Challenge:

I am a member supporting Product Development in IT for a Fortune 50 Home Improvement  organization. The online marketing and sales department were thinking of right campaigns and one of  the campaigns was leveraging IT for increasing online sales. The IT Team had invested a considerable  cost for tools and Upgrades in new technologies but was not driving enough online sales.The Project  scope included increasing sales by means of good online experience, ease of access, digitizing - or  anything that IT could help drive sales for all prospective customers for Products sold online.The project  scope includes the online marketing and sales department, as well as the larger marketing department  and IT department, with whom our IT Group work closely and had to be run in-house.Our attempt was  to focus on trying to uncover what our team members, as well as key stakeholders within the larger  marketing department and IT department, consider to be ineffective or problematic in driving sales in  line with their expectations and assist them with pointers to improve the sales.

Selection and Application:

Our team has already gone through several design thinking activities and tools, so we were ready to try  the learning launch tool. Broadly speaking, the learning launch is an experiment meant to quickly test an  idea and prototype and get quick feedback to help understand the problem at hand.

Application:

For our first learning launch, we focused on the customers accessing the Store Portals. We created a  sample of In-house customers to view the website and randomly shop for items from the existing online  Portal.We asked the users to be un-biased and submit the feedback from their usage in a weeks  time.This initiative was our test  to understand the pros and cons of the shopping experience.Our team  went through few workshops with the users after a week. We expected to produce a document with a  clear description of the users shopping experience – what they liked, what they did not and what they  would have liked to see more.

Insight:

Post the workshop and analyzing the feedback, for the points that required improvement – we got with  the Development Team for prioritization of tasks and process. We involved the Product owner of the  Team as well.There were multiple changes that were rolled out on the Home Page of the website over a  period of time and the same group of users were asked to shop online again for a week  time and give  their feedback.Based on the feedback, this time around the shopping experience was much  better.Additionally,during feedback session it was suggested by a user it would be really a good  experience if the Home Page was customized to his profile.The development Team suggested that this  was a possibility and wanted to explore more by means of A/B Testing on the Home Page.The Marketing  and Sales Team, the Dev Team and the  users then had sessions over a week with the A/B Testing team  understand what kind of customization they would be able to support and the technology feasibility of  such customization.The A/B Testing team then suggested they could run test for the Product Display  Page or the Home Page with Multiple variants over a time period.

Approach:

We also used Story Telling to narrate the “Website user”  persona to an extent to understand the user  behavior.So,in our exercise – we used both the tools - the core was the Learning Launch that went hand  in hand with Story Telling.The volume of visitors on the website was Millions and to understand and get  feedback from a Subset of that sample was the way to move forward complimented with Story Telling ,  and rightly fitted the context of this Design Thinking exercise.


Challenge : I am a member supporting Product Development in IT for a Fortune 50 Home Improvement organization . The online marketing and sales department were thinking of right campaigns and one of the campaigns was leveraging IT for increasing online sales . The IT Team had invested a considerable cost for tools and Upgrades in new technologies but was not driving enough online sales . The Project scope included increasing sales by means of good online experience , ease of access , digitizing - or anything that IT could help drive sales for all prospective customers for Products sold online . The project scope includes the online marketing and sales department , as well as the larger marketing department and IT department , with whom our IT Group work closely and had to be run in - house . Our attempt was to focus on trying to uncover what our team members , as well as key stakeholders within the larger marketing department and IT department , consider to be ineffective or problematic in driving sales in line with their expectations and assist them with pointers to improve the sales . Selection and Application : Our team has already gone through several design thinking activities and tools , so we were ready to try the learning launch tool . Broadly speaking , the learning launch is an experiment meant to quickly test an idea and prototype and get quick feedback to help understand the problem at hand . Application : For our first learning launch , we focused on the customers accessing the Store Portals . We created a sample of In - house customers to view the website and randomly shop for items from the existing online Portal . We asked the users to be un - biased and submit the feedback from their usage in a weeks time . This initiative was our test to understand the pros and cons of the shopping experience . Our team went through few workshops with the users after a week . We expected to produce a document with a clear description of the users shopping experience – what they liked , what they did not and what they would have liked to see more . Insight : Post the workshop and analyzing the feedback , for the points that required improvement – we got with the Development Team for prioritization of tasks and process . We involved the Product owner of the Team as well . There were multiple changes that were rolled out on the Home Page of the website over a period of time and the same group of users were asked to shop online again for a week time and give their feedback . Based on the feedback , this time around the shopping experience was much better . Additionally , during feedback session it was suggested by a user it would be really a good experience if the Home Page was customized to his profile . The development Team suggested that this was a possibility and wanted to explore more by means of A / B Testing on the Home Page . The Marketing and Sales Team , the Dev Team and the users then had sessions over a week with the A / B Testing team understand what kind of customization they would be able to support and the technology feasibility of such customization . The A / B Testing team then suggested they could run test for the Product Display Page or the Home Page with Multiple variants over a time period . Approach : We also used Story Telling to narrate the “ Website user ” persona to an extent to understand the user behavior . So , in our exercise – we used both the tools - the core was the Learning Launch that went hand in hand with Story Telling . The volume of visitors on the website was Millions and to understand and get feedback from a Subset of that sample was the way to move forward complimented with Story Telling , and rightly fitted the context of this Design Thinking exercise .