Problem Statement
The internal travel desk of the organization is backed up with travel requests, the company would like to allow their employees to book their travel by themselves with minimum interference required from the travel desk. Considering these aspects we are trying to devise a solution for the company to enable their employees to communicate their travel plans to their manager for approval and notify the travel desk.
Introduction
Design Thinking is an iterative process of problem-solving by understanding users, challenging their assumptions, restating their problems, and building innovative solutions to prototype and test.
We will be following the Stanford Design Thinking principle as it focuses on the “User First” principle while nurturing creativity in finding possible solutions.
The 5 Steps of the Stanford Design Thinking Process are as follows
Stage 1: Empathize — Thorough understanding of user needs
Stage 2: Define — This phase is all about defining the problem. Where to focus and where to go
Stage 3: Ideate — Generation of solutions
Stage 4: Prototype — Making our new ideas tangible
Stage 5: Test — getting feedback from the users
Empathize
Empathy Map
We are considering three different customer personas here
Employee
Travel-desk people
Manager
What is the customer thinking or feeling?
When will my next trip be scheduled? (Employee)
How quickly shall I get approval (Employee)
What would the ticket cost? (Employee)
What would be the duration of my next trip? (Employee)
What would the hotel cost? (Employee)
Shall I get booking confirmation for a Business class or Economy? (Employee)
Whether he/she will be traveling alone or in a group? (Employee)
How many travel requests need to be processed per day? (Travel-desk)
How shall we prioritize the travel request? (Travel-desk)
What if we miss any mail requesting travel? (Travel-desk)
Which flight is to be booked for each employee? (Travel-desk)
Which hotel needs to be booked for a concerned employee? (Travel-desk)
What if the booked hotel is not up to the mark? (Travel-desk)
How soon to get the manager’s approval for each request? (Travel-desk)
It's difficult to manage every travel requisition mail. (Manager)
An excessive amount is being incurred in employees’ travel and stay. (Manager)
It's difficult to compare and prioritize the travel. (Manager)
It's difficult to reply to follow-up approvals. (Manager)
It would be better if all travel requests can be put up in a single place. (Manager)
What is the customer hearing?
He/She might need to travel anytime shortly. (Employee)
He/She might not get Business class ticket approval. (Employee)
He/She might need to bear travel and hotel expenses initially in case of self-travel management(Employee)
He/She might need to wait for getting approval and confirmation. (Employee)
People are dissatisfied with the hotel booking. (Travel-desk)
People are not happy with the flight timings. (Travel-desk)
More and more requests are pending for approval and processing. (Travel-desk)
Approvals are getting delayed (Manager)
Travel requisitions are coming late (Manager)
What is the customer seeing?
Other organizations are relying on separate tools for travel requisition, processing, and approvals (Employee, Travel-desk, Manager)
Different people are having different requisition processing times (Employees)
Some people are getting flight timings and hotels of their choice (Employees)
People might get their trips reimbursed at different points in time in case of self-travel management. (Employee)
Travel requisition numbers are varying at different times of the month (Travel desk)
What is the customer saying and doing?
Employees are showing dissatisfaction at work (Employee)
The travel issue is creating a sense of rivalry among employees (Employee)
The travel desk is doing a favor in terms of flight and hotel booking for some employees (Employee)
Travel planning by self might become an extra burden in terms of cost for some employees (Employee)
Employees are looking for cheaper flights which are causing delays often (Manager)
Customers might choose cheaper hotels which might impact business in terms of delay and connectivity (Manager)
Managers are delaying checking and approving the travel requisition (Travel-desk)
Travel desk people are waiting longer to get the approvals of travel done (Travel-desk)
Travel desk people are struggling in processing flight requests as per the choice of traveler (Travel-desk)
Travel desk people are struggling to identify proper hotels as per convenience in terms of distance, budget, and amenities (Travel-desk)
Travel desk people are booking flights and hotels at the last moment thus costing more (Manager)
Pain and Gain Analysis
Jobs To Be Done
Employees need to finalize the date of traveling with their manager
Employees need to apply for their tour with respective preferences to the travel-desk
Employees need to provide their flight of choice and hotel of choice
If an employee wants business class approval, he needs to apply for the same
Travel-desk check with the respective manager for travel and approvals
Travel desk processes travel requests as per seniority and date of travel
The travel desk try to fulfill preference as applied by employees
Travel-desk books the flight tickets and hotel
Pains during the process
The date of traveling often gets finalized at the last minute
It's very difficult to convey their choice of flight and hotel via mail
Often their date of tour changes post finalization
Business class approval is uncertain
It's difficult on the travel desk's behalf to remind the concerned manager of the approval
The manager often misses the mail for approval
Travel-desk often misses out on preferred Flight and Hotels due to last moment booking
Gains during the process
Organizations bear the cost of flight and hotel upfront and employees don’t need to bear it initially
Travel-desk accepts the preference of employees and tries to plan accordingly
Often employees get the approval for traveling in business class as per requirement and scenario
Mostly date of the tour is planned beforehand at the start of the month
Define
Who is experiencing the problem? (Target User)
The employees who need to travel for business
Travel-desk employees
Managers who need to provide approval
What is the problem?
Travel-desk suffers with the number of travel requests and processing them
Often it takes a lot of time for getting the manager’s approval
Employees don’t get their flight or hotel of choice
Employees are not ready to bear their travel expenses initially
Communicating travel requests via mail involves a lot of time
Where does the problem present itself? (Context of the user when they face the problem)
Employees who’ll be traveling for business which gets approved at the last moment and finally end up getting inconvenient flights and hotel to stay during the trip
Travel-desk people who need to arrange an entire tour at the last moment by booking flights and hotels at the last moment after repeated follow-ups with concerned managers and employee
Managers who need to keep track of all the travel requests and approval mail
Why does it matter? (What value would a solution bring to the user)
The solution would allow employees to plan their tour in advance and in better ways as per the allowed budget. They can choose the flight as per their convenience and hotel as per their choice and business need
The solution would allow travel-desk people by reducing the hassle of arranging individual trips. But they can monitor and manage every tour as well as they can top up travel-wallet of employees as and when required
Managers can easily check their employee's upcoming travel plans and budget incurred. They can easily approve or reject the request as raised by their employees
Ideate
Imposition of Constraints
Employees won’t bear initial travel expense
Every employee would need travel-desk and manager’s approval before booking flight tickets and hotels
Flight and Hotel costs will have an upper cap as per employee’s hierarchy
Prototype
(Paper prototyping)
Onboarding Screen
Employee Screens
Manager / Travel desk Screens
Test
Feedback Capturing
Comments