At Being Guided we believe that the high-value, high-touch sell is at its best when the right set of motivated, empowered stakeholders are engaged: buyside and sellside. From a human perspective this means achieving sufficient receptivity and rapport between buyers and sellers.

What folllows is trust leading to truth.

As the name implies: Design Thinking is thinking (and acting) like a designer. Being curious, restless and constantly challenging business-as-usual. It is all about solving problems in a human-oriented way. In order to generate receptivity and rapport, empathy is the key to success.

Our Design Thinking may be thought of as two key elements:

• Method. Iterative stages.
• Execution. Value Engineering added.

Method

Inspired by the Stanford d.school¹ our Design Thinking Method provides six iterative stages: Empathize; Define; Ideate; Prototype; Test; and, Implement. This offers a structured yet flexible framework to better understand users, challenge assumptions and redefine problems.

Empathize
Purpose: Understanding the users and their true needs. In-depth conversation and observation, provides insights into user behaviours, needs, and motivations. This is crucial to ensure that the solution developed genuinely addresses real problems, built on truth, generated from trust.

Define
Purpose: Clearly articulating the problem to be solved. After gathering user insights, define the core problem in a user-centered manner. This stage is about synthesising observations and articulating the problem in a way that guides the creation of a compelling argument for a solution.

Ideate
Purpose: Generating a range of creative ideas to solve the defined problem. This phase involves brainstorming and exploring potential solutions, encouraging out-of-the-box thinking. It's essential for a high-value, high-touch sell, as it embraces creativity in the discovery of effective outcomes.

Prototype
Purpose: Turning ideas into tangible products. Prototyping means a hands-on approach to the rapid transformation of Current State, generating a simpler, more effective Future State with the right solution. Prototyping is crucial for visualising how digital solutions work.

Test
Purpose: Gathering feedback and refining the Prototype. Testing includes formal test automation plus user trials and feedback collection on the solution. This helps in understanding the user experience, identifying issues, and validating the effectiveness of what has been proposed.

Implement
Purpose: Finalising the solution and launching it. The final stage involves finalising the solution design based on testing feedback, completing the development, and launching the product or service in question. This ensures that the solution is user-tested and ready for everyday use.

Execution

Design Thinking as a Method requires a hard-edge pragmatic set of rules and practices to deliver a measurable value outcome. This is Execution: Value Engineering, applied throught the six iterative stages of Design Thinking.

Of course, the simplification and transformation of Current State processes, practices and IT systems is hard. In addition to Design Thinking enabling a positive, open and trustful approach to change, it is further reinforced by hard-nosed financial arguments that Value Engineering generates.

This starts with analysing Current State processes, broken-down into individual tasks, sub-tasks and dependent tasks. It includes documenting the inputs, outputs and actors invloved in each task. Other activities include gathering data related to each task, such as time taken, resources used and frequency of execution.

Before moving on to Return On Inverstment (ROI) Modelling, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) should be established. Examples could include:

• Time-to-Completion.
• Cost per Transaction.
• Error Rate.
• Customer Satisfaction Score.

From a financial perspective, we start with a simple question for the buyer: what is the cost of NOT buying the Solution?

Now, let's look at the Return On Investment (ROI) Model - a general formula:

ROI = (Cost of Investment / Net Profit​)×100%

To adapt this formula for an Current State (As-Is) vs. Future State (To-Be) comparison, consider:

Net Profit: This will be the difference in profits between the Future State (To-Be) and the Current State (As-Is).

Cost of Investment: This is the cost incurred to move from the Current State (As-Is) to the Future State (To-Be).

Given the above considerations, the formula becomes:

ROI = (ProfitTo−Be​ − ProfitAs−Is​​ / Cost of Transition) × 100%

Where:

Profit To-Be = Profit or (benefit) in Future StateProfit As-Is = Profit (or benefit) in Current StateCost of Transition = Cost to move from As-Is to To-Be

Note: If you're measuring benefits other than strict monetary profits, such as time saved or other intangible benefits, ensure you can convert these benefits into a monetary value for this to be valid.

To calculate the Return On Investment (ROI) from the Solution. This is where we can formulate several equations. Let's define the variables first:

BVAs-Is = Current State (As-Is) Business Value generated per annum without Solution.

BVTo-Be = Future State (To-Be) Business Value generated per annum after investing in Solution.

COS = Cost of Solution.ROI = Return on Investment as a ratio relative to the Cost of Solution.

CoD = Cost of Delay per day when not investing in Solution.CoDN = Cost of Doing Nothing per day when not investing in Solution.

CoDday = Cost of Delay per day when not investing in Solution.

CoDNday = Cost of Doing Nothing per day when not investing in Solution.

Calculating ROI from Solution: Net_Gain - BVTo-Be - BVAs-Is

Calculating ROI: ROI - Net_Gain - CDI / CDIThe ROI is expressed as a ratio. Multiply by 100 to get a percentage.

Cost of Delay (CoD): This represents the loss per day by delaying the Solution purchase. Assume the delay starts from the beginning of the year and goes on for d days:CoD = BVTo-Be - BV As-Is (d x CoDday) - CDI / CDI

Cost of Doing Nothing (CoDN): This is the loss per day for not implementing the Solution. Similarly, for d days:CoDN = BVAs-Is - (d x CoDNday) - CDI / CDI

References

1. Stanford d.school. https://dschool.stanford.edu/about