Case Study – Bain & Co.
Accelerating Global Knowledge Sharing Through Empathy-Driven Design: How Bain & Company Reduced Search Time by 40% and Fostered a Culture of Collaboration Across Global Offices
I am so grateful for Ayan and his team at Design Thinking Educators! Moving forward, I am very excited to learn all.
Overview
Company: Bain & Company
Program: Knowledge Management Innovation Sprint
Participants: Consultants, Knowledge Teams, Tech & Ops Leads
Duration: 6 Weeks (Empathy Research + Co-Design + Prototype Deployment)
Delivery Mode: Hybrid (Virtual Interviews + In-Person Design Jams)
Objective: Break down global information silos and streamline access to actionable knowledge across Bain offices worldwide
The Challenge: Making Knowledge Work Harder Across Global Teams
As Bain scaled operations and consulting practices globally, teams began facing friction in accessing and reusing knowledge assets. Key pain points included:
– Knowledge trapped in local silos
– Redundant work due to low content visibility
– Time-consuming search across multiple platforms
– Minimal reuse of past work and best practices
These issues were slowing down project delivery and reducing the strategic value of internal knowledge.
The Insight: Consultants Don’t Need More Tools—They Need Better Ones.
Through a series of empathy interviews, we uncovered a recurring frustration:
“It’s not that the knowledge doesn’t exist—it’s just too hard to find or reuse when we need it.”
What consultants needed wasn’t another repository, but a smarter, more intuitive way to access, collaborate, and contribute.
The DTE Solution: A Co-Created Smart Knowledge Base.
Design Thinking Educators (DTE) worked closely with Bain teams to map workflows, identify behavior patterns, and prototype collaborative solutions.
Key Design Interventions:
– Smart Search Functionality
Context-aware suggestions, filters by project type, client vertical, and team geography
– Collaborative Project Spaces
Real-time co-authoring, tagging, and peer review built into live engagements
– Seamless Content Sharing Tools
One-click access to reusable templates, insights, and case materials across regions
– Behavior Nudges
In-app prompts and notifications encouraging knowledge contribution and reuse
The Impact: Measurable Efficiency & Cultural Shift.
Outcome | Result |
Reduced Search Time | 40% faster access to relevant insights |
Knowledge Reuse Boosted | Increased usage of global templates and reports |
Strengthened Culture of Sharing | Teams actively contributing to and benefiting from the system |
System Integration | New platform integrated seamlessly into daily workflows |
Program Highlights:
– Cross-office co-creation sessions across multiple time zones
– Interactive prototypes tested live by consultants
– Persona-based journey mapping for various team roles
– Custom search algorithm designed with user feedback loops
– Culture-building nudges to reinforce behaviors beyond the system
What Bain Teams Said:
“I used to spend 45 minutes searching for a pitch deck—now it takes 5.” – Senior Consultant, Asia-Pacific
“This wasn’t just a system redesign. It changed how we think about sharing knowledge.” – Knowledge Lead, Asia-Pacific
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