Mind Mapping

Challenge

At my employer, which operates in the import and distribution of food products, new management  started the conversation about empowering the sales force to make more decentralized decisions, to  allow them to seize opportunities that cannot be predicted or planned by the headquarters. In this  context my team, IT, has been tasked with ensuring that the sales reporting available to them is fit for  purpose.

Selection

In the initial as-is steps we proceeded with ethnological interviews and collected data from two main  groups within the company: form sales representatives and their management and from the IT analysts  who work with the sales department. We used semi-structured interviews which included open  questions, to ensure we capture individual experiences and stories.

This provided a large volume of information, in different formats, like statistics, such as response times  or how often each available report is used, but more important, individual stories detailing the gaps  between the needs of the sales reps and the current capabilities. With tens of stories collected we  thought that the best approach is to use mind mapping.

Application

The findings were presented to a group of decision makers mixed with the most insightful interviewees  using a large wall in a conference room.  Some grouping them into themes was done in advance, but as  well the full text results of interviews were displayed. The participants have been provided with time to  read through all materials in advance of the session and prepare their notes. After that they split in  three different groups, in separate meeting rooms, and discussed and aligned their findings. In the next  steps each of the groups presented their approach to the entire team. The complete group worked from  there to restate the findings as insights.

Insight

The principal finding was that although we focused on IT systems and sales reps, the most important  element to the data used was the existence in the organization of the employees in sales analyst roles,  which were overloaded and often unable to process requests in due time. That was due to a few  reasons: reports were lacking deep dive functionalities and detailed analyses had to be requested to the  analysts on ad-hoc bases; the business intelligence solution could not combine data from some of the  applications, and cross-functional reports must be manually generated in excel; the reports did not have  phone-screen friendly versions; there was no visual alignment between reports, for example one will  produce colorful pie-charts while another uses bar charts in shades of grey, so they had to be reworked  when a presentation was done to an external client. A simplified insights chart would look like this:

If we would have used a traditional approach, for example focusing on collecting numerical data and  improving performance parameters, we would have missed this insight, and the follow up journey that  we embarked on, by defining the criteria for our future, re-designed sales reporting tool to be a self- service, visual reporting tool that gives the sales rep direct access into existing data and the ability to  create bespoke reports in a simple intuitive way.

Approach

Reflecting on the approach, one step that we could have done differently is to follow the individual  interviews with group discussions of the same people that were initially interviewed. The advantage  would be to eliminate the noise in the original findings before starting the mind mapping activities with  the decision makers. To give an example some sales reps mentioned the unavailability of WiFi while out  of office, which turned out is was due to the lack of training in creating a mobile hotspot. Additionally,  such discussion between peers might have helped uncovering more issues and generating more ideas  from the sheer interaction.


Mind Mapping Challenge At my employer , which operates in the import and distribution of food products , new management started the conversation about empowering the sales force to make more decentralized decisions , to allow them to seize opportunities that can not be predicted or planned by the headquarters . In this context my team , IT , has been tasked with ensuring that the sales reporting available to them is fit for purpose . Selection In the initial as - is steps we proceeded with ethnological interviews and collected data from two main groups within the company : form sales representatives and their management and from the IT analysts who work with the sales department . We used semi - structured interviews which included open questions , to ensure we capture individual experiences and stories . This provided a large volume of information , in different formats , like statistics , such as response times or how often each available report is used , but more important , individual stories detailing the gaps between the needs of the sales reps and the current capabilities . With tens of stories collected we thought that the best approach is to use mind mapping . Application The findings were presented to a group of decision makers mixed with the most insightful interviewees using a large wall in a conference room . Some grouping them into themes was done in advance , but as well the full text results of interviews were displayed . The participants have been provided with time to read through all materials in advance of the session and prepare their notes . After that they split in three different groups , in separate meeting rooms , and discussed and aligned their findings . In the next steps each of the groups presented their approach to the entire team . The complete group worked from there to restate the findings as insights . Insight The principal finding was that although we focused on IT systems and sales reps , the most important element to the data used was the existence in the organization of the employees in sales analyst roles , which were overloaded and often unable to process requests in due time . That was due to a few reasons : reports were lacking deep dive functionalities and detailed analyses had to be requested to the analysts on ad - hoc bases ; the business intelligence solution could not combine data from some of the applications , and cross - functional reports must be manually generated in excel ; the reports did not have phone - screen friendly versions ; there was no visual alignment between reports , for example one will produce colorful pie - charts while another uses bar charts in shades of grey , so they had to be reworked when a presentation was done to an external client . A simplified insights chart would look like this : If we would have used a traditional approach , for example focusing on collecting numerical data and improving performance parameters , we would have missed this insight , and the follow up journey that we embarked on , by defining the criteria for our future , re - designed sales reporting tool to be a self- service , visual reporting tool that gives the sales rep direct access into existing data and the ability to create bespoke reports in a simple intuitive way . Approach Reflecting on the approach , one step that we could have done differently is to follow the individual interviews with group discussions of the same people that were initially interviewed . The advantage would be to eliminate the noise in the original findings before starting the mind mapping activities with the decision makers . To give an example some sales reps mentioned the unavailability of WiFi while out of office , which turned out is was due to the lack of training in creating a mobile hotspot . Additionally , such discussion between peers might have helped uncovering more issues and generating more ideas from the sheer interaction .