Visualization to Align Clients 

 Challenge & Selection : 

 Being a consultant , I often have to work with a variety of clients who may be at various levels within the company and have different perspectives on a problem . While many of my clients are mid - level managers , often there are also more junior resources as well as executives . Often I find that the most difficult part is not coming up with a solution , but getting everyone to agree on what the problem is in the first place . This is because everyone in the organization is looking at the problem through different lense . A junior resource may only look at the problem from a physical angle ( what actions a customer takes ) while an executive or mid - level resource may look at it from a financial or objective level ( was the customer able to do what they wanted to ) . In addition to the clients , the type of customer that the client deals with as well as the channels that they use can vary as well . Given the variety of clients and customers who can be involved in a single engagement , getting everybody on the same page as to what the problem and possible solution may be can be difficult . 

 I found visualization , especially from a storytelling perspective of the customer , can significantly aidin aligning clients around how a customer interacts and wear pain points may be .   Because most clients are used to thinking of customer experience more in terms of data and other non - tangible items , having them think about what a customer goes through really helps them reflect on the human aspect of the customer rather than just the numerical aspect .   What thisl helps is really getting to the root of the problem that they 're trying to solve rather than making guesses and inferences to what the problem may be . 

 Application 

 My standard tool is a whiteboard .   Generally when I go into these meetings I will have done background research and reviewed any material the client has provided to me .   In addition I tal to my main stakeholder and understand their perspective of the problem so I have a base to work from . I may also map out a draft customer journey in my head to make sure I understand the major interaction points with customer has . When possible I also like to have selected 

 images from the web to help me illustrate various aspects of the customer to help clients empathize during the actual meeting . So for example if the situation is that a customer is calling in from home , depending on the problem the client is trying to address I may , for example , find an image of somebody on the phone with children running around in the background to illustrate that the customer has multiple things going on at the same time . 

 During the actual meeting I will ask an open question around the customer and based on the answer use the white board to start mapping out the customer and customer journey .   If , let ’s say , it is a doctor ’s office , I will draw out a stick figure to represent the patient , or two stick figures one with a cane to illustrate a person bringing their older parent in .   I will then draw out vital aspects of the customer ’s journey .   Where to they check in , where do they wait , etc .   I will use my preselected images , if they help drive the conversation or consider different aspects . My end goal is that at the end of the meeting everyone is aligned around who the customer is , and what steps they take to achieve what the business wants them to .   This highlights what channel they use and what pain points they face . Ultimately this makes the next step of identify appropriate solutions much washer and efficient . 

 Insights and Approach 

 When I first started doing this it was n't a result of truly understanding what visualization was but it was to address the immediate problem that I was having which was to get everybody on the same page .    What I have learned is that using visualization , my clients start looking at the problem from the perspective of the customer .   They go from asking questions like , “ why does it take 10 minutes to check someone in ” to asking questions like “ why does a patient need to see 3 people to get fully checked in ” or “ why is the check - in desk in the corner where you ca n’t see it from the entryway ” .   This not only helps them solve the business problem at hand , but also helps them identify ways to make the overall customer experience easier , and that is the important part because people have a lot of options today and they are going to choose companies that make their overall experience better . 

 I 've used this technique though throughout my career and continue to refine it as I learned from each experience .   This course also helped me put a more structured approach to some of these ideas of how to make what I do from a visualization perspective better .   For example the use of colors and at times even patterns to help steer and guide clients and identify problems in a more structured manner . 


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: Visualization to Align Clients 

 Challenge & Selection : 

 Being a consultant , I often have to work with a variety of clients who may be at various levels within the company and have different perspectives on a problem . While many of my clients are mid - level managers , often there are also more junior resources as well as executives . Often I find that the most difficult part is not coming up with a solution , but getting everyone to agree on what the problem is in the first place . This is because everyone in the organization is looking at the problem through different lense . A junior resource may only look at the problem from a physical angle ( what actions a customer takes ) while an executive or mid - level resource may look at it from a financial or objective level ( was the customer able to do what they wanted to ) . In addition to the clients , the type of customer that the client deals with as well as the channels that they use can vary as well . Given the variety of clients and customers who can be involved in a single engagement , getting everybody on the same page as to what the problem and possible solution may be can be difficult . 

 I found visualization , especially from a storytelling perspective of the customer , can significantly aidin aligning clients around how a customer interacts and wear pain points may be .   Because most clients are used to thinking of customer experience more in terms of data and other non - tangible items , having them think about what a customer goes through really helps them reflect on the human aspect of the customer rather than just the numerical aspect .   What thisl helps is really getting to the root of the problem that they 're trying to solve rather than making guesses and inferences to what the problem may be . 

 Application 

 My standard tool is a whiteboard .   Generally when I go into these meetings I will have done background research and reviewed any material the client has provided to me .   In addition I tal to my main stakeholder and understand their perspective of the problem so I have a base to work from . I may also map out a draft customer journey in my head to make sure I understand the major interaction points with customer has . When possible I also like to have selected 

 images from the web to help me illustrate various aspects of the customer to help clients empathize during the actual meeting . So for example if the situation is that a customer is calling in from home , depending on the problem the client is trying to address I may , for example , find an image of somebody on the phone with children running around in the background to illustrate that the customer has multiple things going on at the same time . 

 During the actual meeting I will ask an open question around the customer and based on the answer use the white board to start mapping out the customer and customer journey .   If , let ’s say , it is a doctor ’s office , I will draw out a stick figure to represent the patient , or two stick figures one with a cane to illustrate a person bringing their older parent in .   I will then draw out vital aspects of the customer ’s journey .   Where to they check in , where do they wait , etc .   I will use my preselected images , if they help drive the conversation or consider different aspects . My end goal is that at the end of the meeting everyone is aligned around who the customer is , and what steps they take to achieve what the business wants them to .   This highlights what channel they use and what pain points they face . Ultimately this makes the next step of identify appropriate solutions much washer and efficient . 

 Insights and Approach 

 When I first started doing this it was n't a result of truly understanding what visualization was but it was to address the immediate problem that I was having which was to get everybody on the same page .    What I have learned is that using visualization , my clients start looking at the problem from the perspective of the customer .   They go from asking questions like , “ why does it take 10 minutes to check someone in ” to asking questions like “ why does a patient need to see 3 people to get fully checked in ” or “ why is the check - in desk in the corner where you ca n’t see it from the entryway ” .   This not only helps them solve the business problem at hand , but also helps them identify ways to make the overall customer experience easier , and that is the important part because people have a lot of options today and they are going to choose companies that make their overall experience better . 

 I 've used this technique though throughout my career and continue to refine it as I learned from each experience .   This course also helped me put a more structured approach to some of these ideas of how to make what I do from a visualization perspective better .   For example the use of colors and at times even patterns to help steer and guide clients and identify problems in a more structured manner .
### Output: 