The Visualization Tool as Meta Language 

 Challenge 

 In my company , we are developing technical products . As an engineer , I sometimes have the   feeling of speaking another language than my business colleagues . For the technical design of   a product , the technical and economic aspects of the product must be taken into account . This   presents the challenge of developing a concept in an interdisciplinary team by speaking the   same language . Words within the different domains can have different meanings , are too   domain specific or describe techniques , that are not known to the others . Therefore , I decided   to use a design thinking tool to meet the challenge . 

 Selection 

 The visualization tool seemed to be the right tool . Instead of the spoken business or technical   language we used a meta level language , the language of visualization . Unique Maya already   introduced different ways how to visualize what one is thinking , including drawings , photos ,   videos and PowerPoint slides . Especially the PowerPoint slides were , what I was already used   to . But for the workshop I created , my decision was that every non - digital visualization should   be allowed , so that we are able to pin them to the wall and relocate them as needed . With   this tool each party is forced to simplify their expressions in a form of a visualization that they   feel comfortable . 

 Application 

 The first workshop took way longer than we planned . The business economists draw   customers , how the customers interact with our product , what the product outputs and at   which point in the process of interaction the customer needs to pay for our service . While we   ( engineers ) draw how the actions flow through our architecture , where data flows into which   direction and so on . It was fun to stand in front of a large picture of our product and to directly   interact with the specifications being made by the business economists . Afterwards I   transferred our drawings into a PowerPoint slide , which served as our first specification of   interfaces and architecture . 

 In further workshops the economists began to bring pictures form talks with customers into   our workshops . Some of the pictures could directly being pinned to our product wall . This and   that we got used to the process of drawing those pictures made our workshops faster and   therefore more efficient . But never the less , over the development phase of the product some   readjustments of the product design were still needed . 

 Insights 

 This tool helped me to think about , what really matters . For example , on programming   framework can be used for many different functions , but if I need to draw a picture of that   framework , only the most important function matters . Furthermore , interacting with my   business colleagues by using visualizations helped to understand , what they are trying to solve   and sometimes what our misunderstandings where . The result , a large picture of the product ,   even helped us developing the product . Having a visualization instead of a written   specification makes the task more comprehensible . 

 Approach 

 The visualization tool is now accepted and the most used tool when we specify our functions   with the economists . It is now also being used by the economists to clear the specifications   with our customers , which has the positive effect that we can use those visualizations directly   in our later process . 

 The problem with the simplification of using a visualization for our specifications is , that they   can more easily being interpreted in a manner , which can fast be fulfilled but might leak in   quality . For this , I think about additionally using the story telling tool , to define stories , which   need to be fulfilled by the product . That can be stories , how a customer uses the product or   stories of customer experiences which should not take place . 


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: The Visualization Tool as Meta Language 

 Challenge 

 In my company , we are developing technical products . As an engineer , I sometimes have the   feeling of speaking another language than my business colleagues . For the technical design of   a product , the technical and economic aspects of the product must be taken into account . This   presents the challenge of developing a concept in an interdisciplinary team by speaking the   same language . Words within the different domains can have different meanings , are too   domain specific or describe techniques , that are not known to the others . Therefore , I decided   to use a design thinking tool to meet the challenge . 

 Selection 

 The visualization tool seemed to be the right tool . Instead of the spoken business or technical   language we used a meta level language , the language of visualization . Unique Maya already   introduced different ways how to visualize what one is thinking , including drawings , photos ,   videos and PowerPoint slides . Especially the PowerPoint slides were , what I was already used   to . But for the workshop I created , my decision was that every non - digital visualization should   be allowed , so that we are able to pin them to the wall and relocate them as needed . With   this tool each party is forced to simplify their expressions in a form of a visualization that they   feel comfortable . 

 Application 

 The first workshop took way longer than we planned . The business economists draw   customers , how the customers interact with our product , what the product outputs and at   which point in the process of interaction the customer needs to pay for our service . While we   ( engineers ) draw how the actions flow through our architecture , where data flows into which   direction and so on . It was fun to stand in front of a large picture of our product and to directly   interact with the specifications being made by the business economists . Afterwards I   transferred our drawings into a PowerPoint slide , which served as our first specification of   interfaces and architecture . 

 In further workshops the economists began to bring pictures form talks with customers into   our workshops . Some of the pictures could directly being pinned to our product wall . This and   that we got used to the process of drawing those pictures made our workshops faster and   therefore more efficient . But never the less , over the development phase of the product some   readjustments of the product design were still needed . 

 Insights 

 This tool helped me to think about , what really matters . For example , on programming   framework can be used for many different functions , but if I need to draw a picture of that   framework , only the most important function matters . Furthermore , interacting with my   business colleagues by using visualizations helped to understand , what they are trying to solve   and sometimes what our misunderstandings where . The result , a large picture of the product ,   even helped us developing the product . Having a visualization instead of a written   specification makes the task more comprehensible . 

 Approach 

 The visualization tool is now accepted and the most used tool when we specify our functions   with the economists . It is now also being used by the economists to clear the specifications   with our customers , which has the positive effect that we can use those visualizations directly   in our later process . 

 The problem with the simplification of using a visualization for our specifications is , that they   can more easily being interpreted in a manner , which can fast be fulfilled but might leak in   quality . For this , I think about additionally using the story telling tool , to define stories , which   need to be fulfilled by the product . That can be stories , how a customer uses the product or   stories of customer experiences which should not take place .
### Output: 