Background

I manage a team where one of the primary areas of our work is to build new products based on  the new innovative ideas and launch them as the pilot project in the healthcare space. The  typical failure mentioned in the “Learning Launch Tool” video is my real life story. I get a lot of  ideas form my team and then we do the exercise of finding its dollar value in savings. We do  some secondary research and make some assumption by involving a domain expert. However  the more innovative is the idea, the lesser details are available, and in this case we have to make  more degree of assumptions as it has not been done or tried before.

Challenge    We got a new project from our medical prescription execution team where the business goal is  to increase the efficiency, and throughput for prescription management application users  (pharmacist), so they can process more number of prescription in the given time. As the  planning to allocate the budget was not far, we had limited time to design a learning launch and  prove that it’s better than the current software application.     Selection and Application

However we used this approach in the past in a fragmented manner but by just reframing it as  ‘Learning Launch’ and use it in a more structured manner made a ton of difference.     I started with ‘what is’ approach by taking a deep dive into the current application and involved:

Product owners – to identify the clear business goals  Business analyst – to understand the prescription management process  Users- to know the real pain points, identify problems, key needs, and opportunities

I had some side by side sessions with real 12 numbers of users to see them working in their real  environment and test my assumptions gathered from my sessions with product owners and  business analysts. It was followed by a list of empathy based conversation style open questions  to double check my observation.

I found experienced power users and new users have their different set of problem and  requirements. We created couple of personas, and empathy maps to know more about the  users. It covered information about their goals of executing at-least 16 prescriptions per hour,  their frustration like scatted information, dependency on external portals, and the biggest  challenge of speed vs. accuracy. Then we listed out their key tasks, priorities, motivation and  success criteria.     I synthesized all this information and executed our learning launch 1.0 as a click through  prototype. We got to know people need simplification but not at the cost of efficiency. As it’s an  enterprise application, users use the same application throughout the day. So we made sure to

provide it a good balance of simplification for efficiency as a focus point. We also understood  that a lot of features in the application were not related to their role but still occupying the real  estate on the screen and adding to complexity. We took all this input with many other findings  and incorporated these changes into out Learning Launch 2.0. The results were amazing users  were delighted to see how simple and effective the solution and wanted to be replaced with the  existing application as soon as possible. The learning launch helped us to make users our  advocates. The business was amazed too, as they could see a version of the application with  almost real look and feel with a minimal investment. We also created a business case which  resulted into 23% increase in the user efficiency to execute the prescriptions. So it’s a win-win  situation for everyone.     Insights    I realized that “It’s not how fast you move, it’s how well you move fast”. The series if interaction  with all the stakeholders and iterative approach of learning launches really helped to make the  project a success. I could also come up with an estimated $value of business returns which was  not based on assumptions, but on real data came from real users after interacting with the new  learning launch version of the application.


Background I manage a team where one of the primary areas of our work is to build new products based on the new innovative ideas and launch them as the pilot project in the healthcare space . The typical failure mentioned in the “ Learning Launch Tool ” video is my real life story . I get a lot of ideas form my team and then we do the exercise of finding its dollar value in savings . We do some secondary research and make some assumption by involving a domain expert . However the more innovative is the idea , the lesser details are available , and in this case we have to make more degree of assumptions as it has not been done or tried before . Challenge We got a new project from our medical prescription execution team where the business goal is to increase the efficiency , and throughput for prescription management application users ( pharmacist ) , so they can process more number of prescription in the given time . As the planning to allocate the budget was not far , we had limited time to design a learning launch and prove that it ’s better than the current software application . Selection and Application However we used this approach in the past in a fragmented manner but by just reframing it as ‘ Learning Launch ’ and use it in a more structured manner made a ton of difference . I started with ‘ what is ’ approach by taking a deep dive into the current application and involved : Product owners – to identify the clear business goals Business analyst – to understand the prescription management process Users- to know the real pain points , identify problems , key needs , and opportunities I had some side by side sessions with real 12 numbers of users to see them working in their real environment and test my assumptions gathered from my sessions with product owners and business analysts . It was followed by a list of empathy based conversation style open questions to double check my observation . I found experienced power users and new users have their different set of problem and requirements . We created couple of personas , and empathy maps to know more about the users . It covered information about their goals of executing at - least 16 prescriptions per hour , their frustration like scatted information , dependency on external portals , and the biggest challenge of speed vs. accuracy . Then we listed out their key tasks , priorities , motivation and success criteria . I synthesized all this information and executed our learning launch 1.0 as a click through prototype . We got to know people need simplification but not at the cost of efficiency . As it ’s an enterprise application , users use the same application throughout the day . So we made sure to provide it a good balance of simplification for efficiency as a focus point . We also understood that a lot of features in the application were not related to their role but still occupying the real estate on the screen and adding to complexity . We took all this input with many other findings and incorporated these changes into out Learning Launch 2.0 . The results were amazing users were delighted to see how simple and effective the solution and wanted to be replaced with the existing application as soon as possible . The learning launch helped us to make users our advocates . The business was amazed too , as they could see a version of the application with almost real look and feel with a minimal investment . We also created a business case which resulted into 23 % increase in the user efficiency to execute the prescriptions . So it ’s a win - win situation for everyone . Insights I realized that “ It ’s not how fast you move , it ’s how well you move fast ” . The series if interaction with all the stakeholders and iterative approach of learning launches really helped to make the project a success . I could also come up with an estimated $ value of business returns which was not based on assumptions , but on real data came from real users after interacting with the new learning launch version of the application .