach and therefore started with the Visualization Tool . Application I started with the Visualization Tool by identifying the most critical stakeholders within the model and drawing them on a whiteboard - the student and the company . Both stakeholders have a relationship to each other within they can deliver different values . Furthermore , both of them have different requirements , prerequisites , wishes , and needs . Therefore , to be able to design a high - quality model that even more is flexibly adjustable to various study programs , I had to get to know the environment . So , I knew that I first had to identify all the crucial criteria of both stakeholders . There are already a lot of existing models of companies supporting extra - occupational studying . That enabled me to visually draw up the essential support possibilities and requirements of the company on myself . Identifying these for MBA students was quite trickier since human - related values often differ a lot . To overcome this problem , I decided to start a survey with 20 recent MBA students in our company . The survey had the following key questions : 1 ) What were the biggest challenges of your studies ? 2 ) What kind of support would you have liked to have during your studies ? 3 ) What is the most significant benefit you could deliver to your company after you finished your MBA ? After the survey , I started to use the results to develop a graphic overview with my already existing most essential stakeholders . Since I already knew what kind of support our MBA Students wanted to have and what benefit they would , therefore , be able to deliver to the company , I only needed to know what and how the company itself would be able to provide it and what benefit they wanted to have for it . I designed a graphic overview of all crucial answers that were given by the students and invited our 15 members of the People & Organization board to a meeting . I did split them up in three groups with five people in each group . Each group had one of my designed overviews printed out and had 30 minutes to discuss and make notes to it . Afterward , we had a big group discussion about the different offerings and ideas of how to provide them . In detail , we worked out the approaches of the three different groups , discussed them , and put everything together to one big graphic overview . Insight & Approach What I first recognized within this experiment was how powerful visualization is . By first listing up all crucial criteria of the customer ( the MBA students ) , I was able to create a customer- centric discussion with the leaderboard which resulted in finding new ways of different thinking as well as new approaches to help to create a model that both delivers value to the customer and the company . However , that was n't the only thing that amazed me . I never thought that a split - up discussion / visualization could have such a high impact and could give such a variety of different approaches and ideas . The high variety of approaches allowed us to see the necessary assistance for upcoming MBA students in different viewing angles and enabled us to dive deeper into discussions than usually . Since I now know the positive impact of the visualization of problems , I will not only try to use it more often for myself . In my opinion , this should be the state - of - art tool for every discussion with big stakeholder groups to be able to deliver high - value products / models within little time and effort .