Design Thinking – New Design Journey (Automative & Retail)

Challenge

When I was working in a company operating in different sectors, there was a need for a new product  and service design where different sectors could come together and cooperate. Although everyone  was very good in their field, we had a hard time developing different perspectives and figuring out  how to benefit from each other. The working group I was in was responsible for creating a new  design by combining automotive and home appliance products. It was difficult to develop a new  product and service by working together these two groups, which are far from each other and have  almost no common point. After having a few brainstorming sessions among the team members, we  started to dislike the ideas that came to mind. Designing a modular espresso machine inside the car  was the best idea that came to our mind. However, upon reflection, we came to the conclusion that  people take coffee breaks on long journeys and enjoy it.

Selection

Finally, we decided to change our method and use design thinking tools. What we needed was to go  to the end users and combine these two products according to their needs. We decided to use the  visualization tool for this. Because we wanted people to imagine their journeys, breaks and  experiences. We divided our work into two streams and visualized travels. We interviewed with 4  different families taking a long journey by car and 4 different business people returning home from  work in the evening traffic. Then, we evaluated how we can make a difference in their journeys by  putting all the images that came out side by side.

Application

We planned the workshops for two different days in the same week, with one day in between. Each  group briefly explained the purpose of the workshop to the invited participants, and asked them to  visualize the routes they followed in the summer: Their coffee breaks, their happy and unhappy  moments in the car. In all the drawings, visuals of foods and beverages were seen in the cars. If the  mind has placed something, it definitely has good and bad experiences about it and a story to tell.  When we asked about the experience of eating and drinking in the car, the rubic summary of the  problem occurred as follows.

What Is  What If  What Wows  What Works

While travelling in  summer, the beverages  get too hot to drink and  foods stink in the car.  Carrying mini travel cooler  takes a lot of space at the  backseat for crowded  families.

What if we had a  solution in the  interior design so  keeping bevereges  cold doesn't cost a  space in the car?

Integrating a  mini coller in  the luggage  area

Adjusting the luggage  compartment temperature.  Using refrigerator algorithm and  sensing if there are any foods or  beverages carried in the luggage  area and authomatically  adjusting the temperature.

At the end of the workshop with the first group, we had 3 great ideas. This also showed us that  nothing could be more directive than real experience. Of course, revealing the experience and

combining the parts was definitely an important competence and design thinking was the nature of  this business.

Unhappy, tired and angry faces were predominant in the drawings in the workshop with the second  group. When we went into detail, we learned that most people think about the time they will spend  to prepare dinner after going home. They mostly feel very tired and they eat unhealthy food when  they cannot deal with prepearing the meal. The rubic summary of the problem occurred as follows.

What Is  What If  What Wows  What Works

When it takes a long  time to go home,  there is no time to  prepare dinner or it  becomes very tiring

A meal prepared the  day before or in the  morning was ready  for us when we got  home?

Wasting no time for  dinner preperation  at nights during  week.

Designing an oven which can  keep meal fresh for 12 hours  and can be triggered to cook  when the car started to way  home

At the end of the second workshop we had 2 great ideas to present too.

Insights

Using visualization, we allowed people to see their routine experiences from a different perspective,  out of the picture. In this way, we enabled them to question the issues that cause them pain and  difficulties. When we asked the right questions, we saw what kind of difference-making solutions we  can actually implement. We have seen that we can integrate two segments that are very difficult to  combine at smart points with the design thinking method.

Approach

In the upcoming process, we decided to address the processes by developing different perspectives  by using the visualization, one of the design thinking tools, in new and innovative service-product  development processes.

