Defining and solving wicked problems for a complex world

I personally strive to make the world a more human place in which to conduct efficient and effective business. I stick to the principles of open communication, collaboration and creativity to assist my clients to define and solve problems critical to meeting their objectives.

My mission is for government to develop and maintain an innovative user-centric focus to enhance the delivery of government services to make Australia a better place.

I can assist with the following:

Journey mapping

The Nielsen Norman Group defines a journey map as a visualization of the process that a person goes through in order to accomplish a goal. I can assist you in identifying the people involved in this process, the goals they might like to achieve, and the components required to achieve it. By presenting the findings in a visual medium assumptions can be tested and tweaked on paper before we commit to implementing complex customer service designs. Read more here.

Problem definition

Albert Einstein once said “If I were given one hour to save the planet, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it,” through following design thinking principles I can assist you and your organisation to get under the ‘bonnet’ and really identify the real problems facing you, before meaninglessly tackling the “wrong” problem which might not even be a problem at all. Here are some more thoughts from a Harvard Business Review blogger. 

Business analysis

As a business analyst I work with customers throughout the lifecycle of the Stanford Design process. From empathising with stakeholders to really understand their goals and motivations to refine the problem based on these initial conversations and observations I am then able to use a myriad of tools and techniques to ideate concreate solutions to meet the needs of our customers before going through rapid prototypes and testing phases to provide real value that increases incrementally as the product or service is used and improved. Check out these thoughts on business analysts as designers. 

Team facilitation

Design is fundamentally a team effort. The problems are there waiting to be found by those closest to them, as are creative solutions. Often, we get bogged down in the everyday and it’s hard for teams to take a step back and look at things from new and creative perspectives in order to get the design thinking required to find those golden threads of creative wisdom. By using my years of experience as a business analyst as well as many of the tools and techniques I have learned from taking an intensive in design thinking I can guide your team towards the creative place they need to be to solve your organisation’s most wicked problems. Here are some more thoughts from the listening partnership.

Business Models

From the lessons I’ve learned through my education both recently at Deakin and at the ANU, coupled with the experience I have creating and maintaining profitable businesses I can help you define a sustainable business model and test your assumptions before you commit hard earned time and money to the idea. Using the business model canvass we can work together to quickly ideate and improve your business model.

Rapid Prototyping

My experience in mocking up software and business systems and services based on user needs plays hand in hand with my experience role-playing with tie InterAct. I can work with you to understand your needs and rapidly prototype solutions that will let your users walk through them in a simulated reality, tweaking them so that by the time a final product build commences a lot of the kinks have already been ironed out in less expensive way. Check out these ideas on rapid prototyping. 

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Gregory Thomas – Canberra Australia – +61(0)421 483 225