Reﬂection Exercise - Visualization 

 The Challenge : The challenge that I ’m working on is developing an improved sales process for our ﬁeld sales   team . There are multiple stakeholders including , the sales reps , sales management , inside   sales associates , ﬁnance and marketing . The problem is that currently the process is too   complicated and interpretations of the stages vary across departments and individual   members . This causes signiﬁcant variability and quality issues with the data and results in   unreliable reporting of our sales pipeline , therefore eﬀecting forecasting . 

 Tool Selection & Application : The tool I selected to highlight in this assignment was Visualization . I selected this tool to   achieve a shared understanding of the problem among a diverse group of stakeholders . By   oﬀering images of our ten - step sales process and of the variations of how diﬀerent   stakeholders were interpreting the stages , I am seeking to create a common understanding of   the problem through visualization . Getting all parties to understand the problem in the same   way   is paramount in deﬁning “ what is ” in order to generate useful ideation and insight during   the “ what if ” process . I will also use visualization later on in the process to illustrate the new   options of the sales process when we seek to determine “ what wows ” . 

 Two representatives from each of the stakeholder groups listed above were involved in the   “ what is ” session . Each were presented with a graphical representation of the sales process on   a piece of paper . They were asked to deﬁne in their own words the diﬀerent stages . This was   an exercise that helped to further understand the variation in how stages were interpreted and   provided great insight on possible trends and ﬁxes during the “ what if ” session . When we got   to “ what wows ” we provided the team with three diﬀerent models of new processes , all had   color coding and easily identiﬁable shapes that helped users properly interpret and identify the   stages . 

 Insight & Approach : The visualization tool allowed me to extract some very useful insights . In fact the visualization   tool we used ended up becoming part of the solution to the problem . By utilizing colors and   shapes in the prototypes of new sales process stages , stakeholders were able to more easily   interpret the stages and reduce the amount of variability between members . But more than that   the visualization were essential in helping everyone understand the issue in the same way so   that the stakeholders could generate good feedback about why the sales stages were not   working and ideate good solutions . For example we were able to focus in on two stages that   were especially problematic when we illustrated the multiple interpretations that these two   stages received from diﬀerent stakeholders . The illustration used to present to the group during   the “ What wows ” stage was extremely eﬀective in helping compare options and interpret the   diﬀerences in the solution . 

 An alternative approach that we might have used for this exercise using visualization would be   to have the participants draw their interpretation of the existing sales process from scratch   instead of providing it to them . This might have given us some diﬀerent insights when just   getting started as is might have demonstrated more variation , or the way that members   thought of the process could have been more deeply revealed . This demonstrates that   visualization as a tool can be varied by how much freedom or responsibility you give to the   participant . For example , are you giving them an illustration to interpret or asking them to   create an illustration based on their interpretation ? 

 Result : Ultimately , we were able to arrive at a new more simpliﬁed sales process that all stakeholders   understood and deﬁned in the same way . Team members were now able to consistently   categorize their stage in the process consistently . This resulted in signiﬁcant improvements in   reporting and forecasting accuracy , which is a huge win for our company when it comes to 

 Reﬂection Exercise - Visualization 

 hitting our quarterly revenue estimates . The visualization tool used during our design thinking   sessions to create the new solution was paramount in helping us arrive at the right solution . 


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: Reﬂection Exercise - Visualization 

 The Challenge : The challenge that I ’m working on is developing an improved sales process for our ﬁeld sales   team . There are multiple stakeholders including , the sales reps , sales management , inside   sales associates , ﬁnance and marketing . The problem is that currently the process is too   complicated and interpretations of the stages vary across departments and individual   members . This causes signiﬁcant variability and quality issues with the data and results in   unreliable reporting of our sales pipeline , therefore eﬀecting forecasting . 

 Tool Selection & Application : The tool I selected to highlight in this assignment was Visualization . I selected this tool to   achieve a shared understanding of the problem among a diverse group of stakeholders . By   oﬀering images of our ten - step sales process and of the variations of how diﬀerent   stakeholders were interpreting the stages , I am seeking to create a common understanding of   the problem through visualization . Getting all parties to understand the problem in the same   way   is paramount in deﬁning “ what is ” in order to generate useful ideation and insight during   the “ what if ” process . I will also use visualization later on in the process to illustrate the new   options of the sales process when we seek to determine “ what wows ” . 

 Two representatives from each of the stakeholder groups listed above were involved in the   “ what is ” session . Each were presented with a graphical representation of the sales process on   a piece of paper . They were asked to deﬁne in their own words the diﬀerent stages . This was   an exercise that helped to further understand the variation in how stages were interpreted and   provided great insight on possible trends and ﬁxes during the “ what if ” session . When we got   to “ what wows ” we provided the team with three diﬀerent models of new processes , all had   color coding and easily identiﬁable shapes that helped users properly interpret and identify the   stages . 

 Insight & Approach : The visualization tool allowed me to extract some very useful insights . In fact the visualization   tool we used ended up becoming part of the solution to the problem . By utilizing colors and   shapes in the prototypes of new sales process stages , stakeholders were able to more easily   interpret the stages and reduce the amount of variability between members . But more than that   the visualization were essential in helping everyone understand the issue in the same way so   that the stakeholders could generate good feedback about why the sales stages were not   working and ideate good solutions . For example we were able to focus in on two stages that   were especially problematic when we illustrated the multiple interpretations that these two   stages received from diﬀerent stakeholders . The illustration used to present to the group during   the “ What wows ” stage was extremely eﬀective in helping compare options and interpret the   diﬀerences in the solution . 

 An alternative approach that we might have used for this exercise using visualization would be   to have the participants draw their interpretation of the existing sales process from scratch   instead of providing it to them . This might have given us some diﬀerent insights when just   getting started as is might have demonstrated more variation , or the way that members   thought of the process could have been more deeply revealed . This demonstrates that   visualization as a tool can be varied by how much freedom or responsibility you give to the   participant . For example , are you giving them an illustration to interpret or asking them to   create an illustration based on their interpretation ? 

 Result : Ultimately , we were able to arrive at a new more simpliﬁed sales process that all stakeholders   understood and deﬁned in the same way . Team members were now able to consistently   categorize their stage in the process consistently . This resulted in signiﬁcant improvements in   reporting and forecasting accuracy , which is a huge win for our company when it comes to 

 Reﬂection Exercise - Visualization 

 hitting our quarterly revenue estimates . The visualization tool used during our design thinking   sessions to create the new solution was paramount in helping us arrive at the right solution .
### Output: 