Financing Company – Visualization 

 Challenge & Selection 

 Working for a finance company I noticed that sales staff were constantly making loans to customers   with poor credit quality . On the one hand this was introducing new business which was good , but on   the other hand , drove up bad debt expense and therefore reducing profit . The challenge was to   understand the motivation of the sales staff , identify if they were lacking any tools or resources and   ultimately improve the quality of customers . The exercise consisted of internal sales staff and one   member from each Finance and IT departments . 

 The selected design thinking tool we decided on was Visualization or visual thinking . The reason for   this was that , given the exercise contained participants from varying fields , visualization helps unlock   that aspect of our mind and bring everyone together on one level , to think non - verbally rather than   using wordy reports full of technical jargon . As the saying goes – a picture tells a thousand words .   The exercise was initially given a 6 month duration . This is so that as a solution is developed , it can   be gradually rolled out and tested with the outcome reflected in the Sales staff ’s monthly results ,   allowing the opportunity for refinement if required . Then tested again the following month . 

 Application & Insight 

 I started the process by conducting informal 1 on 1 interviews with each of the sales staff and ask   the following questions : a ) what motivates you in making the sale ? b ) what would help you in   making a sale ? and c ) what understanding do you have as to the impact of your sale onto the wider   company profitability ? These were 10 minute maximum interview with each of the 15 sales staff and   the answers were kept anonymous . 

 Following the interviews I ran a 2 - day workshop where the answers were grouped together   according to similarity on a larger poster board . From this , three themes emerged – 1 . Motivation is   based how staff are measured i.e. value of new loans sold , 2 . Almost all sales staff asked for a   tool / spreadsheet that can be used in the field when speaking directly to brokers and 3 . Other than   knowing that new loans drives profit , they did n’t know how . 

 We decided to approach this in reverse order . Firstly , on a white board the Finance representative in   attendance drew a flow chart of how new loans impact profitability so that sales staff can visualize   the income flow . This was a quick win . The process starts with the new loans and ultimately the   interest received for the duration of the loan . However , where the borrower has poor credit ( as in   our case ) then the probability is the loan will turn bad and written off , thus an expense to the   company . Unfortunately this was not a consideration at the time of sale . Next , we covered the   tooling requirement to aid sales staff . On a white board again I drew up a rough skeleton of a   dashboard which can be used when sales staff are in person with brokers . This included a small   model which allows for input of variables about the customer i.e. income , credit history , interest   rate charged , duration of loan . This outputs a small profit statement which shows income generated   from this customer but possible bad debts and also a RAG status flag to instantly point out to staff   the potential profitability of the deal . The sales staff in the room expanded on the drawing to   improve their user experience . The IT representative confirmed a prototype can be developed in 6   weeks which can be used and then refined if required . 

 The insight gained from conducting this exercise was that by individually interviewing staff we could   understand where the deficiencies existed . By visualizing how a bad loan can impact profitability on   the white board , the sales staff now know that charging the highest interest does not always make   the most financial sense i.e. low interest rate can me charged to a customer who is more credit   worthy . Also , by arming the staff with the dashboard , they have the capability of making more   informed decisions in real time . Finally , this exercise by accident allowed senior management to   identify that they were measuring staff on the wrong metric which is to now paying commissions on   the profitability of the staff and not just the sales which in turn will reduce the level of bad debts and   hence drive up profitability . This shows that in design thinking looking at a process from end to end   and having customer involvement ( internal customers in this case ) allows us to unlock additional   solutions to that which was intended . 

 Approach 

 Visualization was definitely an effective design thinking tool to use for this exercise as it has the   ability of bringing together various disciplines and normalizing for all to understand . By drawing the   flow chart , the staff can now have a mental image of the flow - on effect of their sale . Also , by   enabling the staff to draw the dashboard as they see fit , we are allowing all in the room the visualize   how the output will appear . An alternative approach to visualization may have been mind mapping   as these contain two critical elements : 1 ) visualization of course and 2 ) interview / input from the   customer . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: 
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: Financing Company – Visualization 

 Challenge & Selection 

 Working for a finance company I noticed that sales staff were constantly making loans to customers   with poor credit quality . On the one hand this was introducing new business which was good , but on   the other hand , drove up bad debt expense and therefore reducing profit . The challenge was to   understand the motivation of the sales staff , identify if they were lacking any tools or resources and   ultimately improve the quality of customers . The exercise consisted of internal sales staff and one   member from each Finance and IT departments . 

