Challenge

From the lessons learnt in this course, Visualization Tool is what I will be using to solve some

challenges found in my work environment. I am a Software Developer Lead amongst a team that develops software solutions with cutting edge technologies to meet business needs of organizations. Our main challenge is to keep an organized portfolio of really innovative design concepts that can be leveraged to create unique value for our customers or prospective clients. Most times we found ourselves developing a solution that may meet the functional needs for that business but may not stand out or be unique as the market is very competitive.

We work in an environment where pressure to deliver is high especially from business and deadlines are crucial to meet. So looking at these challenges, I can say we do a lot of work writing codes, trying to be competitive by developing as much software solutions to customers but then not creating a unique brand for ourselves. We are aware that “Innovation is the only way to win” quote from Steve Jobs as the market is competitively high.

Selection

The reason I chose Visualization Tool for this reflection is based on the concept to use it to drive all

levels of our Software Development cycle that will accomplish better processes especially in idea generation process using ideation sketching. This tool is crucial here because we have to empathically look out and observe at what people need especially in customers where we already have a presence to identify new business opportunities. This can be seen as the “What is? “Stage. Why providing sketches and photography on any possible model, we can then begin to apply the “What if? Stage” In this stage, we engage our imaginations into brainstorming sessions asking the following question: what if anything was possible? With visualizing these imaginations, several ideas are generated that will help us succeed in our challenge.

Application

In order to apply this wonderful tool as a Software Developer Lead, I was tasked with engaging my dedicated team into different clusters of where they support our customers technically. This is because they have engagements with these customers most often in terms of providing technical software support and resolving issues according to SLA. Now, these clusters would have to observe the environment of the customers and weekly we sketch out processes that are been used in those environments. We sketch out this processes the way they are even if they are redundant or not making sense. The idea of this sketch and visualization is to discover new opportunities. The method of sketching can be from using simple shapes icons and cartoons available. These processes would have to be brainstormed once in a week and each member in their respective clusters can propose new ways and themes to that will translate our ideas into a surprisingly unknown design. This brainstorming would tend to reveal 1. What key elements are missing in the graphic? 2. What can be changed in the graphic

to make it more accurate and dynamic? 3. What key insights can be seen in the relationship between entities?

As presentations are made by the clusters, I record commonalities in their ideas, additional ideas that is newly conceived and the ones that may not be clear. Form here, we can now digitize this ideas into a streams of videos, post cards that would be placed in strategic points in our office. This effort is expected to improve our idea generation process which in turn can increase our business opportunities and make us winners with unique brand.

Insight

In our experience, we had never implemented design thinking for innovation tools ever before, so after seeing how well this tools has worked to leverage new ideas we will continue to use them along with others which undoubtedly work well for innovation such as visualization, storytelling or learning launches. This tool is very bright because it opens a whole new world of possibilities adjusting our mindsets to a big picture frame and open minds to clever ideas that otherwise would remain unarticulated.

Approach

In future approaches we’ll include a pivotal, engaging idea generation process, and we would most definitely include more time to ponder into new possibilities. We might as well extend the session from once in week to a whole week by combining more tools like learning launches or visualizations to generate a good, easy to understand representation of our consumer’s minds hence their needs. In our passionate way of looking for inspiration with a sense of purpose, this tool has helped us show a lot of opportunities into a more comprehensive way. This accomplishment has improved our mindfulness of the surroundings - which means we are not just writing codes or providing technical support to our deployed solution but looking out at the environment and having empathy to our customers to promote new opportunities that would in turn provide a unique brand of value.


Challenge From the lessons learnt in this course , Visualization Tool is what I will be using to solve some challenges found in my work environment . I am a Software Developer Lead amongst a team that develops software solutions with cutting edge technologies to meet business needs of organizations . Our main challenge is to keep an organized portfolio of really innovative design concepts that can be leveraged to create unique value for our customers or prospective clients . Most times we found ourselves developing a solution that may meet the functional needs for that business but may not stand out or be unique as the market is very competitive . We work in an environment where pressure to deliver is high especially from business and deadlines are crucial to meet . So looking at these challenges , I can say we do a lot of work writing codes , trying to be competitive by developing as much software solutions to customers but then not creating a unique brand for ourselves . We are aware that “ Innovation is the only way to win ” quote from Steve Jobs as the market is competitively high . Selection The reason I chose Visualization Tool for this reflection is based on the concept to use it to drive all levels of our Software Development cycle that will accomplish better processes especially in idea generation process using ideation sketching . This tool is crucial here because we have to empathically look out and observe at what people need especially in customers where we already have a presence to identify new business opportunities . This can be seen as the “ What is ? “ Stage . Why providing sketches and photography on any possible model , we can then begin to apply the “ What if ? Stage ” In this stage , we engage our imaginations into brainstorming sessions asking the following question : what if anything was possible ? With visualizing these imaginations , several ideas are generated that will help us succeed in our challenge . Application In order to apply this wonderful tool as a Software Developer Lead , I was tasked with engaging my dedicated team into different clusters of where they support our customers technically . This is because they have engagements with these customers most often in terms of providing technical software support and resolving issues according to SLA . Now , these clusters would have to observe the environment of the customers and weekly we sketch out processes that are been used in those environments . We sketch out this processes the way they are even if they are redundant or not making sense . The idea of this sketch and visualization is to discover new opportunities . The method of sketching can be from using simple shapes icons and cartoons available . These processes would have to be brainstormed once in a week and each member in their respective clusters can propose new ways and themes to that will translate our ideas into a surprisingly unknown design . This brainstorming would tend to reveal 1 . What key elements are missing in the graphic ? 2 . What can be changed in the graphic to make it more accurate and dynamic ? 3 . What key insights can be seen in the relationship between entities ? As presentations are made by the clusters , I record commonalities in their ideas , additional ideas that is newly conceived and the ones that may not be clear . Form here , we can now digitize this ideas into a streams of videos , post cards that would be placed in strategic points in our office . This effort is expected to improve our idea generation process which in turn can increase our business opportunities and make us winners with unique brand . Insight In our experience , we had never implemented design thinking for innovation tools ever before , so after seeing how well this tools has worked to leverage new ideas we will continue to use them along with others which undoubtedly work well for innovation such as visualization , storytelling or learning launches . This tool is very bright because it opens a whole new world of possibilities adjusting our mindsets to a big picture frame and open minds to clever ideas that otherwise would remain unarticulated . Approach In future approaches we ’ll include a pivotal , engaging idea generation process , and we would most definitely include more time to ponder into new possibilities . We might as well extend the session from once in week to a whole week by combining more tools like learning launches or visualizations to generate a good , easy to understand representation of our consumer ’s minds hence their needs . In our passionate way of looking for inspiration with a sense of purpose , this tool has helped us show a lot of opportunities into a more comprehensive way . This accomplishment has improved our mindfulness of the surroundings - which means we are not just writing codes or providing technical support to our deployed solution but looking out at the environment and having empathy to our customers to promote new opportunities that would in turn provide a unique brand of value .