Reflection – Learning Launch

Challenge

I’m a member of the TC Consulting organization inside my company, and I’m responsible for a team of  Technical Consultants.

Our Customers are Mobile Network Operators for which we act as the primary technical interface. Each  Technical Consultant is assigned and responsible for a defined group of Customers.

Each Customer is quite specific in terms of requests and processes, and our challenge is to be able to guarantee  a good level of customer support even when the Technical Consultant is on holidays for periods longer than 1  week and a backup is needed. We have observed, in fact, that often the backup is not able to properly assist  the Customer as he/she does not have all the elements needed to support; the solution has always been to  contact the employee that is on holidays to get the missing information, and this is the kind of situation that we  want to avoid.

The duration of the project is 6 weeks and it involves 4 Technical Consultants, 6 Customers and key  stakeholders such as 3 Sales Managers.

Selection

It is supposed that the project team has already gone through preliminary design thinking activities and tools  and that we have identified possible causes and solutions of the challenge we have; at this point we want to  test that our assumptions are correct and we are ready to use the learning launch tool. Such tool is used to do  an experiment by which we can quickly and cheaply test our idea.

Application

Our first assumptions is that the difficulties faced by the backup employee are due to an inaccurate forecast of  the type of requests and related priorities that he/she would receive from the Customer. The backup is usually  informed and prepared to support about the ongoing activities, but not when unexpected requests are made.  To prove our assumption, we put in place the following experiment:

We involve each Customer, few days before the employee leaves, in order to have as much information as  possible about the activities, their priorities and the type of requests that the backup will receive. We schedule  half an hour meeting with each Customer, with the Technical Consultant in charge of the Customer and with  his/her backup. Optionally the Sales Manager can participate. After the meeting, the backup is instructed in  detail by his/her peer about the activities and requests discussed with the Customer. An additional advantage  of this approach is that the Customer should be somehow forced to stick with the requests discussed during  the meeting during the Technical Consultant absence.

Our second assumption is that usually the backup is involved too late in the handover activities. This results in  inaccurate transfer of knowledge and difficulty for the backup to get acquainted with the Customer activities in  due time. To prove it, we want to involve the backup at least 1 week before the employee leaves for holidays.

In practice, it means that the backup is put in the loop of all Customer emails and, as soon as he/she  encounters a topic that is not clear, asks for details to his/her colleague. This is also a way to reassure the  Customer that we are working to guarantee continuity in our support activities.

Insight

By applying such experiments we believe that our 2 assumptions above will be confirmed. We also expect that  we won’t be able to eliminate all unexpected requests, but at least the Customers will be more tolerant if we  won’t be able to answer as expected.

In general, we expect an improvement in terms of Customer intimacy and mutual trust.

Approach

We believe that the Learning Launch tool is the appropriate one, as the team already went through other  design thinking processes. The Learning Launch tool is easy to be applied and probably the best one, in this  specific case, in order to have direct and quick Customer involvement. With this approach we can measure, day  by day, the effectiveness of our idea.


Reflection – Learning Launch Challenge I ’m a member of the TC Consulting organization inside my company , and I ’m responsible for a team of Technical Consultants . Our Customers are Mobile Network Operators for which we act as the primary technical interface . Each Technical Consultant is assigned and responsible for a defined group of Customers . Each Customer is quite specific in terms of requests and processes , and our challenge is to be able to guarantee a good level of customer support even when the Technical Consultant is on holidays for periods longer than 1 week and a backup is needed . We have observed , in fact , that often the backup is not able to properly assist the Customer as he / she does not have all the elements needed to support ; the solution has always been to contact the employee that is on holidays to get the missing information , and this is the kind of situation that we want to avoid . The duration of the project is 6 weeks and it involves 4 Technical Consultants , 6 Customers and key stakeholders such as 3 Sales Managers . Selection It is supposed that the project team has already gone through preliminary design thinking activities and tools and that we have identified possible causes and solutions of the challenge we have ; at this point we want to test that our assumptions are correct and we are ready to use the learning launch tool . Such tool is used to do an experiment by which we can quickly and cheaply test our idea . Application Our first assumptions is that the difficulties faced by the backup employee are due to an inaccurate forecast of the type of requests and related priorities that he / she would receive from the Customer . The backup is usually informed and prepared to support about the ongoing activities , but not when unexpected requests are made . To prove our assumption , we put in place the following experiment : We involve each Customer , few days before the employee leaves , in order to have as much information as possible about the activities , their priorities and the type of requests that the backup will receive . We schedule half an hour meeting with each Customer , with the Technical Consultant in charge of the Customer and with his / her backup . Optionally the Sales Manager can participate . After the meeting , the backup is instructed in detail by his / her peer about the activities and requests discussed with the Customer . An additional advantage of this approach is that the Customer should be somehow forced to stick with the requests discussed during the meeting during the Technical Consultant absence . Our second assumption is that usually the backup is involved too late in the handover activities . This results in inaccurate transfer of knowledge and difficulty for the backup to get acquainted with the Customer activities in due time . To prove it , we want to involve the backup at least 1 week before the employee leaves for holidays . In practice , it means that the backup is put in the loop of all Customer emails and , as soon as he / she encounters a topic that is not clear , asks for details to his / her colleague . This is also a way to reassure the Customer that we are working to guarantee continuity in our support activities . Insight By applying such experiments we believe that our 2 assumptions above will be confirmed . We also expect that we wo n’t be able to eliminate all unexpected requests , but at least the Customers will be more tolerant if we wo n’t be able to answer as expected . In general , we expect an improvement in terms of Customer intimacy and mutual trust . Approach We believe that the Learning Launch tool is the appropriate one , as the team already went through other design thinking processes . The Learning Launch tool is easy to be applied and probably the best one , in this specific case , in order to have direct and quick Customer involvement . With this approach we can measure , day by day , the effectiveness of our idea .