Challenge

After a long consulting project our client asked me and my team to understand better whether one of the  developments was correctly created or not. This development was a complete application to create a  delivery receipt where the operation-worker had to enter information related to the delivery manually.  He was concerned as the time that trucks were being delayed one of the pain points was that the operator  was entering the information wrong and not fast enough. When we finished the according to  specifications of the development, we suggested the client use an approach of deployment focused on  testing rather than fast and insecure. This suggestion was based on the experience which tells us that a  good deploying process always needs a thorough testing phase to verify several hypotheses that you may  have related to user-experience, data, scalability, and others.

Selection

I believe that the learning launch is a very good tool to tackle this challenge as it helps to verify hypothesis  that our team had before deploying the development and as it was described in module 4 of the course it  tests customer execution, in this case, the operation-worker. In addition, it helps our client to remove  some assumptions previously made. For instance, he thought that workers knew everything by heart, and  they were not going to make mistakes that could stop the productivity of the warehouse and delivery  process. Another important factor to mention is that to tackle this problem with other tools as Mind  Mapping was not possible, as we needed something fast and without any stop of productivity so it had to  be something that could be proven on-demand.

Application

First, we removed the assumption that workers knew everything by heart as our deployment clearly prove  it. Second, we started to elaborate the hypothesis that we wanted to address with our development. The  first approach was to prove two important theories, First, whether the workers were going to feel  comfortable by automatizing some of the information, this is something very good to do as some of them  could feel that they are being replaced by computing power resulting in problems with the workers union.  The second was to know if and automation of information was going to improve considerably the timing  of the delivery receipt process. Thus, to accomplish this verification we established all the points of  entering data and we classified them by probability of error based on our previous deployment. There  were a total of 25 points of data and we decided that 18 of them had the necessity to be automatized.  The efforts to automatize this process should be profitable in the long-term for the company so there was  also a financial analysis behind this decision. The solution was deployed, and the time defined for analysis  was one week of operation. It is important to mention that the indicators to accept or reject the  hypothesis were made for the first one out of data and to the second out of the manager sense of the  operations.

The results were outstanding, the first hypothesis was rejected and the second was accepted. We got to  realize that workers felt highly comfortable with the automation process as long as they don´t lose their  jobs. This gave an opportunity to our client to take the best-workers to other positions in the warehouse  and even promoting some of them to managers of small-teams. The productivity of the delivery process  increased by 140% and after obtaining the feedback from workers the process was completely automated  increasing the productivity another 10% more. The use of the tool was completely effective; however, it  also tells you something about how the implementation process was handled in general.

Insight

The tool was completely good to use. It gives the feeling of doing something right for the customer and  their internal customers (workers). It also made me realize that this project could be done in another way  from the beginning as design thinking has other tools that could have worked perfectly. The main problem  was that this implementation was a little part of a big one, so of course, it did not have the focus to be  tackled as a complete project using design thinking where the what is? and what if? parts could have  saved a lot of time. Another important point is that the Learning Launch is an exceptional tool to save  some consulting projects that were badly implemented, especially if they are related to software. It is very  easy to apply the tool and to have quick and impactful results. In addition, this is very similar to the last  phase of lean startup where you have to test your assumptions or hypothesis to then continue the  development in an infinite loop that only you decide when to close it. Nowadays, most of the software  corporations have constant updates like the ERP of Oracle, SAP, IBM and others, all of them are using this  methodology where they are learning if the way they are tackling their customers’ needs is the correct  one and if there is some space from improvements in UX, functionalities or integrations.

Approach

I would have chosen other design thinking tools from the beginning. This process was taken as an  additional development with no high priority, that is why it was not taken the necessary in-depth of a  consulting project. I believe that Mind-Mapping would have been a very good tool to clearly track the  process of the customers, in this case, the workers. Thus, understand correctly what they need, also  providing a very good start-point for testing as you could have most of the variables involved to make the  correct hypothesis for the phase. In addition, we could have avoided wrong assumptions and saved time.


