Design Thinking for Innovation | Peer-graded  Assignment: Reflection

1. Challenge:

I work as an innovation manager at an IT consultancy firm and I am responsible for the innovation  of our service portfolio regarding Internet of Things and Data Management. Approximately 120  consultants of ours work in these domains and to stay ahead of the competition we have to  continuously innovate our services and the technologies we work with. As these consultants are  highly educated and motivated persons, they have thousands of ideas for new services and  technologies. Our customers expect technological advanced solutions which will help them thrive  their business and they want to do this with the most innovative technologies. With that they  expect solutions to function and perform perfect in order for them to pay our (significant) fees.  This creates a challenge with us wanting to launch new profitable services and having customers  to pay for them on one hand and the on the other hand customers who are only willing to pay for  innovative but proven services.

2. Selection:

The tool I have selected is the learning launch tool which was explained by Ed Hesse. The  learning launch tool is a method to test a lot of business ideas for little money quickly. Looking  upon my challenge we have a lot of ideas for innovating our services from highly motivated  people but not the ability to create a business case for all of them. At the same time management  expects profitable new services which customers are willing to pay for. These customers however  are only willing to pay if the service is indeed innovative but stable and reliable at the same time.  The learning launch process offers a way to validate and test ideas quickly for little money. In  addition to this, the aim to look for confirming and disconfirming facts prevents us from being our  own problem as we are likely to love our own ideas.

3. Application:

With our team we decided to apply the learning launch tool to out innovation process by going  through the following steps:

1. We gathered all recent ideas with regards to new services and technologies.  2. For all these ideas we looked upon which customers have a need for this service or

technology and we looked upon what the specific need is.

3. We then assessed whether the service or technology really fulfills the specified need and

whether it is better than the currently available alternatives.

With the selected ideas we went looking for disconfirming facts. We looked for circumstances  under which the idea would not work, not sell and why someone would not want to buy it. We did  this by having meetings with our customers. The teams consisted of fans of the idea and critics of  the idea. The “bad” ideas where placed on the shelve. The “good” ideas were taken to the  learning launch 2.0. The learning launch 2.0 at our firm consisted of offering the new technologies  and or services in a proof of concept to our customers for below market value prices. By doing so  the customer has the chance of experimenting with the new service or technology for little money  and we have the ability to not only convince the customer of the service but also adapt the  service or technology to the feedback we received. We now have over 20 proof of concepts  running for new services and technologies.

4. Insight:

By applying the learning launch tool me and my team have learned to quickly validate and test  ideas for little money. This prevents us from bias as we could fall in love with our own ideas and  involve our customers better. What we also experienced is that often an idea looks amazing but  does not necessarily have to be better than an existing alternative. Finally, we are looking to  implement more aspects of design thinking in the idea generation process and are thinking of  already including customers in that stage of the process.

5. Approach: Describe what you might do differently next time -- applying the same

tool you selected or a different one -- and the reason(s) why.

We will keep applying the learning launch tool within our service development process as it has  brought us a faster and economically more efficient innovation process. However we also  experienced that doing the proof of concepts and validation sessions with customers became a  purpose in itself at one moment. The ease of testing and validating new services or technologies  through proof of concepts below market value with our customers became very popular with our  account managers and consultants. Therefore we had one intervention to realign the mindset of  our employees that the purpose of the learning launch process was to create financially viable  innovative new services. Personally, I have become more open minded to testing new ideas  quickly and relying less upon making assumptions within big business cases.


Design Thinking for Innovation | Peer - graded Assignment : Reflection 1 . Challenge : I work as an innovation manager at an IT consultancy firm and I am responsible for the innovation of our service portfolio regarding Internet of Things and Data Management . Approximately 120 consultants of ours work in these domains and to stay ahead of the competition we have to continuously innovate our services and the technologies we work with . As these consultants are highly educated and motivated persons , they have thousands of ideas for new services and technologies . Our customers expect technological advanced solutions which will help them thrive their business and they want to do this with the most innovative technologies . With that they expect solutions to function and perform perfect in order for them to pay our ( significant ) fees . This creates a challenge with us wanting to launch new profitable services and having customers to pay for them on one hand and the on the other hand customers who are only willing to pay for innovative but proven services . 2 . Selection : The tool I have selected is the learning launch tool which was explained by Ed Hesse . The learning launch tool is a method to test a lot of business ideas for little money quickly . Looking upon my challenge we have a lot of ideas for innovating our services from highly motivated people but not the ability to create a business case for all of them . At the same time management expects profitable new services which customers are willing to pay for . These customers however are only willing to pay if the service is indeed innovative but stable and reliable at the same time . The learning launch process offers a way to validate and test ideas quickly for little money . In addition to this , the aim to look for confirming and disconfirming facts prevents us from being our own problem as we are likely to love our own ideas . 3 . Application : With our team we decided to apply the learning launch tool to out innovation process by going through the following steps : 1 . We gathered all recent ideas with regards to new services and technologies . 2 . For all these ideas we looked upon which customers have a need for this service or technology and we looked upon what the specific need is . 3 . We then assessed whether the service or technology really fulfills the specified need and whether it is better than the currently available alternatives . With the selected ideas we went looking for disconfirming facts . We looked for circumstances under which the idea would not work , not sell and why someone would not want to buy it . We did this by having meetings with our customers . The teams consisted of fans of the idea and critics of the idea . The “ bad ” ideas where placed on the shelve . The “ good ” ideas were taken to the learning launch 2.0 . The learning launch 2.0 at our firm consisted of offering the new technologies and or services in a proof of concept to our customers for below market value prices . By doing so the customer has the chance of experimenting with the new service or technology for little money and we have the ability to not only convince the customer of the service but also adapt the service or technology to the feedback we received . We now have over 20 proof of concepts running for new services and technologies . 4 . Insight : By applying the learning launch tool me and my team have learned to quickly validate and test ideas for little money . This prevents us from bias as we could fall in love with our own ideas and involve our customers better . What we also experienced is that often an idea looks amazing but does not necessarily have to be better than an existing alternative . Finally , we are looking to implement more aspects of design thinking in the idea generation process and are thinking of already including customers in that stage of the process . 5 . Approach : Describe what you might do differently next time -- applying the same tool you selected or a different one -- and the reason(s ) why . We will keep applying the learning launch tool within our service development process as it has brought us a faster and economically more efficient innovation process . However we also experienced that doing the proof of concepts and validation sessions with customers became a purpose in itself at one moment . The ease of testing and validating new services or technologies through proof of concepts below market value with our customers became very popular with our account managers and consultants . Therefore we had one intervention to realign the mindset of our employees that the purpose of the learning launch process was to create financially viable innovative new services . Personally , I have become more open minded to testing new ideas quickly and relying less upon making assumptions within big business cases .