 The selected design thinking tool we decided on was Visualization or visual thinking . The reason for   this was that , given the exercise contained participants from varying fields , visualization helps unlock   that aspect of our mind and bring everyone together on one level , to think non - verbally rather than   using wordy reports full of technical jargon . As the saying goes – a picture tells a thousand words .   The exercise was initially given a 6 month duration . This is so that as a solution is developed , it can   be gradually rolled out and tested with the outcome reflected in the Sales staff ’s monthly results ,   allowing the opportunity for refinement if required . Then tested again the following month . 

 Application & Insight 

 I started the process by conducting informal 1 on 1 interviews with each of the sales staff and ask   the following questions : a ) what motivates you in making the sale ? b ) what would help you in   making a sale ? and c ) what understanding do you have as to the impact of your sale onto the wider   company profitability ? These were 10 minute maximum interview with each of the 15 sales staff and   the answers were kept anonymous . 

 Following the interviews I ran a 2 - day workshop where the answers were grouped together   according to similarity on a larger poster board . From this , three themes emerged – 1 . Motivation is   based how staff are measured i.e. value of new loans sold , 2 . Almost all sales staff asked for a   tool / spreadsheet that can be used in the field when speaking directly to brokers and 3 . Other than   knowing that new loans drives profit , they did n’t know how . 

 We decided to approach this in reverse order . Firstly , on a white board the Finance representative in   attendance drew a flow chart of how new loans impact profitability so that sales staff can visualize   the income flow . This was a quick win . The process starts with the new loans and ultimately the   interest received for the duration of the loan . However , where the borrower has poor credit ( as in   our case ) then the probability is the loan will turn bad and written off , thus an expense to the   company . Unfortunately this was not a consideration at the time of sale . Next , we covered the   tooling requirement to aid sales staff . On a white board again I drew up a rough skeleton of a   dashboard which can be used when sales staff are in person with brokers . This included a small   model which allows for input of variables about the customer i.e. income , credit history , interest   rate charged , duration of loan . This outputs a small profit statement which shows income generated   from this customer but possible bad debts and also a RAG status flag to instantly point out to staff   the potential profitability of the deal . The sales staff in the room expanded on the drawing to   improve their user experience . The IT representative confirmed a prototype can be developed in 6   weeks which can be used and then refined if required . 

 The insight gained from conducting this exercise was that by individually interviewing staff we could   understand where the deficiencies existed . By visualizing how a bad loan can impact profitability on   the white board , the sales staff now know that charging the highest interest does not always make   the most financial sense i.e. low interest rate can me charged to a customer who is more credit   worthy . Also , by arming the staff with the dashboard , they have the capability of making more   informed decisions in real time . Finally , this exercise by accident allowed senior management to   identify that they were measuring staff on the wrong metric which is to now paying commissions on   the profitability of the staff and not just the sales which in turn will reduce the level of bad debts and   hence drive up profitability . This shows that in design thinking looking at a process from end to end   and having customer involvement ( internal customers in this case ) allows us to unlock additional   solutions to that which was intended . 

 Approach 

 Visualization was definitely an effective design thinking tool to use for this exercise as it has the   ability of bringing together various disciplines and normalizing for all to understand . By drawing the   flow chart , the staff can now have a mental image of the flow - on effect of their sale . Also , by   enabling the staff to draw the dashboard as they see fit , we are allowing all in the room the visualize   how the output will appear . An alternative approach to visualization may have been mind mapping   as these contain two critical elements : 1 ) visualization of course and 2 ) interview / input from the   customer .
### Output: 