Learning launch of a new process in a delivery services company

Challenge & Selection

Last year, I worked as a consultant for a delivery services company. At the time, the company needed  to improve it’s process of sorting and preparing the mail’s delivery. The goal was to be more efficient,  reduce the cost and improve working condition of people in the delivery platform. For the project we  gathered a team composed with diverse stakeholders: delivery and process experts, people working  in the delivery platform, people from technical direction, designers, ergonomists, …

For two months we used Design Thinking tools to create a new process with our team and we were  ready to test this new process using a learning launch. A learning launch is a small experiment that  tests a new idea in the real marketplace or in our case the delivery platform. We needed to conduct  this experiment to get confirming or disconfirming facts to see if the new process was more likely to  meet our goals.

Application

A few weeks before starting our learning launch, we worked with the team to design the experiment.  We wanted to test the assumption that by changing the way people sorted and classified mail they will  be more efficient and they will get a better working posture. We chose to carry out the experiment in  three distribution platforms in different parts of the country. We tested the new process for two weeks  in order to give people working in the distribution platform enough time to try out the new process  and decide whether they liked it or not.

During the test, we gathered both quantitative (e.g. time of execution of the process, volume of mail  sorted per day…) and qualitative data (e.g. views of customers on each part of the process…). We  observed the testers in the distribution platform and looked for nonverbal cues.

At the end of our learning launch we interviewed each tester to see what they liked about the new  process and what they didn’t like. We payed attention to their suggestions and ideas to improve the  process.

Insights

We gathered insights form the three distribution platforms and results didn’t completely confirm our  assumption. Although workers were having a better working posture, the process wasn’t more  efficient timewise. The learning launch tool helped us figured out the aspect of the process we needed  to improve to meet workers expectations. Thanks to their feedbacks we were able to identify two pain  points in the process: the sorting index wasn’t clear enough to help workers find quickly the right spot  for each letter and the desk used by workers wasn’t completely adapted for the new process.  Worker’s  feedbacks also give us new ideas and the team is currently working on improving the two pain points.

Approach

The learning launch really helped us in the development of our new process. We were able to test our  assumptions with a real group of workers and to quickly identify the part of the process we needed to  improve before committing more resources to the development. After improving the process, we will

conduct a new learning launch on a larger scale to check if the improved process will confirm our  assumptions.


Learning launch of a new process in a delivery services company Challenge & Selection Last year , I worked as a consultant for a delivery services company . At the time , the company needed to improve it ’s process of sorting and preparing the mail ’s delivery . The goal was to be more efficient , reduce the cost and improve working condition of people in the delivery platform . For the project we gathered a team composed with diverse stakeholders : delivery and process experts , people working in the delivery platform , people from technical direction , designers , ergonomists , … For two months we used Design Thinking tools to create a new process with our team and we were ready to test this new process using a learning launch . A learning launch is a small experiment that tests a new idea in the real marketplace or in our case the delivery platform . We needed to conduct this experiment to get confirming or disconfirming facts to see if the new process was more likely to meet our goals . Application A few weeks before starting our learning launch , we worked with the team to design the experiment . We wanted to test the assumption that by changing the way people sorted and classified mail they will be more efficient and they will get a better working posture . We chose to carry out the experiment in three distribution platforms in different parts of the country . We tested the new process for two weeks in order to give people working in the distribution platform enough time to try out the new process and decide whether they liked it or not . During the test , we gathered both quantitative ( e.g. time of execution of the process , volume of mail sorted per day … ) and qualitative data ( e.g. views of customers on each part of the process … ) . We observed the testers in the distribution platform and looked for nonverbal cues . At the end of our learning launch we interviewed each tester to see what they liked about the new process and what they did n’t like . We payed attention to their suggestions and ideas to improve the process . Insights We gathered insights form the three distribution platforms and results did n’t completely confirm our assumption . Although workers were having a better working posture , the process was n’t more efficient timewise . The learning launch tool helped us figured out the aspect of the process we needed to improve to meet workers expectations . Thanks to their feedbacks we were able to identify two pain points in the process : the sorting index was n’t clear enough to help workers find quickly the right spot for each letter and the desk used by workers was n’t completely adapted for the new process . Worker ’s feedbacks also give us new ideas and the team is currently working on improving the two pain points . Approach The learning launch really helped us in the development of our new process . We were able to test our assumptions with a real group of workers and to quickly identify the part of the process we needed to improve before committing more resources to the development . After improving the process , we will conduct a new learning launch on a larger scale to check if the improved process will confirm our assumptions .