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Reflection – Visualization for Digital Transformation

CHALLENGE

The situation involved digital transformation of the business processes of a global  manufacturing client, to adapt to new trends in the industry and market. A specific  use case was that the client wanted consumers to have a seamless purchase  journey and a good product experience during use. However, most stakeholders  had diverging views on the as-is business processes and customer journeys.

SELECTION

I selected Visualization as my tool of choice in order to get everyone on the same  page. As explained in Module 1 of this course, visualization is a way to depict  information in a pictorial form with minimum words, by using pictures, graphs,  images or photos to describe data. The client had multiple complex sales processes  and no specific means to provide or track customer satisfaction when consumers  were actually using the product. Many client stakeholders had a deep but narrow  view of only the specific business processes which they regularly worked on, with  little or no understanding of the consumers’ perspectives.

I hoped Visualization would bring to the situation at hand a shared understanding  of the complex business processes of the client, to identify gaps and pain points as  a stepping-stone towards building better customer-focused solutions.

APPLICATION

I used two Journey Map templates with swim-lanes – one for the sales process and  the other for the user experience process – as a starting point to align diverse views.  We did 2 focused group exercises with whiteboarding and post-it notes where the  client’s employees from different intersecting verticals (sales, finance, engineering,  customer service, service partner managers, etc.) convened, built up on the  templates, fleshed out details and produced a number of in-depth customer  journeys for Sales and User Experience. I worked with them to find points of  commonality in order to converge on a few common scenarios, then helped them  identify gaps. Together, we identified 2 distinct major use-cases for User  Experience and broadly 3 scenarios for Sales, which could be digitized for increasing

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consumer satisfaction. I then created digital maps of these results that could be  used easily as the single source of reference.

All our inputs helped to structure the business processes more clearly and identify  top use-cases for concern. Visualization helped understand the what-is or as-is  processes from the point of view of the consumer. Stakeholders could figure out  the pain points much more easily from the perspective of the end-user.

INSIGHT

We all soon realized that since the client is a global organization, there were small  but critical challenges and points of difference at the country level (for example,  markets and user preferences in European cities vs those in Asia or the Americas).  The processes as well as associated local government regulations were distinct for  some geographies of operation and would therefore need customized solutions.  This reinforced the tenet that design thinking requires diversity of experience,  broad range of cultural & professional backgrounds and the willingness to keep an  open mind.

APPROACH

Next time, perhaps instead of starting from scratch, I would try to collect existing  data points/process maps and see if Mind Mapping could be used to derive more  insights faster.


Page | 1 Reflection – Visualization for Digital Transformation CHALLENGE The situation involved digital transformation of the business processes of a global manufacturing client , to adapt to new trends in the industry and market . A specific use case was that the client wanted consumers to have a seamless purchase journey and a good product experience during use . However , most stakeholders had diverging views on the as - is business processes and customer journeys . SELECTION I selected Visualization as my tool of choice in order to get everyone on the same page . As explained in Module 1 of this course , visualization is a way to depict information in a pictorial form with minimum words , by using pictures , graphs , images or photos to describe data . The client had multiple complex sales processes and no specific means to provide or track customer satisfaction when consumers were actually using the product . Many client stakeholders had a deep but narrow view of only the specific business processes which they regularly worked on , with little or no understanding of the consumers ’ perspectives . I hoped Visualization would bring to the situation at hand a shared understanding of the complex business processes of the client , to identify gaps and pain points as a stepping - stone towards building better customer - focused solutions . APPLICATION I used two Journey Map templates with swim - lanes – one for the sales process and the other for the user experience process – as a starting point to align diverse views . We did 2 focused group exercises with whiteboarding and post - it notes where the client ’s employees from different intersecting verticals ( sales , finance , engineering , customer service , service partner managers , etc . ) convened , built up on the templates , fleshed out details and produced a number of in - depth customer journeys for Sales and User Experience . I worked with them to find points of commonality in order to converge on a few common scenarios , then helped them identify gaps . Together , we identified 2 distinct major use - cases for User Experience and broadly 3 scenarios for Sales , which could be digitized for increasing Page | 2 consumer satisfaction . I then created digital maps of these results that could be used easily as the single source of reference . All our inputs helped to structure the business processes more clearly and identify top use - cases for concern . Visualization helped understand the what - is or as - is processes from the point of view of the consumer . Stakeholders could figure out the pain points much more easily from the perspective of the end - user . INSIGHT We all soon realized that since the client is a global organization , there were small but critical challenges and points of difference at the country level ( for example , markets and user preferences in European cities vs those in Asia or the Americas ) . The processes as well as associated local government regulations were distinct for some geographies of operation and would therefore need customized solutions . This reinforced the tenet that design thinking requires diversity of experience , broad range of cultural & professional backgrounds and the willingness to keep an open mind . APPROACH Next time , perhaps instead of starting from scratch , I would try to collect existing data points / process maps and see if Mind Mapping could be used to derive more insights faster .