Innovative Problem Solving in 5 Steps

=> Agile working methods with Microsoft Teams and Planner

Today's working environment is characterized by complexity and rapid changes. Agile working principles and procedures should help to meet these challenges efficiently and goal-oriented. In doing so, the focus is on the people and thus also on the customer. Design Thinking is an agile working method, which is becoming increasingly popular and taking into account these requirements.

Implementing Design Thinking with Microsoft Teams and Planner

Since the approach of Design Thinking is already widespread, I would like to keep the theoretical explanation as concise as possible. For further detailed explanations, I can recommend the following article/PDF download from Stanford University, USA:

Design Thinking Bootleg

Process

In literature, different steps are explained for the Design Thinking process. At its core, however, it is always about the same process, which is very well aligned to the requirements of the agile project management manifesto. Explaining the core process, the following five steps are the most common.

1.      Empathize

Participants of the Design Thinking process (usually 5-8 people) try to put themselves into the customer’s or target group’s view. This will either be done through observation or self-experience. This helps not only to better understand the status-quo, but also to find the ideal solutions.

Point 3 of the Project Management Manifesto focuses on working with the customer. This is the perfect match for this Empathy phase, because this is also the most important principle for Design Thinking – strict user focus.

2.      Define

Based on the information collection, step two defines the problem as precisely as possible in form of a question, e.g. "In What Ways Can We (IWWCW) change process XYZ so that goal A and B can be achieved". An important technique for the Definition phase is also the so-called "point of view", hence, the problem will be defined based on the view of one or even more target groups.

3.      Ideate

This step can be divided into two sub steps:

a) Quantitative idea generation

According to the motto “The more the merrier”, as many creative ideas as possible should be generated in this step. Very important: No evaluation of ideas! And if the idea may sound absurd, it can be taken as a basis for another idea, because "stealing" ideas is allowed.

You still have doubts? Have you heard the story that the innovation for Velcro came from the idea that the legs of many small ants hold together...? You see, very weird ideas really brought up new innovations.

b) Qualitative compaction

Once all the ideas have been collected, they should be categorized, e.g. by point of views, sub-processes, or perhaps by solution quality. Maybe according to the Microsoft principle "The Good, The Bad, The Ugly" there can be a cheap, standard or premium solution. In this process of compaction, only the most promising solutions should be selected and marked separately.

This step addresses point 1 of the agile project management manifesto. Hence, interaction among project members is particularly more important than processes and tools.

4.      Prototype

If the team agreed on a solution, it is necessary to prepare the first drafts. Depending on the tasks, LEGO building blocks or other 3-D models can help, or you can sketch out the solution on corresponding white- or storyboards.

It is easy to see that this is in the sense of point 2 of the Agility Manifesto, so a partially functioning or presentable product is more important than documentation.

5.      Test

The developed prototype must be tested against function and feedback from the team and – even more important – from the customer or target group. Based on this, an iterative process starts to further improve the solution – again and again.

This point is also aligned with the agile project management manifesto: the interaction with the customer, i.e. point 3, as well as the adjustment to changed conditions, i.e. point 4.

How does Microsoft Teams and Planner help

The solutions of our choice can be wonderfully integrated into this process. Steps 1 to 3 are perfectly designed for Teams and Planner. Depending on the problem or solution, Step 4 can also be covered.

1.      Empathize

As I wrote in my post about Scrum Project Management, Microsoft Teams can be used to capture the information, observed from customer or target-group. Using and integrating the OneNote app can make sense. However, due to a couple of limitations, as you can see from Vesa Nopanen's blog, it's not the recommended way. Personally, I would recommend using a Teams channels structure according to the "Point of View". This allows you to discuss observed characteristics in conversations.

Let's take the following example as our problem we would try against Design Thinking process. We have bad customer satisfaction for a software product and want to improve it. It makes sense to observe the problem from three different points of views a) Operational, b) Sales and c) Technical view. Colleagues can collect and share issues through self-experience.

2.      Define

The problem definition is the central element that every project member must always be clear and aware of. I recommend using announcements in the general channel because it is visible to each team member. @Mentioning the team as well as mark the post as "!Important" can be useful, so that everyone is informed and on the same page before it goes into idea finding. Optionally, you can also post this message to related channels or even further Teams (if applicable).

In our example the problem

3.      Ideate

Although physical presence of project participants is always preferable to this process, this may not always be possible for geographically dispersed teams. Long or cost-playing trips can therefore be an "agility inhibitor".

The simple creation of new Planner Cards by typing text followed by the Enter key is fortunately a great function to generate new ideas quickly and easily in only virtually united teams. Each participant sees the ideas popping-up in form of Planner cards on its screen in real time. In this way, new ideas or additional ones based on already submitted ones can be quickly contributed.

The process of quantitative idea generation must not exceed the time limit, which was clearly communicated at the beginning of this phase. This is important to ensure efficient process flow and moving to the next brainstorming part – condensing ideas.

At the beginning of this phase, further task baskets can be defined in Planner, which can represent, for example, a "point of view" or a solution quality. While evaluating feasibility or solution fit for suggested ideas, the most promising approaches can be moved and structured into regarding task baskets.

If several solutions have been found, it’s recommended that the idea “owners” assign themselves on the Planner card and explain further details about their suggested solution in a joint Microsoft Teams meeting. Based on this, a fast Microsoft Forms survey can be used to vote for the best solution. Of course, this voting can also take place directly in the meeting. In this case, however, the result of the vote should be noted down.

4.      Prototyping

Depending on the problem, which should be solved by Design Thinking method, a story- or whiteboard can be sufficient for initial sketches and prototypes. If that’s the case, the Microsoft Whiteboard can be used and integrated directly into Microsoft Teams.

However, if this is not enough and "real" prototypes need to be programmed or built, then at this point you can switch to Scrum or other methods to further follow the process of Prototyping, testing and iterative improvement.

There is one rule over all: You have to live new processes. If proposed approaches are not tried out and repeated on regularly basis to establish a routine, then you won't benefit from the advantages of new methods. This is also exactly the case for Design Thinking.

Restrictions

Since the method of Design Thinking is even widely used, there are several tools, creativity techniques or special approaches for prototyping already available. Especially the clear limitations for Prototyping and Testing phases, where a whiteboard is rarely satisfying, make the demand for other tools necessary. This fact may create some doubts whether Microsoft Teams and Planners are the right tools to use.

Furthermore, uniting people in one room is the core of Design Thinking. Trying to do this remotely may limit collaboration and idea creativity. Managers have to build the right framework to overcome these blockers and engage everyone in the team.

Nevertheless, in my opinion, as well as like shown above, the DT process can nicely be covered with both solutions. And why not trying new ways of work and approaching Design Thinking in the suggested way for some suitable use cases and problems.

Following this attitude, in my point of view, the Design Thinking approach with Teams and Planner is very valuable and can be useful, for example, in smaller teams to work together finding a solution for a specific problem. Hence, working with people – your team’s colleagues – and therefore appreciating their contributions will not only motivates them, but also creates probably better answers to problems, if a manager tries to find a good solution alone.

Hence, do not hesitate! Apply new methods and establish them as routines. Just start and make it easy to follow!

In this sense, have fun trying it out and happy Planning!