How the discovery ran
01

Frame the scope

  • Three request types in scope: credit, return, exchange
  • One journey map per country, one process map per region
  • Blueprints only where systems decided the outcome
02

Build the guide

  • One discussion guide, 6 sections · 28 questions
  • Variants per role: agent, operations, business
  • Piloted on 2 sessions, then revised
03

Run the interviews

  • 60+ sessions, 45–60 min, 17 countries
  • Two researchers: facilitator plus note-taker
  • Recorded with consent, notes filed within 24 h
04

Map and play back

  • Notes tagged, then drawn as journey and process maps
  • Played back to regional care leads for correction
  • Signed off before synthesis began
Inside one session, and where it was kept

Anatomy of a 60-minute interview

Every session followed the same shape, so 17 countries stayed comparable.

5 min
25 min
18 min
12 min
Context — role, region, volume handled
Last real case — walk the most recent request end to end
Systems — tools opened, data re-typed, hand-offs
Friction — what breaks, workarounds, what they would change
45–60 min each Facilitator + note-taker Recorded with consent Notes filed in 24 h

Where the research lived

One place per artefact, shared with Dell from day one.

  • Discussion guide & consentVersioned in the shared SharePoint research folder
  • Session notes & transcriptsOne row per interview in a shared tracker: country, role, date, tags
  • Affinity mappingTagged quotes clustered on a shared Mural board
  • Maps & blueprintsDrawn in Figma, reviewed live with regional leads
Session counts and timings are the planned research protocol for the engagement; tool names are the shared workspaces the team worked in.