leader
A CEO Initiative - Driving Alignment →
Rapid Design Labs, Design, Prototyping
When our CEO told the SVPs of Product and Sales they had one year to agree on and launch a new product, I volunteered to facilitate very tense teams through collaboration sessions. The result: A product everyone loved.
Team Discussing Challenges and Options in a Rapid Design Lab
1
problem
- At Yahoo!, a newly redesigned advertising/publishing system was too complex for our Sales team and customers to use.
- In a CEO meeting, the SVP of Sales refused to use the product and the SVP of Product blamed Sales for a lack of requirements.
- The CEO gave both one year for the product to be improved sufficiently that Sales would use and find the product useful (or else…).
- The product was designed to support the most common use cases. However, data showed that a missed "corner case" eliminated 70% of the revenue.
2
solution
- I volunteered to facilitate Rapid Design Labs to define a solution that we could all align around. Others stepped back due to fear of visibility.
- We gathered requirements, brainstormed solutions and aligned teams that had been deeply divided around a common solution.
- Each representative was willing to sell the solution up their chain, so it looked like it was their idea.
- We prototyped and tested a new solution in two weeks.
- The workflow went from 15+ screens and a loss of context to one screen with faster load times and bulk actions.
3
impact
- Decreased time to book complex advertising orders by 90% and standard orders by 50%.
- Commendation from CEO and testimonials about the value of this design-thinking process from the SVP of Sales.
- Sales and several customers began using the product.
- We were requested by teams across the company to teach them about Rapid Design Labs.
