Using Design Sprints to develop a novel approach to strategic partnering for a major international resources corporation
The Challenge
ADAPTOVATE’s client was a global resources company in the mining, metals and petroleum sector. They handled multi-billion-dollar strategic service contracts each year, but: ran the contract management process inconsistently across regions and vendors, lacked clear role demarcations and accountabilities, had too many hand-offs and there was little collaboration between the business, suppliers and vendors.
Our client was experiencing substantial leakage on high value strategic contracts, often due to not having the right capabilities in place to manage such complex contracts.
What ADAPTOVATE Did
We conducted an Agile Design Sprint with the key stakeholders to quickly align the on the objectives, frame the problem and prototype solutions to be tested and developed further. The Design Sprint used techniques from Lean, Design Thinking and Agile to reframe the problem with greater focus on the clients’ customers and help the team think differently about the problem.
In the sprint, the team: designed two new contract management model prototypes, developed a user testing plan to validate each prototype with stakeholders across regions, and developed a rollout plan. The rollout plan aimed to embed the new model through a series of fast paced pilots using agile ways of working.
Results
Together with the client we identified significant benefits in finding a new way of operating to better manage high value strategic contracts. As a result of our engagement, the client achieved strong leadership alignment on the proposed models and endorsement to rollout a test & learn pilot approach. These pilots produced the consistency that had been missing, preventing the value leakage described.
The engagement established the beginnings of a new culture and noticeably stronger cross-functional engagement.
