The envisioning session for the value workshop typically consists of the following 5 exercises. These are usually fast-paced and take anywhere between 90 and 120 minutes. In virtual design thinking workshop settings, I find that the fast pace cannot be sustained for more than two hours without a break.

1. I cannot stress enough the importance of an ice-breaking exercise in design thinking sessions. It is useful in getting the participants chatty and ready to go. So I almost mandate an ice-breaker in every one of my design thinking sessions.
   
2. Start with the overall objectives of the project or initiative in question. A 10-15 minute exercise when you have the participants list out high-level goals of why they are wanting to do this project. At this stage, it can be quite a free form. See figure. Next, have the participants vote on these objectives to keep the top 5. About five top-level objectives are usually enough for us to get going to the next exercise.
   
3. Using the top voted objectives as the anchors, proceed to delve deeper into the value levers. In my previous blog on value dimensions, I mentioned the following eight generic value levers: Fiscal Targets, Customer Focused, Operations & Process Related, IT/OT Centered, People Oriented, Sales Based, Market-Driven, and Risk Avoidance. If you are aware of specific value levers that the organization is particular about, then you should use that as opposed to generic value levers. Spend about 15-20 minutes on eliciting the benefits expected in each of the value areas. Take note of all the benefit statements but make sure to get the participants to focus on the top ones. Use the voting mechanisms to identify the top benefit areas for the project. These benefit areas will form the benefit categories in your value modeling tool (preferably Valufy 😉).
   
4. Next, elicit the costs and risks that are expected from the project. In my experience, I have noted that a free-flowing exchange of ideas in a typical design thinking session helps to surface ideas that are not usually thought of. Costs and risks are value components that usually tend to be downplayed by the project sponsors. Having an open facilitated discussion necessitates that they are considered. This process usually takes about 15-20 minutes as well. Use organization-specific cost areas to bucket your costs. But if you do not have any, use generic cost components such as people-oriented, process-based, and technology-rooted cost areas. Risks, which ultimately boil down to costs in a value equation, should be considered similarly within the same cost buckets. Unlike benefits, costs cannot be voted in/out. All legitimate costs need to be considered in the value equation.
   
5. The last part of the envisioning session relates to KPIs. Now that the benefits are selected and all cost areas have been identified, we need to discuss (perhaps for 15-20 minutes) how these benefits may be measured. For instance, when discussing employee productivity as a benefit, the following key-value measurements or value KPIs are probably relevant:
   1. Time gained per week from reduced meetings
   1. Time reduced to complete process flow A
   1. # of widgets produced per shift
   1. Reduced % of reworked widgets, etc.

In a session lasting anywhere from 90 to 120 minutes, we would have benefited in the following ways:

• An opportunity to identify benefits, costs, risks, and KPIs in terms of key-value and cost measurements – key components of the value model.
• An group interactive session helps to “buy” into the value model by the stakeholders.
• The KPI exercise helps to create an implicit awareness on how to go about instrumenting the project to track the anticipated value.

All of the information obtained through the design thinking exercises sets us up well to develop the initial value model framework. In future blog posts, I will discuss the process of developing the value model through a tool called Valufy.

In future blog posts, I will also walk through an actual design thinking value modeling exercise providing additional details on the design thinking exercises.