Design Thinking for Innovation 

 by University of Virginia 

 Instructor :   Daniela Sangineto 

 Student :   Ruben Soria   matthew72@hotmail.com 

 Course Assignment - Mind Mapping – Integrating Solutions 

 Note :   The following is a true story with many of the details made generic in order to preserve privacy . 

 Challenge 

 Our firm recently acquired a technology company ( TC ) that built a suite of tools and services that serves   a niche market , opening up a new market for our firm .   Within that market , our firm has another   business unit ( BU ) that serves a segment of that niche market with a set of tools and services ( some   similar and some exclusive ) , but within a smaller segmentation of that market .   I was selected to be part   of a team of 6 to evaluate the newly acquired TC to determine if there were tools and/or services that   could be integrated into the BU offering .   Goals include : 

 1 . Keeping the various systems nimble .    2 . Proving the efficacy of the front - end data reporting for existing business .   3 . Exploring the feasibility of pursuing a larger segment of the market . 

 Selection 

 We conducted a dozen interviews with various stakeholders across both business units and other   technology experts .   We collected a large amount of data from those interviews , and chose as our   primary tool Mind Mapping to help aggregate and identify themes in the data . 

 Application 

 Each team member individually took notes from those interviews .   We then identified key terms and   themes from each interview and wrote them on sticky notes .   The team reconvened in a room with a   large white board and we drew a grid with 4 quadrants .   The top two quadrants were goals which were   separated by quotes / defining words and thoughts / beliefs .   The bottom two quadrants were pain points   separated by actions / behaviors and feelings / emotions . 

 Insight 

 Several themes and insights emerged : 

    Data aggregation was a common pain point theme for the BU , but a strength for the TC . 

    Reconciliation and entity accounting was a pain point for the BU , but a strength for the TC . 

    Onboarding complexity , resources and time required was a pain point for the TC , but a strength   for the BU . 

    Inflexibility of componentizing was a pain point for TC , but a strength for the BU . 

    We also discovered there was very little overlap of market segments . 

 From these themes we were able to develop two primary hypotheses for testing : 

    Work with the technology team to integrate both units into a shared platform to expand tools   and services available to the BU .   The BU could then pick the best of breed solutions . 

    Develop an integrated sales team to cross sell offerings from both units . 

 Approach 

 The Mind Mapping process was extremely effective and helpful .   It allowed us to quickly narrow down   the ideas and develop hypotheses for testing .   Additionally , it would be helpful to explore the learning   launch method further to develop some prototypes .   Developing some quick and inexpensive prototype   ideas would help with evaluating our hypotheses without committing large resources . 


EMAIL: matthew72@hotmail.com
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: Ruben Soria
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: Design Thinking for Innovation 

 by University of Virginia 

 Instructor :   Daniela Sangineto 

 Student :   Ruben Soria   matthew72@hotmail.com 

 Course Assignment - Mind Mapping – Integrating Solutions 

 Note :   The following is a true story with many of the details made generic in order to preserve privacy . 

 Challenge 

 Our firm recently acquired a technology company ( TC ) that built a suite of tools and services that serves   a niche market , opening up a new market for our firm .   Within that market , our firm has another   business unit ( BU ) that serves a segment of that niche market with a set of tools and services ( some   similar and some exclusive ) , but within a smaller segmentation of that market .   I was selected to be part   of a team of 6 to evaluate the newly acquired TC to determine if there were tools and/or services that   could be integrated into the BU offering .   Goals include : 

 1 . Keeping the various systems nimble .    2 . Proving the efficacy of the front - end data reporting for existing business .   3 . Exploring the feasibility of pursuing a larger segment of the market . 

 Selection 

 We conducted a dozen interviews with various stakeholders across both business units and other   technology experts .   We collected a large amount of data from those interviews , and chose as our   primary tool Mind Mapping to help aggregate and identify themes in the data . 

 Application 

 Each team member individually took notes from those interviews .   We then identified key terms and   themes from each interview and wrote them on sticky notes .   The team reconvened in a room with a   large white board and we drew a grid with 4 quadrants .   The top two quadrants were goals which were   separated by quotes / defining words and thoughts / beliefs .   The bottom two quadrants were pain points   separated by actions / behaviors and feelings / emotions . 

 Insight 

 Several themes and insights emerged : 

    Data aggregation was a common pain point theme for the BU , but a strength for the TC . 

    Reconciliation and entity accounting was a pain point for the BU , but a strength for the TC . 

    Onboarding complexity , resources and time required was a pain point for the TC , but a strength   for the BU . 

    Inflexibility of componentizing was a pain point for TC , but a strength for the BU . 

    We also discovered there was very little overlap of market segments . 

 From these themes we were able to develop two primary hypotheses for testing : 

    Work with the technology team to integrate both units into a shared platform to expand tools   and services available to the BU .   The BU could then pick the best of breed solutions . 

    Develop an integrated sales team to cross sell offerings from both units . 

 Approach 

 The Mind Mapping process was extremely effective and helpful .   It allowed us to quickly narrow down   the ideas and develop hypotheses for testing .   Additionally , it would be helpful to explore the learning   launch method further to develop some prototypes .   Developing some quick and inexpensive prototype   ideas would help with evaluating our hypotheses without committing large resources .
### Output: 