Power Platform | „Running on“ Design Thinking

One of the biggest benefits of using a low-code platform such as Microsoft Power Platform is around lowering the effort in app development and time to market. This allows companies building applications they normally wouldn´t build based on traditional application development due to lower ROI rates. A low-code platform though all of a sudden allows to build those kind of apps, maybe being even connected to each other based on a common data model with a relational database behind and therefore generates not only business value, instead increasing employees satisfaction as well.

All of this is not only due to the fact of talking low-code or no-code. When in design thinking workshops with customers them talking about their current agile application development strategy one thing that pops-up almost all the time is the effort around use-case collection, use-case aggregation, design mockup creation process and re-iteration ongoing on all those steps. Microsoft Power Platform allows for a different way to approach your company goals and this is where we´re going to start in our low-code journey.

First, we need to define which phase we´re into. Respond, Recover or Reimagine. For this it doesn´t matter which industry you´re operating in as this is currently on everyone’s desk – guess why? Yes, COVID-19 pandemic.

Once we´re aligned on where we are, we could better serve the idea of design thinking, where we would use techniques of „opposite thinking“ to challenge our ideas and improve them even more.

What I mean by this? Let me provide you an example from the retail industry. Inside a design thinking workshop and based on additional mapping with industry trends, we aligned on four key pain points. All of them belong to all three phases our retailer is running through, but they reflect in different needs and priorities. As an example having a good crisis communication management solution is top priority during the respond phase. Re-opening stores for example, covering all kind of regulations was and is still a huge challenge for many retailers. As there´re tons of information and data collected that needs to be shared quickly with the store operating team and vice versa with the backend crisis communication team, a rock-solid collaboration platform is not the only thing needed to cover all requirements of a solution that fits employees needs. Various data endpoint taken into account a classical development for an application would cause dozens of individual interfaces that needs to be maintained. In the low-code design thinking workshop, one of the strength of Power Platform can be immediately used – prototyping on the fly of developing.

Which means, we´re not only directly creating a mockup of a possible application, we also consider to use low-code techniques to bring processes to life, using Power Automate with RPA for instance to connect with our data sources that doesn´t allow for an API interface. And of course using Power Apps and data sources, to directly connect with data sources that allow for API connectivity. The app we´re creating here, doesn´t need to be pixel perfect yet, but with more and more ideas collected during the design thinking workshop, you probably already have identified a component creation project as an „offside“ and a team of attendees virtually signed up for being responsible for this task.

So running your Power Platform projects based on design thinking workshops not only can be a true booster for your application development process in total, it also can be a hub for your time-to-market and innovation. Keep in mind that it is the nature of design thinking processes to have parties joining from all over your company, every department and every level. Based on the low entry level of using low-code tools such as Power Platform, the outcome of design thinking workshops can be incredible little MVPs that can easily be turned into productive applications. The entry barrier of joining such workshops with knowing there will be pro-code tools involved simply doesn´t exist. Furthermore, IT departments or software developers should recognize this as an opportunity to host and/or support such initiatives.

In future upcoming articles, I will elaborate further the idea of running Power Platform based on Design Thinking. Until then…