Reflection – Visualization

Challenge

I recently joined a firm that focuses on providing innovation and consulting services. As part of our  working with clients we often like to use the concepts of Design Thinking in our methodology. Recently,  we worked with a client who is interested in having their customers prolong the use of their services.  Specifically, our client is a provider of moving containers.  When people are looking to change  residences, they could hire a moving company to have movers come to their home, pack up their  belongings into a moving van, transport the belongings to the customer’s new residence, and move  them into their new house.  Usually, this entire process just takes a few days.

Our client provides home movers a different option - Our client delivers a standalone moving container  to their customer’s home, and it remains in the customer’s driveway for as long as they like until the  customer has filled it with his/her belongings.  At that time, our client picks up the moving container and  delivers it to the customer’s new residence for them to unload on their own time schedule.  Once the  container is empty, our client takes it back to their storage facility.

Our client is interested in having customers rent the containers for longer time periods, and perhaps  consider the containers to be an option to self-storage units, in addition to being moving containers.  If  customers were to use containers for storage of personal items instead of just for relocation, they could  theoretically rent the containers for months or even years.

Selection

In meeting with a team of our client’s mid-level vice presidents, to help them explore new concepts, we  selected visualization as the tool we would use.  We thought that if we could get the executives to draw  their ideas on poster-boards and large pieces of paper, instead of just using words, we could help them  come up with creative solutions.  We provided markers and paper and requested they draw new ways  to use moving containers.

Application

In an effort to get their creative juices flowing, we told the VP’s we would be asking them to draw two  different ideas.  For the first round, we asked them to draw their most ludicrous, “these will get you  fired”, concepts. During this exercise we saw drawings of moving containers being delivered by  helicopter and by boat; a robotic self-driving unit with wheels that would fold up underneath for easier  stacking in storage; keypads for 24-hour access to their storage facility along with escalators to reach  high-stacked units; windows on the sides of a unit to see contents inside instead of the usual steel  siding; a pizza oven built into the side of a unit; and a unit painted in camouflage to have it blend in  better in a front yard.

For the second round, we asked them to draw concepts that were more practical, and they could re- use ideas that could be reasonably implemented from the first round.  Among the ideas brought forth  this time was having artists paint units to have them look more like attractive works of art; having a  complimentary pizza delivered when a customer relocates their unit; consideration of workable ways to

allow customers access to their units, and having units delivered/removed for customers to briefly  access their unit.

Insight

By applying the visualization tool, we were able to elicit ideas from our client’s executives we may not  have been able to get otherwise. We were looking for ways to get customers to think of the moving  units differently as well as how to use them differently.  By using design thinking we were successfully  able to have our client think beyond the traditional use of a moving container and develop creative new  uses, benefits and advantages of renting units.

Approach

We were pleased with the use of the visualization tool and the outcomes that were achieved. In fact,  our client intends to prototype a couple of the ideas that were generated.  Specifically, they are going to  have an artist paint a small number of units to see if aesthetic appeal has an impact on rental lengths,  and they are also going to try providing customers 24-hour access to their units at one of their facilities  by adding additional staff and security.  In review, we would reuse the visualization tool for the valuable  insights it provided.  However, in addition to working with our client’s employees, we also think that  doing visualization exercises with an outside research group which include both our client’s previous  customers, as well as current customers of traditional storage units, we would generate additional  concepts that would be empathetic to the end user.

