High-Impact Process Improvements Using Design Thinking

Have you ever wondered if there’s a better way to introduce process improvements that have high impact??

We often hear ‘design’ and ‘design thinking’ being applied in building products, but they are actually not limited to tangible products.? They are relevant to process improvements, too.?

After all, design thinking is a means to solve problems. It is not only limited to its usual application in creating marketing campaigns or building apps?– we can also use?design thinking to identify gaps and discover new solutions to make our processes more efficient.?

Design Thinking’s Relevance to Process Improvements

Design thinking is a human-centered approach to innovation. It provides a framework to deeply understand your customers and their unique needs. By gathering insights directly from and about them, we gain a clear picture of both the customer (who you're solving for) and the core problem (what needs solving).?

The entire idea behind design thinking is about solving problems and designing solutions for the customer.? If you are someone who’s keen on addressing your customer’s frustrations, design thinking is a way to gain clarity about the problem to be solved.?

Applying Design Thinking to Action?

That’s how Aspen Business Solutions, Inc. , the shared services team supporting internal clients from the Gokongwei Group, took the challenge of solving customer pain points and business challenges during season 5 of Launchbox, the Gokongwei Group corporate innovation program.???

Launchbox learners from Aspen went through four fast-paced months of solving their business challenges guided by the design thinking framework.?

Participating teams from Aspen embarked on their Launchbox journey to improve how they serve their clients.? With the support of faculty and coaches from JG Summit DTO, four teams from Aspen Business Solutions went through the stages of design thinking to achieve their desired outcomes.??

The Process of Designing for the Customer?

The team worked on improving their services by putting their customers at the core of their processes.???

1) Knowing who the team is designing a process for.

Launchbox learners experienced performing activities normally associated with hardcore research:??

• Conducting interviews and surveys to collect quantitative and qualitative research data?
• Creating user personas, customer journey maps, and service blueprints to clearly understand customers’ goals and behaviors and what they go through??

2) Framing the right problem to help identify the right solution.?

The learners did not immediately create what the interviewees and survey respondents asked for; instead, they took the effort to understand customers’ underlying motivations vis-a-vis customers’ goals.????

3) Generating ideas.?

To identify what’s feasible, desirable, and viable, a series of ideation sessions followed.?

4) Moving towards progress, not perfection.??

Launchbox learners then tested their ideas by producing prototypes that were inexpensive and of smaller scale, to see if their ideas worked.? For example, for teams who wanted to reduce steps in a lengthy process, they focused on reducing the steps that were within their control.??

5) Listening to the actual customers’ feedback whether the ideas work or not.?

The teams were not just in touch with the customers during the interviews and surveys; they partnered with their customers in every step so that whatever they co-created would be valuable to both the business and the customer.??

The results:?

• Team BTS from Central Data Management reduced the time spent on generating monthly operations report.?
• Team Kopi from Accounting reduced financial closing cycle while maintaining data accuracy and achieving customer satisfaction rating of 5/5.?
• Team Swift from Accounts Payable reduced the turnaround time for media billings.?
• Team Sana All from Human Resources made the employee benefit inquiry process more accessible for plant employees.? Among the customers, 83% said it was easy to request PhilHealth and 90% said it was easy to find how to file for a loan.?

Prioritizing the Customer from the Beginning

It will be a waste of resources to create a process or a product that no one will use.? With design thinking, we can minimize this risk by prioritizing customer needs from the very beginning. By understanding our customers and iterating solutions based on their feedback, we can introduce a product or a process improvement that solves a real problem.???

Using design thinking to introduce process changes gives organizations a clearer understanding of the entire customer journey and prioritizes customer empathy to create high-impact improvements.?

#WeAreTheGokongweiGroup #GokongweiGroupLaunchbox #designthinking #processimprovement #experiencedesign