The Ontario Broker - October 2019 - 27

FIRST STEPS

SETTING THE TABLE

Before getting into the weeds of conducting a design thinking
workshop, the first, often-skipped but most integral part of the process
is correctly diagnosing the business problem you're trying to solve. But
before you say what you think the problem is, ask yourself this: What
type of problem is it?

Ideally, design thinking workshops bring together people with
diverse backgrounds and experience. Participants should be
directly impacted by the solution being discussed or have
relevant knowledge about it. The more varied the skill sets,
the more varied the solutions that develop. However, having
high-level participants is also very constructive, not only for the
cross-functional perspective but for their buy-in of the solution.

Let's say your brokerage's website isn't getting enough traffic. The
type of problem depends on the underlying reason(s) causing it.
*
*

*

Is your website down? This is a critical problem-a short-term
issue with a straightforward fix and not a lot of time for analysis.
Is your website out of date? This is a tame problem-solving
it will be complicated and time consuming to address, but it's
something others have already done, and you can learn from
examples and best practice.
Do millennials even know what a broker is? This is a wicked
problem-they're messy with many possible answers, not
excluding the possibility that there is no answer.

LESS OF A BRAINSTORM, MORE OF A
BRAINHARVEST

Traditional brainstorming has baked-in flaws-often favouring
the loudest voices in the room and leading to groupthink. It can
also end inconclusively, making next steps unclear.
Design workshops create an environment where every
individual contributes original ideas that are fairly deliberated
upon, leading to concrete output. This is made possible through
highly structured exercises.

These three different categories require three different approaches.
Respectively, you're looking for answers, collaboration or ideas.

One of the fundamental elements of these exercises is working
individually and then as a group. Individuals are tasked to
come up with as many solutions as possible, which are then
seen by everyone without knowing whose idea was whose. The
group votes for their favourites, which form a sort of low-tech
heat map of the best ideas and often include unconventional
solutions. Participants then provide their feedback on the
solutions and one is chosen to develop further.

"Focusing on critical and tame problems are where most insurance
executives spend their time, but wicked problems present a
tremendous business opportunity," wrote Richard Verdin, Managing
Director, EMEA, RGAX, in the RGAX blog Wicked Problems: How to
Recognize and Approach Them.
Design thinking workshops are particularly useful for solving
wicked problems. They combine sprint methodology, popularized
in software development with design thinking, which unsurprisingly
comes from design.

Once you've honed in on the possible solution, next is
prototyping. You create a paper prototype that maps the client's
journey using the solution. Through additional rounds of
feedback, you reveal potential flaws and consumer pain points,
as well as feasibility and potential strengths. From here you can
test your prototype on users and gather real-world feedback
before moving into production.

Design thinking is an iterative process that uses a user/client's
understanding to redefine problems, challenge status quo
assumptions and unearth fertile ground for solutions that had
previously been overlooked. While seemingly abstract, it's an
approach formulated to derive solutions that can be implemented
within practical constraints.

"We've run design sprints all over the world with diverse groups
of people," said Jonathan. "But the thing that always surprises
me is that, despite this variety, the emotional experience of the
whole group always follows the same pattern: initial excitement
at the challenge, frustration as we relentlessly focus on the
problem, high creative energy when creating divergent solution
ideas, laser focus as we build the prototype to a tight deadline,
and the aha moment when we get to see users with our creation."

In sprint methodology you break down work into smaller goals and
rapidly prototype a potential solution in short, structured periods of
time.
By utilizing these techniques, you can clearly articulate the
underlying problem, generate multiple solutions and focus on the
one most worth pursuing.

WWW.IBAO.ORG

27

OCTOBER 2019


http://WWW.IBAO.ORG

The Ontario Broker - October 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Ontario Broker - October 2019

In This Issue
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The Ontario Broker - October 2019 - In This Issue
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The Ontario Broker - October 2019 - Cover3
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