Hitting the target, the first time.
Software can be transformative! It can also risky. To address this risk, agile processes for software design and development have evolved. Their aim is to do only a little, and do it quickly whereby the results can be tested with users early, to provide confidence that the direction is good.
And whether it is called a Design Sprint, or perhaps a Co-design workshop, all good software and digital agencies have these prototyping practices. So too does Enabled.
With almost a decade of experience using these tools with our clients and much of this time teaching these concepts as well as and digital strategy and business models in Australian Universities and Executive coaching organisations, Enabled is more experienced with these practices than most.
These prototyping techniques coupled with a little Human Centered Design, which addresses Human Desirability, Technical Feasibility and Business Viability, Enabled has been able to create transformative software ecosystems for many of our clients.
Yet when considering how software can reshape organisations, Enabled starts at an earlier stage.
We seek to answer the question: why something should exist in the first place?
This question not only applies to any potential software, it applies to our clients’ reason for existing.
And surely the reason for any of us in businesses to exist, is because our customers, clients, patients or students, all need something from us.
So before starting down an experimental path of invention and testing, we need to understand what motivates our customers, i.e. what job are they trying to achieve by using our products or services. The trouble is on the surface this is not always obvious.
Consider the quote by Theodore Levitt “People don't want to buy a quarter-inch drill, they want a quarter-inch hole.” Thus the job for a drill seems to be the creation of a hole. However if we ask the person why they need a hole, their reply might be ‘to hang a picture’. In this example the superior solution to the drill could be a 3M sticky wall hook, therefore making the drill redundant. Especially true if they rent and are unable to make holes in the landlord’s plasterboard.
At Enabled, we only want to create the right software and so we work hard to discover these jobs using a framework called Jobs To Be Done. More on JTBD here: http://blog.enabled.com.au/jobs-to-be-done/
When the core job of the customer is discovered it becomes the focal point for value creation and the starting point for other Ideation and Prototyping processes.
Our clients equipped with software and processes that delivers their customers better value is the best outcome for Enabled and thus greater success for our clients.
