Learning Launch – New Product Induction 

 Challenge 

 We are part of the Project management office ( PMO ) in our company that is responsible for evaluation of   new products and software that could be used in the organization . Currently the “ Project Engineering   Department ” comprising of about 700 people use at least 5 completely different tools to monitor their   project progress , maintain team responsibilities , track changes to projects ( scope or schedule ) , use   various activity flows for standard tasks , maintain team information , etc . The PMO team has researched   and evaluated a new single product that performs all the above mentioned functionalities that would   greatly reduce human errors while reconciling monthly updates that has become highly cumbersome . It   would also give the organization more powerful reports that enables decision making a seamless and   action oriented activity . 

 The objective for the PMO team is to convince the key users of the Project Engineering department of the   benefits of this new product so that 5 different tools can be eliminated and the organization can make   use of a single powerful product that will make the department more productive and efficient . The Key   users are seniors and experienced folks who have seen the amount of time it takes to make the   organization adopt a new product and have serious objections to change the current way of working . Also ,   the finance department needs to know within the next 60 days if they have to include the product license   cost in the annual budget . So a feasibility study report has to be completed in the next 6 - 8 weeks . 

 Selection 

 Since the Key users and PMO have had multiple meetings and discussions and they were leading nowhere ,   we realized that a more practical approach needs to be taken to have a more meaningful conclusion . The   discussions were leading us to the same questions - How user friendly is it ? Are the reports meaningful ?   How easy is it to shift our current data to the new product ? etc . On one hand the PMO team had seen   demonstrations and read the documentations of the new product but on the other hand the Key users   wanted their practical questions to be seen in real - time and not rely on a sales pitch or a promotion   documentation . 

 Based on the above scenario we collectively decided to use the “ Learning Launch ” concept of Design   Thinking that would bring all the right people together and evaluate the product in a unbiased manner . A   time bound access to a limited set of users would provide greater insights to the product much more than   the documentation and demo videos that we had seen and been discussing so far . 

 Application 

 As a part of the Learning Launch , we first made a full list of all the different use cases that the 5 tools   provide us today . We then spoke to the Product company and explained them our company ’s scenarios   using those use cases . That gave the product company a clear insight on how are our teams organized ,   what kind of data do we collect and how do we use these tools . 

 The product team then took a week to setup a test environment of their product and provided exclusive   access to our key users to it . In the meanwhile we setup 5 groups of volunteers headed by one Key user   each and listed out clear functionalities to test and experience and make notes . 

 We setup a weekly review with the Product company who were very forthcoming in understanding our   situation and to discuss our concern and findings . These discussions gave great insights into the product   as well as a better way of addressing our scenarios . We clearly documented our observations on a scale   of 1 - 5 on various parameters like ease of use , integration with other systems in our organization , access   to relevant reports , etc . 

 Looking at our due diligence , in week 4 of the learning launch , the product company shared one of their   success stories that they had collected from implementing their product in a company that is twice as   large as ours and is also in the same industry as we are . This greatly shifted the approach and attitude of   the volunteer teams . Their doubts on a large scale implementation was greatly answered when they learnt   how the product has simplified the operations and governance of the larger company . Also the product   company shared certain quantifiable benefits that could be achieved by the product that gave us new   insights that we had not considered . 

 Insight 

 At the end of the learning launch session we had much more documented scenarios than we initially   hoped . The Volunteers created their own cross team discussion groups and shared their findings and   inferences . All the use cases were looked under a common objective instead of treating them   independently as per our current setup . The documented discussions with the product company brought   out more clarity into what the product could offer and how could it enhance our overall operations . The   success story that we reviewed brought confidence into the volunteer teams and addressed their   concerns on a large scale implementation . It funnily even brought out how we were using certain   functionalities in our current tools the wrong way ! The quantitative results gave the leadership team a   good data driven reasoning   on why we should go ahead with the product launch . Finally the team made   a well documented statistical and analytical feasibility study report on the benefits of moving to such a   system and how it would impact the company ’s revenues in the years to come . 

 Collectively it was a good decision to give ourselves the opportunity to come together on the same side   of the table and look at the situation from a common ground . The activity brought teams across industries   and even across regions together and address a crucial issue that could n’t have been appropriate to   complete with just the PMO team . It also gave us great insights into the way people think , speak and   behave . How their personal experiences in their careers and lives influence the decisions they make in   their day to day activities was very insightful to observe and learn . 

 Approach 

 This whole experience over the last couple of months was an eye - opener for all of us . We are glad we   made an informed decision to go ahead with this approach to the product implementation and are well   on our way to execute a thorough plan in the coming months . We all know each other at a more personal   level now and the product team and our key users are working together as one team . There would be   other scenarios in future like the phased sunset of existing tools , deriving the same metrics as of today   from the new product , establishing a common training and product support team , etc . We believe that   the highly interactive Learning launch tool from Designing Thinking would be appropriate in those   scenarios as well and would give us a much faster result into addressing real scenarios much before we   encounter them . 


