The Problem

Multiple teams had been tasked to implement a “simple conference room reservation system” and failed to deliver a usable product. It turns out that they were solving the wrong problem.

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Outcome

After blaming the difficulty booking rooms on the data entry process, I held a vision -setting workshop to understand the mental model and biases of the requestors, booking agents, and other stakeholders.

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So What

This was a huge step forward in stakeholder participation during the design process.

Bigger So What

A completely new mental model of the need emerged. Instead of “reserving a room” as the purpose of the product, “event planning” became the mental model. The point was not to book a room and then throw everything in as part of that booking, but to assist someone in planning an event, so that they have understanding and support in how the many activities of an event are choreographed together.