Exploration and Refinement

12009

Overview

The refinement phase is the process of evaluating the numerous solutions derived from the co-creation phase, selecting what the team considers the minimum viable solution. Evaluation factors include the implementation cost, time and manpower of alternative solutions, feedback cycles, and the degree of impact the solution has on business objectives.

Time is the greatest hidden cost. If the time required to implement a solution is excessive, we may miss opportunities. Moreover, some solutions require a certain execution period after implementation to see their real effects, which also increases time costs. We hope to select as many experimental solutions as possible, as each solution may help address our problems and achieve our goals.

Example

There is an e-commerce website where most buyers are unaware of how to use the search navigation bar. Therefore, the team decided to undertake a major overhaul and established a dedicated project for the transformation. Team members proposed many ideas and solutions for the overhaul. Ultimately, they refined a task list as follows:

Redesign the search area on the page;
Default to "All Items";
More comprehensive automated recommendation prompts;
Provide recommended stores in the search results list;
Allow frequently used filters to be added to the search favorites;
Place the search bar on both product and store pages;
Remove the original search dropdown list.

Each task has a short development time, and the effects of each transformation task can be measured, with tasks being relatively independent. During the transformation process, whenever a task is completed, it can be evaluated, and there is an opportunity to revise the original project execution plan based on each evaluation result to better achieve business objectives.

In the refined task list above, some tasks were successful while others were not. After the first transformation (adding a product search area on the page), user data showed that almost no users noticed it; whereas after the third transformation (adding automated recommendations), the data showed a more significant effect.

Thus, it can be seen that even a large transformation project can have its solutions as a collection of mini-solutions.

Key Points

The goal of refinement is not to eliminate the solutions derived during the co-creation phase, but to prioritize them, allowing the team to further break down the solutions, sequentially selecting the most important improvements that are mutually recognized, and ensuring they can be validated as early as possible.

After refinement, the selected solutions can enter the validation phase. So, how do we determine that we are ready to proceed to validation? A simple way is to express the results of the exploration in the following form and reach a consensus within the team:

We believe that by implementing (a minimum combination of functions like xx), our metrics can reach (yy level), indicating that our hypothesis about (zz) is valid.

## Overview

The refinement phase is the process of evaluating the numerous solutions derived from the co-creation phase, selecting what the team considers the minimum viable solution. Evaluation factors include the implementation cost, time and manpower of alternative solutions, feedback cycles, and the degree of impact the solution has on business objectives.

Time is the greatest hidden cost. If the time required to implement a solution is excessive, we may miss opportunities. Moreover, some solutions require a certain execution period after implementation to see their real effects, which also increases time costs. We hope to select as many experimental solutions as possible, as each solution may help address our problems and achieve our goals.

## Example

There is an e-commerce website where most buyers are unaware of how to use the search navigation bar. Therefore, the team decided to undertake a major overhaul and established a dedicated project for the transformation. Team members proposed many ideas and solutions for the overhaul. Ultimately, they refined a task list as follows:

1. Redesign the search area on the page;  
2. Default to "All Items";  
3. More comprehensive automated recommendation prompts;  
4. Provide recommended stores in the search results list;  
5. Allow frequently used filters to be added to the search favorites;  
6. Place the search bar on both product and store pages;  
7. Remove the original search dropdown list.

Each task has a short development time, and the effects of each transformation task can be measured, with tasks being relatively independent. During the transformation process, whenever a task is completed, it can be evaluated, and there is an opportunity to revise the original project execution plan based on each evaluation result to better achieve business objectives.

In the refined task list above, some tasks were successful while others were not. After the first transformation (adding a product search area on the page), user data showed that almost no users noticed it; whereas after the third transformation (adding automated recommendations), the data showed a more significant effect.

Thus, it can be seen that even a large transformation project can have its solutions as a collection of mini-solutions.

## Key Points

The goal of refinement is not to eliminate the solutions derived during the co-creation phase, but to prioritize them, allowing the team to further break down the solutions, sequentially selecting the most important improvements that are mutually recognized, and ensuring they can be validated as early as possible.

After refinement, the selected solutions can enter the validation phase. So, how do we determine that we are ready to proceed to validation? A simple way is to express the results of the exploration in the following form and reach a consensus within the team:

> We believe that by implementing (a minimum combination of functions like xx), our metrics can reach (yy level), indicating that our hypothesis about (zz) is valid.