Alberto Gonzalez  Design Thinking for Innovation Course

September 3, 2017

A personal reflection about

Learning Launches  Peer-graded Assignment Reﬂection

Challenge

I currently work in a Spanish ﬁnancial company, where one of my main responsibilities

is to promote its digital transformation through innovation and new digital assets, among

which I would highlight our mobile app on Apple iOS and Google Android platforms.

My organization has more than a hundred years of history, so it could be considered a

very traditional company in its approaches, and especially in its decision making process. Any

relevant change in our strategy and core assets should be analyzed down to the smallest detail,

and a high number of people should participate in the ﬁnal decision. It's easy to understand

how I'm not describing an agile business to meet the digital challenges facing the ﬁnancial

industry.

Our clients' behavior is changing, and we do not fully understand it. The problem is

even greater when there are new companies such as Facebook (Money), Apple (Pay) or N26

that have a more agile approach and, thanks to this, they have a better knowledge of the real

consumer behavior patterns, their expectations and their wishes than ours actual knowledge.

Speciﬁcally, we are currently looking how our customers would like to be up to date on

their personal ﬁnances: how to ﬁnd out they have received the payroll; have made an unusual

order; or whatever they need to know about changes in what they your money.

Until now, the alternative would have been long working sessions analyzing options,

long projects to build an expensive solution and test it in the market. This course teaches us

how there are other more successful approaches.

Selection

Because of the situation described, it is easy to understand how we must adapt our

corporate processes and our way of working to a more ﬂexible model, where we can obtain

REFLECTION ABOUT LEARNING LAUNCHES �1

valuable knowledge of our clients, in a fast, low cost and low level of risk way. Would our

clients like to know every small detail of changes in their personal ﬁnances? Are they

interested in conﬁguring every possible notiﬁcation in detail, or do they want simplicity and

give you just a few preconﬁgured options? Do you want messages very clear and detailed, or

will you prefer something less intensive and discreet?

Obviously we have some interesting ideas, but thanks to what we have been learned in

this course, I have been able to conﬁrm that the Learning Launch technique is adequate to

solve this kind of problem. In my opinion, we could deﬁne this technique as an experiment

conducted in the marketplace quickly and inexpensive, forming a bridge between customer

co-creation and commercial rollout.

As Om Eze has explained throughout the course, as well as

Ser Berger speciﬁcally in the video of week 4, this technique is ideal to test the

remaining critical assumptions about why this is an attractive business idea. In my company

we are looking for the necessary knowledge to discover What Wows and What Works to our

customers, and thanks to Learning Launch technique it is possible to achieve it, meeting

agility, cost and risk business criteria.

Application

The ﬁrst idea that we took to the reality was to create a new community, all through

social networks, where we got in touch with what we could call our Friends & Family: a small

set of clients with whom we could contrast their opinions, containing risks and costs, but

gaining knowledge.

Once this social community was created, we designed several prototypes (not

programming, just visualizations as we learned in the course) about how the digital

experiences might be to keep up with your personal ﬁnances through an app, a mobile widget

or other more creative scenarios. But the most important point for us was to launch a survey

with open questions about satisfaction of the test. We had great surprises in that regard, since

many of the key lessons learned came from answers to those open questions, not directly

linked to one of the alternatives shown in the visualizations.

To govern the process, a product manager was responsible for the design and its contrast

in the new community created, as well as to report after the seven days we had the

experiment open.

REFLECTION ABOUT LEARNING LAUNCHES �2

Insight

Undoubtedly, this idea was a great opportunity to learn how to gain knowledge about

our clients, in an environment as complex and with as much uncertainty as ours.

In a low intrusive way, and minimizing costs and risks, we were able to empathize with

them, adapting their own language and not ours, and gaining a key knowledge to do things

better in the future. We had good ideas and hypotheses about the behavior of our customers,

and thanks to this Learning Launch it were notably reﬁned and reﬁned.

To this day we have not yet implemented the improvements identiﬁed in our app, but I

hope that in a few weeks it will be working in the market, and most important, we will

continue to learn and improve.

Approach

Throughout this Learning Launch, many lessons have been learned, but if I were to

highlight only the main ones I would undoubtedly highlight the need to perform a very clear

expectations management in the team and stakeholder involved. In an organization so

traditional as mine, without a doubt this is a key point to manage in the future.

