Scope

An extended Discovery and Framing effort in the domain of Learning and Enablement for the Sales Organization of Dell Technologies, heavily focusing on modern methods and tools.

The Engagement

• A small, agile core team with wide latitude in approach.

• 40 + user interviews across multiple roles, regions.

• Daily updates with stakeholders.

• Weekly updates with steering committee.

• Competitive and Industry analysis (agency assisted).

Challenges

• Ambitious proposal which required a lot of explanation.

• Creating a concept vs an interface was a difficult mental model, which required an emphasis on storytelling.

• Technical recommendations were somewhat speculative.

Problem Statement

Existing training content and delivery were widely unpopular within the Dell Sales force. A holistic examination of the user experience was needed.

Findings

We learned that the Learning and Enablement program for the Dell Sales Organization was not achieving its goals of improving sales margins or closing deals quickly. The root causes fell into the following categories:

• Training materials were too uniform (not tailored to segment or industry).

• Training delivered quarterly (not timely enough)

• Important content either not included (tech specs) or difficult to locate

• Format (long training sessions) makes content difficult to digest.

• Preferred learning methods are via Google, YouTube or peer to peer.

Execution

Our findings lead us to hypothesize that a solution which included an intelligent content delivery system that would present highly personalized information at point of need.

Using a narrative approach, the team conceived a use case that would let us tell our story through the lens of a full sales team. We imagined an instigating event (based on an unfolding - at the time - event). and how our proposed solution would be woven into the experience each step of the way.

We developed a detailed set of mockups to showcase various features of the Athena AI platform concept, set within an imagined UI.

Outcome

The concept generated a lot of enthusiasm, all the way to the C suite. The team created an outcome based roadmap to chart a path toward implementation. Ultimately the timeline and price tag proved too much to allow the business stakeholders to approve the effort fully. However, the program was able to take bits and pieces of the concept and build incrementally toward the vision using existing available technologies.

Our team delivered the designs for the first phase, integrating with a native mobile app that was already in use by the sales team.

Shipped designs for a pared down version of the concept that was funded as a first phase.