Do you want to write better reports using design thinking tools? This article will provide tips that you may use the next time you design a report.
Are you working on a reporting improvement project? Suppose you have a problem with conveying the right information in your report. You may want to lead a project team to find the best solution to improve the report. Here are the five best ways to create a better report for your users this year.
The five steps to take to design a good financial report using the design thinking process:
- Define the problem
- Research
- Ideas Creation
- Experiment
- Testing
1. Define the problem
Knowing a problem will be the first step to identifying a problem definition. Problem definition is where we learn about the current state of the problem.
It would be best to consider building a team from cross-functional divisions with different areas of expertise to create a better report.
Working on this project in a team, you will want at least one person from each area of expertise represented. The team can be powerful when members have diverse perspectives and expertise.
Firstly, we need to define a meaningful and actionable problem statement. It is the most challenging part of the Design Thinking process. A well-defined problem statement will guide you and your team’s work and find the right insights and ideas in the right direction. It emphasises clarity and focuses on the design space.
By focusing on what your stakeholders want to see in your report, you can converge on a clear definition of the problem.
2. Research
Why do we need to do research? After defining the real problem, you need to understand your users’ needs and conduct some research. If you are designing a report for users, you must realise that you’re not the target audience. You need to understand the target audience’s needs and emotions to develop the best solutions. For example, suppose you are designing a new sales report for the sales team. In that case, you will need to understand what information the sales team needs and how the information could affect the design of a report or experience.
You need to select appropriate research methodologies once you have identified the users and their context. Then, use that research methodology to collect information and data about the problem.
Some popular forms of research to consider.
- Interviewing
Interviewing is about learning directly from stakeholders. While time-intensive, interviewing has many benefits.
It is a conversation between a participant and a researcher to elicit information used to get personal information. For example, the users’ experiences and perspectives, sensitive information the user may not want to reveal in a group.
- Card Sorts
Card sorts can be part of an interview or a usability test. For example, a user is provided with terms in a card sort and asked to categorise them. For example, give the user the category names, then let them create the most appropriate categories in an open card.
The card sort goal is to explore relationships between content and the related hierarchies.
- A/B Tests
A/B testing is learning what actions users take. An A/B test is typically chosen as the appropriate research form when designers struggle to choose between competing elements. The options are two styles of content or two approaches to a design. An A/B test requires randomly showing each version to an equal number of users and reviewing analytics on which version better accomplished a specific goal.
- Surveys and Questionnaires
Questionnaires and surveys are easy to gather a large amount of information about a group with minimal time. This method is an excellent research choice for projects with a large and diverse group of users or a group with anonymity. For example, the tools like Google Docs email it out and receive hundreds of responses within minutes.
3. Ideas Creation
Next is ideas generation. The outcome of this step is to have a handful of promising ideas that might end up solving your problem.
The first step in ideating is to set some rules. The ground rules can outline how your team will work together in this ideation stage. The following is a suggestion list. You should feel free to draft additional rules for your group.
Rules for generating ideas:
Build on the ideas of others.
Teamwork plays a part in being positive and building on the ideas of others. For example, we try to use “and” in conversation instead of “but”.
Encourage out of the box ideas.
Wild ideas can often lead to creative leaps if we focus on what we want without constraints.
Never judge.
It would be best to create an open environment where your team can share ideas and allow others to build on them. A good idea can come from anywhere.
Quantity matters.
Your team should aim for as many new ideas as possible. After that, your team needs to crank the ideas out quickly and then build on the best ones.
Use visuals.
Good to use sticky notes in live brainstorming sessions and put ideas on the wall. Drawing and sketching may get an idea across faster.
Here you go on some ideas creating rules for you to work with your team. My favourite rule is to encourage out of the box ideas. Sometimes, we need to forget our current constraints and focus on our goals. So we go back to a big white canvas and start from ground zero.
So what is your take? How do you generate new ideas for problem solutions?
4. Experiment
Next is the ideas selection step. In other words, we are building a prototype or experimenting with the ideas generated.
A prototype is a sample, model, or product release built to test a concept or process. A prototype evaluates a new design to enhance precision.
Here we take the ideas from the idea generation stage and test them directly with our stakeholders. At the end of the experiment, we will have a fairly clear idea of the problem and the solution.
The guidelines that will help you in the prototyping stage:
Just start building
If you have uncertainties about what you are trying to achieve, your best bet is to make it out. A prototype will help you think about your ideas and gain insights into how you can improve them.
Use the rapid prototype to save time.
Prototyping is all about speed; the longer you spend building your prototype. The more emotionally attached you can get to your idea, thus hampering your ability to judge its merits objectively.
Stay Focus
Your prototypes should have a central test issue. Although it would help if you did not lose sight of that issue, do not get so bound to it to lose sight of other lessons you could learn.
Build with the user in mind
Test the prototype against your expected stakeholders’ behaviours and needs. Then, learn from the gaps in expectations and realities and improve your ideas.
5. Testing
Testing and refinement is the execution phase of the process. It is where you work with your users to find solutions. Instead of taking the users’ feedback from the experiment stage, we first take one more step and trial run on a high-fidelity prototype. Then, based on the feedback, we can decide whether to scale up to a full report launch.
Here are some guidelines when testing:
- Use comparison methods
It would be best to create multiple prototypes, each with a change in a variable, so your users can compare each prototype and tell you which they prefer. When they can compare, users often find it easier to elucidate what they like and dislike about the prototypes.
- Test the users’ experience
Do not explain how your prototype works or how it is supposed to solve your user’s problems. Instead, let the users’ experience in using the prototype speaks for itself, and you observe their reactions.
- Ask users to explain their experiences.
When users explore and use the prototype, ask them to tell you what they think. For example, it may be good to talk about another topic and only ask them questions. For example, “What are you thinking right now as you are doing this?”
- Observe
Observe how your users use your prototype — either “correctly” or “incorrectly” — and do not correct them when they misinterpret how to use it. Your users’ mistakes are the most valuable learning opportunities for your next prototype. Remember, you are testing the prototype, not the user.
Conclusion
When creating something new, we face a great deal of uncertainty. Therefore, the design-based approaches using design thinking tools are highly useful. The emphasis is on experimenting and learning. The key objective is to solve a problem.
Design Thinking is a human-centred design process that may not have a fixed sequence of steps but will certainly have an ideal endpoint. When you can create a report that satisfies the users, you’ve designed a solution that will impact the organisational goals and continue improving in the years to come.
Do you find these tips helpful? If you want a course on creating useful financial reports using design thinking, write a comment or contact me for more information.
About Author
Jacinta Thein is a Certified Trainer and a Chartered Accountant registered with the Malaysian Institute of Accountants since 2004. She is also a Microsoft Certified Data Analyst Associate. Jacinta has more than 24 years of experience in management consulting data analytics, management reporting, and financial data analysis from multinational companies. Jacinta has worked in the retail, manufacturing, education, shared services, venture capitalist, and advertising industries. She has in-depth knowledge in data and financial analysis, business intelligence, financial reporting, and system implementation.