Data Reporting Challenge - Discovering “ What Is ” 

 Challenge 

 For one of our software product line which is doing reasonably well , senior management wanted to   further increase its market penetration and hence generate more revenue . Multiple areas of   improvements were identified to further explore and come out with recommendation . I was asked to   work on   improving data reporting functionality ( one of the feature in software product ) as there were   number of challenges with respect to number of reports being built , there maintainability and how   users ’ needs were being fulfilled . There are multiple departments and teams involved in building and   delivering this software to customers . This includes Sales and marketing , product management ,   Engineering , customer services and production and support groups . So the key challenge for me was to   understand the current state “ What Is ” to effectively find the possible opportunities to improve   customer experience about data reporting . 

 Selection 

 I was completely new to the product line and how it is being delivered to customers . So I was finding it   really difficult to identify how to gather the real insight into the current state ( What is ) and possible   opportunities to improve . There were multiple stakeholders ( geographically distributed ) involved right   from the starting of delivering customer reporting needs as sales and proposal team to customer   services to maintenance group and also the product engineering group but I was n’t clear on each ones   role and current scope . Considering above situation I decided to use the visualization techniques in   conjunction with short interviews with all key stakeholders across the department to really understand   and visualize the current customer experience on how their reporting needs are being delivered   currently ( discovering the critical “ What is ” part ) . Also using visual diagrams will help avoid any   communication gap especially when interviewing remotely . 

 Application 

 First I build the list of groups / departments / programs and key stakeholders involved in it . I met with each   of the key stakeholders in each area and used standard interview questions to understand their   perspective / process and insights on addressing / solving customer reporting needs through the existing   software product line and what were their pain problems .   During the course of the discussion , I   gathered key events driving some action and build the business process steps that each group was   performing to serve the customer needs .   Then I created a high level Swimlane diagram with these   groups / departments and programs and tried to connect the process events from each group to build   the end to end flow .   In some cases I used brainstorming diagrams to graphically represent stakeholders   thought process , pain areas and there view on solving the problems . 

 Insight and Approach- 

 It was an overwhelming experience . Event process diagrams gave me and all key stakeholder full insight   about how customer ’s data reporting needs are being addressed going through number of process steps   across department . It also highlighted some very fundamental gaps between what each   department / group perceived the need was and how it was being fulfilled . For Ex . Sales / marketing   considered that software has inbuilt standard reports available and does n’t need any additional effort   ( part of standard offering ) but in fact customer services group was building these reports every time for   new customer resulting into duplicated work every time . Brainstorming diagrams surfaced some pain   areas which have been there for quite some time but not being addressed . For example , customer has   to login to multiple application instances to gather the data they need and then collate outside of   system which is frustrating and time consuming . So above information will really be useful for my next   steps on discovering “ What If ” part . I am thinking of using mindmaps and workshops to bring the   different stakeholders from different department together and further brainstorm on the findings and   identify some design criterion and potential opportunities to help improve reporting functionality in   system and customer experience about it . 


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: Data Reporting Challenge - Discovering “ What Is ” 

 Challenge 

 For one of our software product line which is doing reasonably well , senior management wanted to   further increase its market penetration and hence generate more revenue . Multiple areas of   improvements were identified to further explore and come out with recommendation . I was asked to   work on   improving data reporting functionality ( one of the feature in software product ) as there were   number of challenges with respect to number of reports being built , there maintainability and how   users ’ needs were being fulfilled . There are multiple departments and teams involved in building and   delivering this software to customers . This includes Sales and marketing , product management ,   Engineering , customer services and production and support groups . So the key challenge for me was to   understand the current state “ What Is ” to effectively find the possible opportunities to improve   customer experience about data reporting . 

 Selection 

 I was completely new to the product line and how it is being delivered to customers . So I was finding it   really difficult to identify how to gather the real insight into the current state ( What is ) and possible   opportunities to improve . There were multiple stakeholders ( geographically distributed ) involved right   from the starting of delivering customer reporting needs as sales and proposal team to customer   services to maintenance group and also the product engineering group but I was n’t clear on each ones   role and current scope . Considering above situation I decided to use the visualization techniques in   conjunction with short interviews with all key stakeholders across the department to really understand   and visualize the current customer experience on how their reporting needs are being delivered   currently ( discovering the critical “ What is ” part ) . Also using visual diagrams will help avoid any   communication gap especially when interviewing remotely . 

 Application 

 First I build the list of groups / departments / programs and key stakeholders involved in it . I met with each   of the key stakeholders in each area and used standard interview questions to understand their   perspective / process and insights on addressing / solving customer reporting needs through the existing   software product line and what were their pain problems .   During the course of the discussion , I   gathered key events driving some action and build the business process steps that each group was   performing to serve the customer needs .   Then I created a high level Swimlane diagram with these   groups / departments and programs and tried to connect the process events from each group to build   the end to end flow .   In some cases I used brainstorming diagrams to graphically represent stakeholders   thought process , pain areas and there view on solving the problems . 

 Insight and Approach- 

 It was an overwhelming experience . Event process diagrams gave me and all key stakeholder full insight   about how customer ’s data reporting needs are being addressed going through number of process steps   across department . It also highlighted some very fundamental gaps between what each   department / group perceived the need was and how it was being fulfilled . For Ex . Sales / marketing   considered that software has inbuilt standard reports available and does n’t need any additional effort   ( part of standard offering ) but in fact customer services group was building these reports every time for   new customer resulting into duplicated work every time . Brainstorming diagrams surfaced some pain   areas which have been there for quite some time but not being addressed . For example , customer has   to login to multiple application instances to gather the data they need and then collate outside of   system which is frustrating and time consuming . So above information will really be useful for my next   steps on discovering “ What If ” part . I am thinking of using mindmaps and workshops to bring the   different stakeholders from different department together and further brainstorm on the findings and   identify some design criterion and potential opportunities to help improve reporting functionality in   system and customer experience about it .
### Output: 