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: Learning Launch – New Product Induction 

 Challenge 

 We are part of the Project management office ( PMO ) in our company that is responsible for evaluation of   new products and software that could be used in the organization . Currently the “ Project Engineering   Department ” comprising of about 700 people use at least 5 completely different tools to monitor their   project progress , maintain team responsibilities , track changes to projects ( scope or schedule ) , use   various activity flows for standard tasks , maintain team information , etc . The PMO team has researched   and evaluated a new single product that performs all the above mentioned functionalities that would   greatly reduce human errors while reconciling monthly updates that has become highly cumbersome . It   would also give the organization more powerful reports that enables decision making a seamless and   action oriented activity . 

 The objective for the PMO team is to convince the key users of the Project Engineering department of the   benefits of this new product so that 5 different tools can be eliminated and the organization can make   use of a single powerful product that will make the department more productive and efficient . The Key   users are seniors and experienced folks who have seen the amount of time it takes to make the   organization adopt a new product and have serious objections to change the current way of working . Also ,   the finance department needs to know within the next 60 days if they have to include the product license   cost in the annual budget . So a feasibility study report has to be completed in the next 6 - 8 weeks . 

 Selection 

 Since the Key users and PMO have had multiple meetings and discussions and they were leading nowhere ,   we realized that a more practical approach needs to be taken to have a more meaningful conclusion . The   discussions were leading us to the same questions - How user friendly is it ? Are the reports meaningful ?   How easy is it to shift our current data to the new product ? etc . On one hand the PMO team had seen   demonstrations and read the documentations of the new product but on the other hand the Key users   wanted their practical questions to be seen in real - time and not rely on a sales pitch or a promotion   documentation . 

 Based on the above scenario we collectively decided to use the “ Learning Launch ” concept of Design   Thinking that would bring all the right people together and evaluate the product in a unbiased manner . A   time bound access to a limited set of users would provide greater insights to the product much more than   the documentation and demo videos that we had seen and been discussing so far . 

 Application 

 As a part of the Learning Launch , we first made a full list of all the different use cases that the 5 tools   provide us today . We then spoke to the Product company and explained them our company ’s scenarios   using those use cases . That gave the product company a clear insight on how are our teams organized ,   what kind of data do we collect and how do we use these tools . 

 The product team then took a week to setup a test environment of their product and provided exclusive   access to our key users to it . In the meanwhile we setup 5 groups of volunteers headed by one Key user   each and listed out clear functionalities to test and experience and make notes . 

 We setup a weekly review with the Product company who were very forthcoming in understanding our   situation and to discuss our concern and findings . These discussions gave great insights into the product   as well as a better way of addressing our scenarios . We clearly documented our observations on a scale   of 1 - 5 on various parameters like ease of use , integration with other systems in our organization , access   to relevant reports , etc . 

 Looking at our due diligence , in week 4 of the learning launch , the product company shared one of their   success stories that they had collected from implementing their product in a company that is twice as   large as ours and is also in the same industry as we are . This greatly shifted the approach and attitude of   the volunteer teams . Their doubts on a large scale implementation was greatly answered when they learnt   how the product has simplified the operations and governance of the larger company . Also the product   company shared certain quantifiable benefits that could be achieved by the product that gave us new   insights that we had not considered . 

 Insight 

 At the end of the learning launch session we had much more documented scenarios than we initially   hoped . The Volunteers created their own cross team discussion groups and shared their findings and   inferences . All the use cases were looked under a common objective instead of treating them   independently as per our current setup . The documented discussions with the product company brought   out more clarity into what the product could offer and how could it enhance our overall operations . The   success story that we reviewed brought confidence into the volunteer teams and addressed their   concerns on a large scale implementation . It funnily even brought out how we were using certain   functionalities in our current tools the wrong way ! The quantitative results gave the leadership team a   good data driven reasoning   on why we should go ahead with the product launch . Finally the team made   a well documented statistical and analytical feasibility study report on the benefits of moving to such a   system and how it would impact the company ’s revenues in the years to come . 

 Collectively it was a good decision to give ourselves the opportunity to come together on the same side   of the table and look at the situation from a common ground . The activity brought teams across industries   and even across regions together and address a crucial issue that could n’t have been appropriate to   complete with just the PMO team . It also gave us great insights into the way people think , speak and   behave . How their personal experiences in their careers and lives influence the decisions they make in   their day to day activities was very insightful to observe and learn . 

 Approach 

 This whole experience over the last couple of months was an eye - opener for all of us . We are glad we   made an informed decision to go ahead with this approach to the product implementation and are well   on our way to execute a thorough plan in the coming months . We all know each other at a more personal   level now and the product team and our key users are working together as one team . There would be   other scenarios in future like the phased sunset of existing tools , deriving the same metrics as of today   from the new product , establishing a common training and product support team , etc . We believe that   the highly interactive Learning launch tool from Designing Thinking would be appropriate in those   scenarios as well and would give us a much faster result into addressing real scenarios much before we   encounter them .
### Output: 