- Business satisfaction with IT is low.
- IT and the business have independently evolving strategy, initiatives, and objectives.
- IT often exceeds their predicted project costs and has difficulty meeting the business’ expectations of project quality and time-to-market.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Business needs are unclear or ambiguous.
- IT and the business do not know how to leverage each other’s talent and resources to meet their common goals.
- Not enough steps are taken to fully understand and validate problems.
- IT can’t pivot fast
enough when the business’s needs change.
Impact and Result
Product, service, and process design should always start with an intimate understanding of what the business is trying to accomplish and why it is important.
Apply Design Thinking to Build Empathy With the Business Research & Tools
Start here – read the Executive Brief
Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should apply experience design to partner with the business, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.Besides the small introduction, subscribers and consulting clients within this management domain have access to:
- Apply Design Thinking to Build Empathy With the Business – Phases 1-2
1. Research
Identify goals and objectives for experience design, establish targeted stakeholders, and conduct discovery interviews.
- Apply Design Thinking to Build Empathy With the Business – Phase 1: Research
- Stakeholder Discovery Interview Template
2. Map and iterate
Create the journey map, design a research study to validate your hypotheses, and iterate and ideate around a refined, data-driven understanding of stakeholder problems.
- Apply Design Thinking to Build Empathy With the Business – Phase 2: Map and Iterate
- Journey Map Template
- Research Study Log Tool
Workshop: Apply Design Thinking to Build Empathy With the Business
Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
1 Introduction to Journey Mapping
The Purpose
Understand the method and purpose of journey mapping.
Key Benefits Achieved
Initial understanding of the journey mapping process and the concept of end-user empathy.
Activities
1.1 Introduce team and discuss workshop motivations and goals.
1.2 Discuss overview of journey mapping process.
1.3 Perform journey mapping case study activity.
Outputs
Case Study Deliverables – Journey Map and Empathy Maps
2 Persona Creation
The Purpose
Begin to understand the goals and motivations of your stakeholders using customer segmentation and an empathy mapping exercise.
Key Benefits Achieved
Understand the demographic and psychographic factors driving stakeholder behavior.
Activities
2.1 Discuss psychographic stakeholder segmentation.
2.2 Create empathy maps for four segments.
2.3 Generate problem statements.
2.4 Identify target market.
Outputs
Stakeholder personas
Target market of IT
3 Interview Stakeholders and Start a Journey Map
The Purpose
Get first-hand knowledge of stakeholder needs and start to capture their perspective with a first-iteration journey map.
Key Benefits Achieved
Capture the process stakeholders use to solve problems and empathize with their perspectives, pains, and gains.
Activities
3.1 Review discovery interviewing techniques.
3.2 Review and modify the discovery questionnaire
3.3 Demonstrate stakeholder interview.
3.4 Synthesize learnings and begin creating a journey map.
Outputs
Customized discovery interview template
Results of discovery interviewing
4 Complete the Journey Map and Create a Research Study
The Purpose
Hypothesize the stakeholder journey, identify assumptions, plan a research study to validate your understanding, and ideate around critical junctures in the journey.
Key Benefits Achieved
Understand the stakeholder journey and ideate solutions with the intention of improving their experience with IT.
Activities
4.1 Finish the journey map.
4.2 Identify assumptions and create hypotheses.
4.3 Discuss field research and hypothesis testing.
4.4 Design the research study.
4.5 Discuss concluding remarks and next steps.
Outputs
Completed journey map for one IT process, product, or service
Research study design and action plan