Final assignment overview

A. Challenge

My challenge is situated in following context. I am working as a project manager for a multinational food ingredient  supplier (yes, chocolate that is!).     Currently I am working on a cross functional project, where I will keep other elements confidential.  One of challenges is that, during the analysis phase of the project, our commercial Sales & Marketing teams have  indicated that they don’t have a clear overview of our full chocolate product portfolio. The company’s product  portfolio has grown significantly and became more complex over the last years, due to recent acquisitions in different  types of sweet ingredients.  Because of this, they miss the right information to propose relevant solutions to our customers.

B. Selection

We have used with our team two techniques is the overall design thinking toolbox, being:    1. Overall design thinking process

1. Scope the project:

What will be the audience & challenge we need to overcome?

2. What is:

Doing our research, through emphasizing with our commercial Sales & Marketing teams; what are their  needs on product portfolio support? What is a day in their live and what do they miss?

3. What if:

Ideate around concepts and tools, which could help our commercial teams to understand better our product  portfolio.

4. What Wows:

Building via screenshots and first visual impressions on what new product portfolio tools could look like to  test first reactions.

5. What Works:

Extensive feedback sessions with a few selected Sales & Marketing team members during a learning launch  to capture feedback before the official launch.

2. Learning Launch

  In the step, ‘what works’, we have used various test panels and a learning launch to capture most feedback  on the tool. More information on this in the application section.

C. Application

1. Overall design thinking process

1. Scope the project:

Together with the project sponsors, we clearly identified the opportunity & scope if the tool: being a  pragmatic product portfolio overview tool for our commercial teams.

2. What is:

Doing our research through emphasizing as good as possible on the question:   What is the day in the life is of our commercial Sales & Marketing team? We did this through work  shadowing, interviews and a benchmark analysis of possible product portfolio tools.

3. What if:

Together with the core team, we tried to ideate around concepts and tools that could work, often our ideas  were expressed with no more than a drawing or one pager of the concept.

4. What Wows:

For each of the selected concepts, we made a prototype, in the form of a visual impression on what the  product portfolio tool could look like.

5. What Works:

During our learning launch, we scored the different prototypes, according to criteria set forward by our  commercial teams.

2. Learning Launch

  We put the developed portfolio tools to the test, by organizing a learning launch in selected commercial team  meetings, as our test panel.

  We have built-in a feedback form in the product portfolio website that we decided to go for. Being it only a  rough version of our final tool, this left us with enough time and budget to adjust and fine-tune our final  version.

D. Insights

  The overall process reassured that our final ‘customer’, i.e. the commercial team, was very closely involved  into design & execution of our solution.

  Due to a reassured learning curve and spending the resources at the right time into the process, we managed  to deliver tangible results before our deadlines.

  The learning launches provided us with timely feedback of the end-user, so we still had adequate time &  budget to readjust our final solution.

E. Approach

  I had overall a great experience and learning curve, applying these concepts on a real life work situation.

  Next time, I want to make this process more explicit to my fellow team members. The purpose would be to  make them better aware of the overall process we are following, as this was not explicit from the beginning.  This would provide them also with a wider perspective on the process.

  I will continue to use the framework, as it helped us a lot to ensure speed to market and a customer relevant  tool.


Final assignment overview A. Challenge My challenge is situated in following context . I am working as a project manager for a multinational food ingredient supplier ( yes , chocolate that is ! ) . Currently I am working on a cross functional project , where I will keep other elements confidential . One of challenges is that , during the analysis phase of the project , our commercial Sales & Marketing teams have indicated that they do n’t have a clear overview of our full chocolate product portfolio . The company ’s product portfolio has grown significantly and became more complex over the last years , due to recent acquisitions in different types of sweet ingredients . Because of this , they miss the right information to propose relevant solutions to our customers . B. Selection We have used with our team two techniques is the overall design thinking toolbox , being : 1 . Overall design thinking process 1 . Scope the project : What will be the audience & challenge we need to overcome ? 2 . What is : Doing our research , through emphasizing with our commercial Sales & Marketing teams ; what are their needs on product portfolio support ? What is a day in their live and what do they miss ? 3 . What if : Ideate around concepts and tools , which could help our commercial teams to understand better our product portfolio . 4 . What Wows : Building via screenshots and first visual impressions on what new product portfolio tools could look like to test first reactions . 5 . What Works : Extensive feedback sessions with a few selected Sales & Marketing team members during a learning launch to capture feedback before the official launch . 2 . Learning Launch  In the step , ‘ what works ’ , we have used various test panels and a learning launch to capture most feedback on the tool . More information on this in the application section . C. Application 1 . Overall design thinking process 1 . Scope the project : Together with the project sponsors , we clearly identified the opportunity & scope if the tool : being a pragmatic product portfolio overview tool for our commercial teams . 2 . What is : Doing our research through emphasizing as good as possible on the question : What is the day in the life is of our commercial Sales & Marketing team ? We did this through work shadowing , interviews and a benchmark analysis of possible product portfolio tools . 3 . What if : Together with the core team , we tried to ideate around concepts and tools that could work , often our ideas were expressed with no more than a drawing or one pager of the concept . 4 . What Wows : For each of the selected concepts , we made a prototype , in the form of a visual impression on what the product portfolio tool could look like . 5 . What Works : During our learning launch , we scored the different prototypes , according to criteria set forward by our commercial teams . 2 . Learning Launch  We put the developed portfolio tools to the test , by organizing a learning launch in selected commercial team meetings , as our test panel .  We have built - in a feedback form in the product portfolio website that we decided to go for . Being it only a rough version of our final tool , this left us with enough time and budget to adjust and fine - tune our final version . D. Insights  The overall process reassured that our final ‘ customer ’ , i.e. the commercial team , was very closely involved into design & execution of our solution .  Due to a reassured learning curve and spending the resources at the right time into the process , we managed to deliver tangible results before our deadlines .  The learning launches provided us with timely feedback of the end - user , so we still had adequate time & budget to readjust our final solution . E. Approach  I had overall a great experience and learning curve , applying these concepts on a real life work situation .  Next time , I want to make this process more explicit to my fellow team members . The purpose would be to make them better aware of the overall process we are following , as this was not explicit from the beginning . This would provide them also with a wider perspective on the process .  I will continue to use the framework , as it helped us a lot to ensure speed to market and a customer relevant tool .