On the other hand, another dimension on which the next Learning Launch would act

differently is to empathize more with the teams involved, attending to their training needs and

associated cultural change. I think that all participants should take the course of Om Eze that we have all done ;)

REFLECTION ABOUT LEARNING LAUNCHES �3


Alberto Gonzalez Design Thinking for Innovation Course September 3 , 2017 A personal reflection about Learning Launches Peer - graded Assignment Reﬂection Challenge I currently work in a Spanish ﬁnancial company , where one of my main responsibilities is to promote its digital transformation through innovation and new digital assets , among which I would highlight our mobile app on Apple iOS and Google Android platforms . My organization has more than a hundred years of history , so it could be considered a very traditional company in its approaches , and especially in its decision making process . Any relevant change in our strategy and core assets should be analyzed down to the smallest detail , and a high number of people should participate in the ﬁnal decision . It 's easy to understand how I 'm not describing an agile business to meet the digital challenges facing the ﬁnancial industry . Our clients ' behavior is changing , and we do not fully understand it . The problem is even greater when there are new companies such as Facebook ( Money ) , Apple ( Pay ) or N26 that have a more agile approach and , thanks to this , they have a better knowledge of the real consumer behavior patterns , their expectations and their wishes than ours actual knowledge . Speciﬁcally , we are currently looking how our customers would like to be up to date on their personal ﬁnances : how to ﬁnd out they have received the payroll ; have made an unusual order ; or whatever they need to know about changes in what they your money . Until now , the alternative would have been long working sessions analyzing options , long projects to build an expensive solution and test it in the market . This course teaches us how there are other more successful approaches . Selection Because of the situation described , it is easy to understand how we must adapt our corporate processes and our way of working to a more ﬂexible model , where we can obtain REFLECTION ABOUT LEARNING LAUNCHES � 1 valuable knowledge of our clients , in a fast , low cost and low level of risk way . Would our clients like to know every small detail of changes in their personal ﬁnances ? Are they interested in conﬁguring every possible notiﬁcation in detail , or do they want simplicity and give you just a few preconﬁgured options ? Do you want messages very clear and detailed , or will you prefer something less intensive and discreet ? Obviously we have some interesting ideas , but thanks to what we have been learned in this course , I have been able to conﬁrm that the Learning Launch technique is adequate to solve this kind of problem . In my opinion , we could deﬁne this technique as an experiment conducted in the marketplace quickly and inexpensive , forming a bridge between customer co - creation and commercial rollout . As Om Eze has explained throughout the course , as well as Ser Berger speciﬁcally in the video of week 4 , this technique is ideal to test the remaining critical assumptions about why this is an attractive business idea . In my company we are looking for the necessary knowledge to discover What Wows and What Works to our customers , and thanks to Learning Launch technique it is possible to achieve it , meeting agility , cost and risk business criteria . Application The ﬁrst idea that we took to the reality was to create a new community , all through social networks , where we got in touch with what we could call our Friends & Family : a small set of clients with whom we could contrast their opinions , containing risks and costs , but gaining knowledge . Once this social community was created , we designed several prototypes ( not programming , just visualizations as we learned in the course ) about how the digital experiences might be to keep up with your personal ﬁnances through an app , a mobile widget or other more creative scenarios . But the most important point for us was to launch a survey with open questions about satisfaction of the test . We had great surprises in that regard , since many of the key lessons learned came from answers to those open questions , not directly linked to one of the alternatives shown in the visualizations . To govern the process , a product manager was responsible for the design and its contrast in the new community created , as well as to report after the seven days we had the experiment open . REFLECTION ABOUT LEARNING LAUNCHES � 2 Insight Undoubtedly , this idea was a great opportunity to learn how to gain knowledge about our clients , in an environment as complex and with as much uncertainty as ours . In a low intrusive way , and minimizing costs and risks , we were able to empathize with them , adapting their own language and not ours , and gaining a key knowledge to do things better in the future . We had good ideas and hypotheses about the behavior of our customers , and thanks to this Learning Launch it were notably reﬁned and reﬁned . To this day we have not yet implemented the improvements identiﬁed in our app , but I hope that in a few weeks it will be working in the market , and most important , we will continue to learn and improve . Approach Throughout this Learning Launch , many lessons have been learned , but if I were to highlight only the main ones I would undoubtedly highlight the need to perform a very clear expectations management in the team and stakeholder involved . In an organization so traditional as mine , without a doubt this is a key point to manage in the future . On the other hand , another dimension on which the next Learning Launch would act differently is to empathize more with the teams involved , attending to their training needs and associated cultural change . I think that all participants should take the course of Om Eze that we have all done ;) REFLECTION ABOUT LEARNING LAUNCHES � 3