How does the adoption of Design Thinking impact the different professions and roles, especially those of the Technical Department?
Within our teams, we have made Design Thinking the dedicated and preferred method for initiating, framing and "designing" innovative projects.
This methodology is inclusive, collaborative, and adapted to various situations. It is now an integral part of the daily life of an increasing number of employees.
Technical teams are the first to embrace this approach because it involves them, just like the business teams, from the project scoping phase. The objective is also to produce deliverables that facilitate the work of the delivery teams.
What does Design Thinking bring to employees?
Through this methodology, employees are encouraged to:
- Focus on the people and/or customers they create for, in order to improve products, services and internal processes.
- Mobilize collective intelligence by co-constructing solutions as a team.
- Work in iterative mode.
- Learn the Mindset and workshop facilitation techniques to gain agility and efficiency.
What are the best practices for leading change and getting teams on board?
The key will always remain the co-construction and direct involvement of the teams in the construction of the approach, we do this in particular by:
- Ensuring the availability and commitment of stakeholders throughout the project.
- Clarifying the roles and scope of each party.
- Sharing common rules to ensure all team members will be able to contribute to the project in an atmosphere of sharing and goodwill.
- Also, we recommend building in-house expertise to ensure the rise in competence, the expansion of the impact and the sustainability of the approach.
How does Design Thinking serve the ambitions of the Digital Bank?
Design Thinking is above all a method of thinking, working and designing centered on the human being. It is oriented above all towards problem solving by proposing solutions adapted to the human being, the client, the user.
This Human Centric aspect has led our teams to adopt this methodology for the initiation and launch of digital projects. Indeed, it allows us to start from the need or pain point in order to design a solution with the customer and for the customer.
It contributes to the realization of the Bank's ambitions because it:
- Allows the strategic axes to be broken down into problems to be solved for and with the client.
- Facilitates the work of delivery by formalizing the priority functionalities and paths for the client beforehand.
- Is agile and iterative, ready to evolve over time.
- Mobilizes all stakeholders in a collective intelligence dynamic.
- Reinforces the diffusion of a customer-oriented culture and mindset.
What does Design Thinking bring to a digital transformation?
Beyond Digital, Design Thinking has the advantage of being adapted to all types of problems as soon as it is a question of solving human-centered problems.
Moreover, in a context of digital transformation, Design Thinking can be a real lever to:
- Acculturate employees to an entrepreneurial and experimental mindset (Test & Learn).
- Open up the field of possibilities and get out of pre-established patterns and anchored perceptions.
- Allow to be part of a continuous dynamic thanks to its evolutionary and iterative aspect.
- Approach digital issues from the customer's point of view (through empathy, listening and observation), rather than going directly to the target solution.
- Integrate all stakeholders in the thinking and design of the solution. This reinforces the adhesion and commitment to the transformation.
Also, the appropriation of the approach by the employees is key in order to widen its impact and ensure a wider scope of adhesion and application.
How does Design Thinking serve the challenges of the Innovation Department?
Our department's mission is to support the Bank's business lines by providing them with enablers to launch innovative services. Among these enablers, two major levers are:
- A dedicated innovation approach consisting of initiating, framing and designing innovative projects.
- The appropriation and deployment of an innovation culture and mindset among employees.
Design Thinking is a major element of these two levers because it is both a methodology for formalizing customer needs and expectations, and a vector for appropriating an innovation culture.
In concrete terms, we use Design Thinking to co-construct customer paths and an initial solution prototype with the business units. We also disseminate this approach to our employees so that they can adopt it at their own level.
Interview of Sarah Lakhdar Chief Innovation Officer et Zineb Baiz Innovation Manager, Banque Centrale Populaire Banque Centrale Populaire of Maroc
