Design thinking brings structure and a systematic process to envision options for a predictable and prescriptive journey with insights and recommendations on any endeavor for various stakeholders.
It works and is effective as there are established and popular design methods to capture the needs and translate them into actionable items.
In the book,101 Design Methods, Prof Vijay Kumar discusses example design projects and methods used to arrive at optimal design solutions.
I summarize below the themes and methods discussed in chapter 6 (Frame solutions) methods.
While sensing the needs can be the seed for new and innovative solutions, not all solutions are viable. A framework to connect the concepts, envision the value for the user and the provider is the foundation for the design to materialize into feasible action.
Changes in perceived value with possible new solutions must be understood. The effects of the changes on various stakeholders due to the new design and changed value must be clearly stated and communicated. The language for clearly communicating the intent to translate the insights to products or experiences is rooted in design thinking and methods.
Connecting Concepts - Morphological synthesis comes to rescue here. For example, under the theme of user experiences, several ideas or concepts can be connected to arrive at new solutions or systems.
The main concepts can be broken down into smaller components. Contextual interaction is a core concept in the journey of a tech savvy customer/ user for the business. Preparing for the journey, finding the customer, connecting with the customer in various avenues and following up to make the match for the needs of the customer can be the main categories in the user experience journey. These categories can be organized in the form of a table to start with. Several related concepts can be listed for each of the categories. Elaborate the solutions with descriptions to evaluate further.
Rate the concepts for evaluating further, show the value flow for stakeholders. Foresight scenarios are built to facilitate discussion and focus to the process.
The solutions can be arrived at combining the concepts from each of these categories balancing business and customer needs.
Prepare
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Find
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Connect
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Follow up
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Demonstrating value to stakeholders with the new solutions is the purpose behind this exercise.
Several such design thinking exercises can be taken up.
Several such design thinking exercises can be taken up.
In order to explore the impact and convey the new insights for stakeholders I found the HBR article “Elements of Value” very useful.
Remember the Maslov model for the hierarchy of needs you studied in psychology in high school? In this article, the author adopts this basic model to today's businesses for fulfilling their customers' needs and desires. Know your customer enough that you address his needs rather than promote impossible to attain goals (and probably the business' goals). In the global business - the developing countries customers and their conceptual framework of benefits and risks are different from those of advanced countries. Businesses addressing several elements of value (services?) achieve loyal customers. Companies can strategically and gradually introduce services balancing the emotional and functional benefits to their consumers.
Prof Kumar shows how organizing the stakeholders as nodes in a network diagram, indicate how the elements of value flow among stakeholders.
Envision
On digital customer engagement:
The objective is to create user experiences, create value at every step, and compete on customer journeys.
Contextual interaction is one of the powerful concepts discussed in the article - "Competing on customer journeys".
As a business, you take your customers' journeys into your hands shaping their journeys and experiences at a very personal level. A tech savvy customer is already ahead of the journey, his insights about his purchasing power can overturn any business if not vigilant.
As a business, you take your customers' journeys into your hands shaping their journeys and experiences at a very personal level. A tech savvy customer is already ahead of the journey, his insights about his purchasing power can overturn any business if not vigilant.
Several examples are discussed in this article. Find how Loreal goes a step further, beyond recommendations. It lets its customers try on makeup virtually.
Think about how proactive businesses are expanding their Apps - for example, Starwood hotels check-in experiences, Delta (any) airlines app - the travel management tool for the users are some of the examples.
The article goes further in discussing the customer journey management and experience management roles for an organization.
Here, I must mention a related, earlier HBR article - "The Truth about customer experience". In this article, the authors urge businesses to make efforts to address broader perspectives and root causes of a customer call by engaging in deeper quests by creating feedback loops of interactions. The quest depends on how far the business is willing to go on whether to invest in transformational customer experiences or to address some glaring problems on the outset.
References:
Kumar, Vijay. 101 Design Methods: A Structured Approach for driving innovation in your organization; John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Almquist, E., Senior, J., & Bloch, N. (2016). The Elements of Value. (cover story). Harvard Business Review, 94(9),
46–92.
Rawson, A., Duncan, E., & Jones, C. (2013). The Truth about Customer Experience. Harvard Business
Review, 91(9), 90–98.
Edelman Marc, D. C. (2015). Competing on Customer Journeys. Harvard Business Review, 93(11), 88–7.
