Reflection – Visualisation and optimisation – not just finding ‘ the common ground ’ 

 Challenge 

 Exponential growth in data , the proliferation of information sources and repositories , the ever- intensifying cyber threat and more stringent legal and regulatory requirements have intensified the   criticality of robust information security across both the private and public sectors . 

 I am working with teams of specialist information security architects and accreditors to design new   ways of working that will allow them to satisfy this ever - increasing demand .   The teams come from   several government departments . The primary objective is to create collaborative teams working in   innovative ways to support the information security requirements of multiple government customer   groups . 

 The immediate challenge was not to take the ‘ best elements ’ of the individual teams ’ current ways   of working or to coalesce around existing best practice , but to find new and innovative ways to   deliver the increasing and diversifying workload . The challenge was also to address the ‘ not invented   here ’ risk that could undermine innovation , progress and future implementation . [ See :   Design   Thinking for Innovation > Week 4 > Strategic Opportunities > Strategic Contribution # 2 ( Satisficing   versus optimising ) . ] 

 Selection 

 We had carried out a knowledge sharing exercise in which we had compared the current ways of   working of the individual teams ( ‘ What is ? ’ ) .   We had completed a short ‘ what would great look and   feel like ’ exercise and identified a set of high - level design criteria .   We now wanted to develop   concepts and candidate ideas that could then be assessed and tested ( ‘ What wows ? ’ ) . 

 Visualisation was chosen to break away from the previous mechanistic and process led discussions   and to drive a more creative way of generating new thinking and ideas . [ See : Design Thinking for   Innovation > Week 1 > Visualization Tool . ] 

 Application 

 Through two workshops , we examined the Information Security services the teams provide . There   was no imposed way of doing the design thinking although we had agreed we would ‘ picture and   draw it ’ rather than talk and then write up people ’s ideas . 

 Using two flip charts , a large white board , marker pens and post - its and starting with a single and   common service area we depicted , with no limitations , how the service could be delivered . We had   no obvious ‘ artist ’ in the room , but using basic drawings , sketches and annotations the progress was   swift and unconstrained . The resulting visualisations consisted of cartoons , high - level process maps ,   spider diagrams , callouts and annotations , a layered service model diagram , basic organisational   hierarchies and service timelines . 

 Insight 

 Visualisation drove and accelerated the creative process and increased team engagement . The   outputs included several potential innovative design ideas that could be considered and refined in a   ‘ What wows ? ’ phase . The design ideas were not just a recycling of existing ways of doing work but   incorporated genuinely different ways of tackling current issues . As importantly , the resulting design 

 ideas were not based on an individual teams ’ experiences or agendas but were developed and   owned by the whole group . 

 Visualisation proved to be a powerful tool : it succeeded in breaking down barriers , distancing the   past ways of working from the future and created a blank canvas onto which unconstrained designs   could be captured .   The team are now keen to use real - life business scenarios and customer   journeys to test and refine their emerging innovative design ideas before moving to prototyping . 

 Approach 

 I introduced visualisation at this point of the project to differentiate between the factual work   ( assessing existing ways of working ) and moving to a more creative phase thinking and focussing on   the future design ( ‘ What is ? ’ to ‘ What if ? ’ ) . However , the potential of visualisation can be anticipated   throughout the whole design thinking and innovation journey . 

 A point of learning is that not everyone understands and easily interprets pictures . There is a crucial   need to embrace this diversity of thinking .   I believe that combining visualisation with storytelling   and customer scenarios would help translate pictorial representations , making them more   meaningful to a wider audience .   This in turn will provide further validation , deeper design   robustness and result in even stronger design products . 


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 – Visualisation and optimisation – not just finding ‘ the common ground ’ 

 Challenge 

 Exponential growth in data , the proliferation of information sources and repositories , the ever- intensifying cyber threat and more stringent legal and regulatory requirements have intensified the   criticality of robust information security across both the private and public sectors . 

 I am working with teams of specialist information security architects and accreditors to design new   ways of working that will allow them to satisfy this ever - increasing demand .   The teams come from   several government departments . The primary objective is to create collaborative teams working in   innovative ways to support the information security requirements of multiple government customer   groups . 

 The immediate challenge was not to take the ‘ best elements ’ of the individual teams ’ current ways   of working or to coalesce around existing best practice , but to find new and innovative ways to   deliver the increasing and diversifying workload . The challenge was also to address the ‘ not invented   here ’ risk that could undermine innovation , progress and future implementation . [ See :   Design   Thinking for Innovation > Week 4 > Strategic Opportunities > Strategic Contribution # 2 ( Satisficing   versus optimising ) . ] 

 Selection 

 We had carried out a knowledge sharing exercise in which we had compared the current ways of   working of the individual teams ( ‘ What is ? ’ ) .   We had completed a short ‘ what would great look and   feel like ’ exercise and identified a set of high - level design criteria .   We now wanted to develop   concepts and candidate ideas that could then be assessed and tested ( ‘ What wows ? ’ ) . 

 Visualisation was chosen to break away from the previous mechanistic and process led discussions   and to drive a more creative way of generating new thinking and ideas . [ See : Design Thinking for   Innovation > Week 1 > Visualization Tool . ] 

 Application 

 Through two workshops , we examined the Information Security services the teams provide . There   was no imposed way of doing the design thinking although we had agreed we would ‘ picture and   draw it ’ rather than talk and then write up people ’s ideas . 

 Using two flip charts , a large white board , marker pens and post - its and starting with a single and   common service area we depicted , with no limitations , how the service could be delivered . We had   no obvious ‘ artist ’ in the room , but using basic drawings , sketches and annotations the progress was   swift and unconstrained . The resulting visualisations consisted of cartoons , high - level process maps ,   spider diagrams , callouts and annotations , a layered service model diagram , basic organisational   hierarchies and service timelines . 

 Insight 

 Visualisation drove and accelerated the creative process and increased team engagement . The   outputs included several potential innovative design ideas that could be considered and refined in a   ‘ What wows ? ’ phase . The design ideas were not just a recycling of existing ways of doing work but   incorporated genuinely different ways of tackling current issues . As importantly , the resulting design 

 ideas were not based on an individual teams ’ experiences or agendas but were developed and   owned by the whole group . 

 Visualisation proved to be a powerful tool : it succeeded in breaking down barriers , distancing the   past ways of working from the future and created a blank canvas onto which unconstrained designs   could be captured .   The team are now keen to use real - life business scenarios and customer   journeys to test and refine their emerging innovative design ideas before moving to prototyping . 

 Approach 

 I introduced visualisation at this point of the project to differentiate between the factual work   ( assessing existing ways of working ) and moving to a more creative phase thinking and focussing on   the future design ( ‘ What is ? ’ to ‘ What if ? ’ ) . However , the potential of visualisation can be anticipated   throughout the whole design thinking and innovation journey . 

 A point of learning is that not everyone understands and easily interprets pictures . There is a crucial   need to embrace this diversity of thinking .   I believe that combining visualisation with storytelling   and customer scenarios would help translate pictorial representations , making them more   meaningful to a wider audience .   This in turn will provide further validation , deeper design   robustness and result in even stronger design products .
### Output: 