Reflection – Visualization

Challenge    In one of my meetings with field-based employees, they have shared with me a  recurring problem related to delays in approvals of Marketing activities being  submitted.  This has also resulted to delays in the availability of funds which in  return impacted generation of sales.    Selection    The tool I have selected is Visualization.  Angela Myer’s video on visualization on  Week1 has given me insights on how the tools could be effective in getting  consensus  and  agreement  with  different  stakeholders.    A  collective

understanding of the problem and alignment is important in order to come out  with an innovative solution to the problem.    Application    With all the stakeholders ( Marketing / Finance/ Procurement/ IT/ Sales ) in one  room, we started by reviewing the current process.  Each team was given a post  it paper and then takes turn posting their specific role & responsibilities in the  approval process.  The post it paper is then posted in the wall. The facilitator will   ensure dependencies to each of the team are identified and properly marked.   Once completed, another review is done with each team adding the time  (days/hours) it took  for each process to be completed. The result of the exercise  is a visual overview of the current process.  All stakeholders have a common  understanding of the process.  To complement the activity, I used the Bizagi  modeler to convert the visuals and send copies to all stakeholders.      Insight and Approach    One of the key learning of the exercise is that it gave all the stakeholders a non  verbal way to communicate and gain common understanding of the approval  process.  The activity has also serve as a catalyst for the stakeholders to have  meaningful discussion on the challenges and problems which  they started to see  during the activity.      The visualization activity has re-enforce my belief that visualization is an  important tool that can be used during design thinking activities. In the future , I  will include storytelling as pre activity to complement visualization.  Storytelling  will serve as the foundation to tell the story on why we are reviewing the approval  process.  By combining these tools, the activity will have a much broader context  in understanding the problem.


Reflection – Visualization Challenge In one of my meetings with field - based employees , they have shared with me a recurring problem related to delays in approvals of Marketing activities being submitted . This has also resulted to delays in the availability of funds which in return impacted generation of sales . Selection The tool I have selected is Visualization . Angela Myer ’s video on visualization on Week1 has given me insights on how the tools could be effective in getting consensus and agreement with different stakeholders . A collective understanding of the problem and alignment is important in order to come out with an innovative solution to the problem . Application With all the stakeholders ( Marketing / Finance/ Procurement/ IT/ Sales ) in one room , we started by reviewing the current process . Each team was given a post it paper and then takes turn posting their specific role & responsibilities in the approval process . The post it paper is then posted in the wall . The facilitator will ensure dependencies to each of the team are identified and properly marked . Once completed , another review is done with each team adding the time ( days / hours ) it took for each process to be completed . The result of the exercise is a visual overview of the current process . All stakeholders have a common understanding of the process . To complement the activity , I used the Bizagi modeler to convert the visuals and send copies to all stakeholders . Insight and Approach One of the key learning of the exercise is that it gave all the stakeholders a non verbal way to communicate and gain common understanding of the approval process . The activity has also serve as a catalyst for the stakeholders to have meaningful discussion on the challenges and problems which they started to see during the activity . The visualization activity has re - enforce my belief that visualization is an important tool that can be used during design thinking activities . In the future , I will include storytelling as pre activity to complement visualization . Storytelling will serve as the foundation to tell the story on why we are reviewing the approval process . By combining these tools , the activity will have a much broader context in understanding the problem .