But the customer input didn t end there. As the professionals did their work, additional sessions were held with the customers to get their feedback on actual design plans. Steed Hammond Paul relies heavily on computer illustrations and animation, much as companies will have customers test product prototypes. For instance, customers were able to take virtual tours of Lakota East even before plans were committed to paper. A fundamental underpinning of The Schoolhouse of Quality process is a belief that it is better to spend ample time on planning so that the doing part goes smoothly and relatively quickly, rather than to rush the planning process only to have to do and redo, all the while eating up more time and resources.
All good ideas flow back to the customer.
While it often leads to some truly innovative and breakthrough ideas, The Schoolhouse of Quality process is not intended to generate never-seen ideas simply for novelty s sake. If you pick any one design feature within a school created using the process, you will likely find a similar feature in some other school. It s not there just because some district leader or architect liked the idea. With The Schoolhouse of Quality approach, you can pick out any main element in the building and trace its roots back to the voice of the customer. This is called the customer value path.