Reflection – Visualization 

 Challenge 

 Working in the banking sector , you get used quickly with complex flows created in time , due to the size   and structure of the organization and to heavy regulation . This can lead to staff not having the wide   picture , to clients not being served quick enough and to errors . One of the flows we decided to review   and simplify was : campaigns for complex investment products . 8 teams were involved into the flow until   the product reached the clients – each of them appearing and reappearing at different points – and 5   teams were involved for processing of the transactions and documentation . There were errors occurring   and several manual tasks . 

 Selection 

 In the process of reviewing and simplifying the flow , we used visualization , as we needed for all the   members of the project team to get to the same image for the initial and final flow . Otherwise , each of   them would have in mind only their part of the flow and their issues . 

 Application 

 We created a project team to address this optimization , one person from each team involved in the flow   was part of it . Initially , the problem we aimed at solving was inaccurate documentation and lack of checks ,   which was thought to be caused by lack of front officers ’ attention given to this subject . With all of their   input , we managed to draw the current flow on the board and highlighted the problematic areas which   we noted to be much more than we initially thought ( documentation going back and forth , no automatic   checks for basic information and list of documents , front officers having too many tasks , manual reports ,   etc ) . After the first meeting , the flow was drafted on the computer in order to have it available at any time   and help us identify more potential optimizations . It became clear that some tasks were doubled or could   be performed by another team to reduce time . 

 After few meetings and several iterations of new flow drawing , the project team was able to come up   with a new , simplified , much more automatized flow and also with much better understanding of other ’s   tasks and roles . Practically , the documentation to be sent to the clients became more standardized ( some   teams ’ inputs were not necessary anymore ) ; in terms of processing – once the front officer had all the   information for one subscription with just one button push several automatic checks were done , the deals   were input and the reports were done ; some double tasks were discovered and eliminated . The number   of teams involved was reduced to 4 for the creation part and 3 for the processing , but even their tasks   were heavily reduced . 

 Insight 

 By applying the visualization tool , the initial status was identified and the ideal one was drawn . One of the   most important gains is that the mindset of the people involved into the flow was changed to see also the   issues others have and to understand the importance of certain tasks – visualizing the entire picture was   key . The results were better than what we initially aimed for , as not only issues with the documentation   were addressed , but much more , and it was seen that the errors made in front office were caused by too   many tasks . 

 Approach 

 After taking this course , I am even more confident that visualization is a very important and helpful tool   to be used . It ’s so simple , but so effective - maybe due to its simplicity we sometimes tend not to use it   and concentrate on more complex tools . 


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 – Visualization 

 Challenge 

 Working in the banking sector , you get used quickly with complex flows created in time , due to the size   and structure of the organization and to heavy regulation . This can lead to staff not having the wide   picture , to clients not being served quick enough and to errors . One of the flows we decided to review   and simplify was : campaigns for complex investment products . 8 teams were involved into the flow until   the product reached the clients – each of them appearing and reappearing at different points – and 5   teams were involved for processing of the transactions and documentation . There were errors occurring   and several manual tasks . 

 Selection 

 In the process of reviewing and simplifying the flow , we used visualization , as we needed for all the   members of the project team to get to the same image for the initial and final flow . Otherwise , each of   them would have in mind only their part of the flow and their issues . 

 Application 

 We created a project team to address this optimization , one person from each team involved in the flow   was part of it . Initially , the problem we aimed at solving was inaccurate documentation and lack of checks ,   which was thought to be caused by lack of front officers ’ attention given to this subject . With all of their   input , we managed to draw the current flow on the board and highlighted the problematic areas which   we noted to be much more than we initially thought ( documentation going back and forth , no automatic   checks for basic information and list of documents , front officers having too many tasks , manual reports ,   etc ) . After the first meeting , the flow was drafted on the computer in order to have it available at any time   and help us identify more potential optimizations . It became clear that some tasks were doubled or could   be performed by another team to reduce time . 

 After few meetings and several iterations of new flow drawing , the project team was able to come up   with a new , simplified , much more automatized flow and also with much better understanding of other ’s   tasks and roles . Practically , the documentation to be sent to the clients became more standardized ( some   teams ’ inputs were not necessary anymore ) ; in terms of processing – once the front officer had all the   information for one subscription with just one button push several automatic checks were done , the deals   were input and the reports were done ; some double tasks were discovered and eliminated . The number   of teams involved was reduced to 4 for the creation part and 3 for the processing , but even their tasks   were heavily reduced . 

 Insight 

 By applying the visualization tool , the initial status was identified and the ideal one was drawn . One of the   most important gains is that the mindset of the people involved into the flow was changed to see also the   issues others have and to understand the importance of certain tasks – visualizing the entire picture was   key . The results were better than what we initially aimed for , as not only issues with the documentation   were addressed , but much more , and it was seen that the errors made in front office were caused by too   many tasks . 

 Approach 

 After taking this course , I am even more confident that visualization is a very important and helpful tool   to be used . It ’s so simple , but so effective - maybe due to its simplicity we sometimes tend not to use it   and concentrate on more complex tools .
### Output: 