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Friday, December 30, 2016

Designing Processes as Platforms

Always interesting Michael Schrage makes some good points in the HBR.  Thinking of examples of implementing this.  We were always interested in improving, even optimizing process with analytics and data.  We considered what he is suggesting, but better embedding it early in the design does make sense.   Thoughts?

Instead of Optimizing Processes, Reimagine Them as Platforms   by Michael Schrage
Process optimization can transform user experience. Rethinking process optimization — visualizing processes as platforms — can transform your business model.

One applications outsourcing team, for example, proposed a clever UX tweak to help optimize a global fulfillment process their company managed for its biggest client.

The idea was simple: Instead of making buyers go through the entire online ordering sequence only to find stock-outs or delivery delays, why not alert them to product availability upfront? A little dab of inventory data would enhance both customer expectations and process efficiencies. Surely this cheap, customer-centric, and data-driven innovation would impress the client. 

But the more rigorously the use cases were modeled, the more complicated enhancing expectations and efficiencies became. Would buyers abandon purchases if they couldn’t get exactly what they wanted? Would they defect to competitors? Might product bundles or incentives meaningfully shift demand and production flows?  ... "

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