Challenge  I am an IT Business Analyst at a Roofing Manufacturing company.  My team was presented with the  challenge to design a common online platform that would address the various needs of 3 different  customers in our value chain, 1) The Distributor – to whom we sell our roofing materials, 2) The  Contractor – the company that buys roofing materials from the Distributor and installs for the Property  Owner, 3) The Property Owner – the individual who is making the purchase for the new roof and  warranty.  The challenge lies in being able to develop a robust technical architecture in the backend,  while supporting the front end needs of 3 different user personas.

Selection  In order to understand the customer experiences of multiple personas, I selected the Visualization Tool  to solve for this complex problem.  Referring to the video lecture of Angela Myer, an experienced  designer, I understand that a Visualization Tool is akin to Visual Thinking and offers a way to see things  using pictures and diagramming.  It would offer the ideal method for unlocking different parts of our  brains to think of new imaginative ideas and to communicate with a very large group of stakeholders in  non-verbal ways.  In particular, I want to explore the experiences of 3 types of customers using Journey  Mapping

Application  I set up multiple brainstorming sessions to map the Customer’s Journey.  Separate meetings were set up  with each group of stakeholders for the 3 different user personas.  In other words, there were a set of  meetings exclusively for the Distributor stakeholders, and then another set of meetings exclusively for  the Contractor stakeholders and then finally a 3rd set of meetings exclusively for the Property Owner  stakeholders.  Within these groups of stakeholders, we had a diverse group of people, ranging from IT to  sales to marketing to customer support.  By holding 3 different sets of exclusive brainstorming sessions,  we were able to focus on the journey of 1 persona at a time, without being distracted or having biases  towards the other personas.  The outputs of these meetings were large visual diagrams of the Customer  Journey. At the conclusion of these exclusive sessions, we brought the stakeholders together for a large  collaboration session, at which time we were able to overlay the 3 journeys to find common ground and  differences.  The combination of the exclusive sessions followed by the collaborative session was highly  effective because we were able to focus at first and then take in a view of the entire picture.

Insight  One of the major insights gained from the brainstorming sessions is that each persona desired high  visibility into certain parts of the roof buying and installation process, but there were other parts that  were not of interest to them.  We would have guessed as much, but using the visualization tool allowed  us to see where the common touchpoints were across the 3 user personas.  This insight will enable our  data and solution architects to consider how best to structure and serve up the data.  Finding these  patterns may not have been possible using a more analytical tool.

Approach  The Journey Mapping tool was extremely effective.  We were able to visualize the path that each of the  user personas in our ecosystem takes when they are drawing value from our company.  This also

provides us insight into the problems that they face, giving us an opportunity to solve the problems.  We  could have utilized Story Telling in addition to the Visualization tool.  Each persona has a story and it  might have been very interesting to listen to first hand accounts of each of our user personas (what is a  typical day for them), and perhaps we could have gained further insight from hearing the reactions from  other personas, because while their paths are different, there are some overlapping touchpoints. These  unique interactions between our 3 personas might provide us with a new opportunity for customer  collaboration, resulting in faster value delivered.


Challenge I am an IT Business Analyst at a Roofing Manufacturing company . My team was presented with the challenge to design a common online platform that would address the various needs of 3 different customers in our value chain , 1 ) The Distributor – to whom we sell our roofing materials , 2 ) The Contractor – the company that buys roofing materials from the Distributor and installs for the Property Owner , 3 ) The Property Owner – the individual who is making the purchase for the new roof and warranty . The challenge lies in being able to develop a robust technical architecture in the backend , while supporting the front end needs of 3 different user personas . Selection In order to understand the customer experiences of multiple personas , I selected the Visualization Tool to solve for this complex problem . Referring to the video lecture of Angela Myer , an experienced designer , I understand that a Visualization Tool is akin to Visual Thinking and offers a way to see things using pictures and diagramming . It would offer the ideal method for unlocking different parts of our brains to think of new imaginative ideas and to communicate with a very large group of stakeholders in non - verbal ways . In particular , I want to explore the experiences of 3 types of customers using Journey Mapping Application I set up multiple brainstorming sessions to map the Customer ’s Journey . Separate meetings were set up with each group of stakeholders for the 3 different user personas . In other words , there were a set of meetings exclusively for the Distributor stakeholders , and then another set of meetings exclusively for the Contractor stakeholders and then finally a 3rd set of meetings exclusively for the Property Owner stakeholders . Within these groups of stakeholders , we had a diverse group of people , ranging from IT to sales to marketing to customer support . By holding 3 different sets of exclusive brainstorming sessions , we were able to focus on the journey of 1 persona at a time , without being distracted or having biases towards the other personas . The outputs of these meetings were large visual diagrams of the Customer Journey . At the conclusion of these exclusive sessions , we brought the stakeholders together for a large collaboration session , at which time we were able to overlay the 3 journeys to find common ground and differences . The combination of the exclusive sessions followed by the collaborative session was highly effective because we were able to focus at first and then take in a view of the entire picture . Insight One of the major insights gained from the brainstorming sessions is that each persona desired high visibility into certain parts of the roof buying and installation process , but there were other parts that were not of interest to them . We would have guessed as much , but using the visualization tool allowed us to see where the common touchpoints were across the 3 user personas . This insight will enable our data and solution architects to consider how best to structure and serve up the data . Finding these patterns may not have been possible using a more analytical tool . Approach The Journey Mapping tool was extremely effective . We were able to visualize the path that each of the user personas in our ecosystem takes when they are drawing value from our company . This also provides us insight into the problems that they face , giving us an opportunity to solve the problems . We could have utilized Story Telling in addition to the Visualization tool . Each persona has a story and it might have been very interesting to listen to first hand accounts of each of our user personas ( what is a typical day for them ) , and perhaps we could have gained further insight from hearing the reactions from other personas , because while their paths are different , there are some overlapping touchpoints . These unique interactions between our 3 personas might provide us with a new opportunity for customer collaboration , resulting in faster value delivered .