Challenge After a long consulting project our client asked me and my team to understand better whether one of the developments was correctly created or not . This development was a complete application to create a delivery receipt where the operation - worker had to enter information related to the delivery manually . He was concerned as the time that trucks were being delayed one of the pain points was that the operator was entering the information wrong and not fast enough . When we finished the according to specifications of the development , we suggested the client use an approach of deployment focused on testing rather than fast and insecure . This suggestion was based on the experience which tells us that a good deploying process always needs a thorough testing phase to verify several hypotheses that you may have related to user - experience , data , scalability , and others . Selection I believe that the learning launch is a very good tool to tackle this challenge as it helps to verify hypothesis that our team had before deploying the development and as it was described in module 4 of the course it tests customer execution , in this case , the operation - worker . In addition , it helps our client to remove some assumptions previously made . For instance , he thought that workers knew everything by heart , and they were not going to make mistakes that could stop the productivity of the warehouse and delivery process . Another important factor to mention is that to tackle this problem with other tools as Mind Mapping was not possible , as we needed something fast and without any stop of productivity so it had to be something that could be proven on - demand . Application First , we removed the assumption that workers knew everything by heart as our deployment clearly prove it . Second , we started to elaborate the hypothesis that we wanted to address with our development . The first approach was to prove two important theories , First , whether the workers were going to feel comfortable by automatizing some of the information , this is something very good to do as some of them could feel that they are being replaced by computing power resulting in problems with the workers union . The second was to know if and automation of information was going to improve considerably the timing of the delivery receipt process . Thus , to accomplish this verification we established all the points of entering data and we classified them by probability of error based on our previous deployment . There were a total of 25 points of data and we decided that 18 of them had the necessity to be automatized . The efforts to automatize this process should be profitable in the long - term for the company so there was also a financial analysis behind this decision . The solution was deployed , and the time defined for analysis was one week of operation . It is important to mention that the indicators to accept or reject the hypothesis were made for the first one out of data and to the second out of the manager sense of the operations . The results were outstanding , the first hypothesis was rejected and the second was accepted . We got to realize that workers felt highly comfortable with the automation process as long as they don´t lose their jobs . This gave an opportunity to our client to take the best - workers to other positions in the warehouse and even promoting some of them to managers of small - teams . The productivity of the delivery process increased by 140 % and after obtaining the feedback from workers the process was completely automated increasing the productivity another 10 % more . The use of the tool was completely effective ; however , it also tells you something about how the implementation process was handled in general . Insight The tool was completely good to use . It gives the feeling of doing something right for the customer and their internal customers ( workers ) . It also made me realize that this project could be done in another way from the beginning as design thinking has other tools that could have worked perfectly . The main problem was that this implementation was a little part of a big one , so of course , it did not have the focus to be tackled as a complete project using design thinking where the what is ? and what if ? parts could have saved a lot of time . Another important point is that the Learning Launch is an exceptional tool to save some consulting projects that were badly implemented , especially if they are related to software . It is very easy to apply the tool and to have quick and impactful results . In addition , this is very similar to the last phase of lean startup where you have to test your assumptions or hypothesis to then continue the development in an infinite loop that only you decide when to close it . Nowadays , most of the software corporations have constant updates like the ERP of Oracle , SAP , IBM and others , all of them are using this methodology where they are learning if the way they are tackling their customers ’ needs is the correct one and if there is some space from improvements in UX , functionalities or integrations . Approach I would have chosen other design thinking tools from the beginning . This process was taken as an additional development with no high priority , that is why it was not taken the necessary in - depth of a consulting project . I believe that Mind - Mapping would have been a very good tool to clearly track the process of the customers , in this case , the workers . Thus , understand correctly what they need , also providing a very good start - point for testing as you could have most of the variables involved to make the correct hypothesis for the phase . In addition , we could have avoided wrong assumptions and saved time .