Reflection on Design Tools: Visualizations

The company that I was working with was approaching a client who had vast amount  of data over the globe and wished to go to consultation outside with several vendors  including ourselves for a request for proposal. The requirement was on getting  solutions to handle post pandemic consumption by their users in their offices and sites  for our products and services.

Firstly, we had a quick alignment amongst the development and product owner teams  on our approach that is to pick the visualization tool out of all the design tools to be  used in communicating our ideas in a workshop with client. The client had invited their  subject matter heads who owned the issues. Due to the client’s busy schedule they  allocated a video conference so that their team could attend even if not in person. We  prepared the pitch and slides to be used for the workshop including whiteboarding.  The reason we selected this tool was because we wanted to ensure that they can see  how the process of understanding their needs is key to defining a baseline or what-is.

We assembled a team internally 3 weeks beforehand who would be contributing  content to the presentation. Elected a master owner who would be handling all the  slides contributed and assembling it in the storyboard. We used One Drive so that all  versioning is tracked, and we have a latest working file that we can based on. There  were multiple rehearsals and dry runs to ensure that the contributors could articulate  their content within the time estimated per speaker. We invited senior stakeholders to  review our slides in these dry runs and received feedback for further refinement within  the development team. The team worked 2 weeks to refine the information iteratively  over 1-2 sessions each week. Team members took turns to ask questions like the  client would on the messaging and we also asked what our objective of this pitch was  so that we can work backwards to engineer the content.

During the presentation workshop, the client asked questions on the visuals we had  shown. They were pleased when they could understand the concept from the visuals.  One of them repeated on the client journey that our principal had talked about. From  the way they responded throughout, it is clear that preparation of the material requires  iteration and team inputs to refine from beginning to end point of the release.

For the next round, we had to do a demo to the client within a specified timeframe of  2 weeks. I recommended them to use the Learning Launch principle to test our  application on the client. Our teams sat down to develop a prototype that is quick to  deliver to market and able to demonstrate basic requirements and features. We also  informed the product owner to engage client on aligning the expectations and  requirements of the demo and who were their target audience.

With their feedback, we took it to the development team to process for innovations and  built on the requirements features that client wants. In an interval of 2 weeks, we  returned to the client workshop with incremental features added and let them try the  application. In that way, they would share with us if the product and service meet their  expected acceptance criteria. As a result, they accepted the first release and worked  with our company to launch the product jointly with their marketing team to meet their  product timeline.


Reflection on Design Tools : Visualizations The company that I was working with was approaching a client who had vast amount of data over the globe and wished to go to consultation outside with several vendors including ourselves for a request for proposal . The requirement was on getting solutions to handle post pandemic consumption by their users in their offices and sites for our products and services . Firstly , we had a quick alignment amongst the development and product owner teams on our approach that is to pick the visualization tool out of all the design tools to be used in communicating our ideas in a workshop with client . The client had invited their subject matter heads who owned the issues . Due to the client ’s busy schedule they allocated a video conference so that their team could attend even if not in person . We prepared the pitch and slides to be used for the workshop including whiteboarding . The reason we selected this tool was because we wanted to ensure that they can see how the process of understanding their needs is key to defining a baseline or what - is . We assembled a team internally 3 weeks beforehand who would be contributing content to the presentation . Elected a master owner who would be handling all the slides contributed and assembling it in the storyboard . We used One Drive so that all versioning is tracked , and we have a latest working file that we can based on . There were multiple rehearsals and dry runs to ensure that the contributors could articulate their content within the time estimated per speaker . We invited senior stakeholders to review our slides in these dry runs and received feedback for further refinement within the development team . The team worked 2 weeks to refine the information iteratively over 1 - 2 sessions each week . Team members took turns to ask questions like the client would on the messaging and we also asked what our objective of this pitch was so that we can work backwards to engineer the content . During the presentation workshop , the client asked questions on the visuals we had shown . They were pleased when they could understand the concept from the visuals . One of them repeated on the client journey that our principal had talked about . From the way they responded throughout , it is clear that preparation of the material requires iteration and team inputs to refine from beginning to end point of the release . For the next round , we had to do a demo to the client within a specified timeframe of 2 weeks . I recommended them to use the Learning Launch principle to test our application on the client . Our teams sat down to develop a prototype that is quick to deliver to market and able to demonstrate basic requirements and features . We also informed the product owner to engage client on aligning the expectations and requirements of the demo and who were their target audience . With their feedback , we took it to the development team to process for innovations and built on the requirements features that client wants . In an interval of 2 weeks , we returned to the client workshop with incremental features added and let them try the application . In that way , they would share with us if the product and service meet their expected acceptance criteria . As a result , they accepted the first release and worked with our company to launch the product jointly with their marketing team to meet their product timeline .