Toyota Motor Corporation: Solving Problems with Design Thinking

Customer contact center employees must respond quickly to clients’ requests. However, at the same time, they often need to find and analyze a large amount of information, which takes a lot of time. Employees of such a center in Toyota faced a similar problem. As a consequence, workers provided unsatisfactory services, but the new department manager changed the situation for the better. Their case can be analyzed using four basic questions of D4G design thinking approach:

1. What is? It took 20-40 minutes to answer the client’s call, which led to poor performance and discontent among customers (Liedtka et al., 2013). The reason for the call duration is that the operators were leaving their desks to find information saved on hard drives and hidden in the lockers or receive advice from colleagues in another room. Moreover, the number of applications with information was more than 13.
2. What if? Managers who tried to fix the problem suggested that a single database with access to information was necessary.
3. What wows? The solution was not a simple database, but the software that made it possible to combine different departments’ work into one system and effectively solve client problems.
4. What works? Understanding the needs of operators was the key to developing the program. As a result, it took less time to address the issue, and the center could help more customers.

In the actions of Toyota’s managers, one can note enthusiasm in engaging partners in the work effects. First of all, Lexus employees also took part in the experiment as they had the same problem. Moreover, managers were able to effectively use the work of programmers, designers, and change agents. At the same time, their efforts testify to the commitment to real-world experiments rather than conduct. All workers, and not just managers, were included in the decision-making process. Moreover, as an experiment, the administration did not use standard working methods as the provision of reports or presentations but encouraged creativeness and freedom. For example, the company held competitions for the best idea, as well as a discussion during joint eating of pizza and used other similar approaches.

Reference

Liedtka, J., King, A., & Bennett, K. (2013). Solving problems with design thinking: Ten stories of what works. Columbia University Press.