Reflection – Learning Launch

Challenge

I work with an Oil & Gas company in  the Corporate strategy department and responsible for  conceptualizing and implementing digital initiatives across different business units (Retail, LPG,  Lubricants, Aviation, I&C, Gas)  across the organization. Currently our team working with our  Retail business unit ,which caters to fuels (Motorspirit, Diesel, CNG) requirements of customers  through Fuels and Gas station, to improve customer experience at our fuel stations.

We identified 4-5 digital initiatives under digital transformation exercise of Retail BU. One of  the initiatives we wanted to implement was Prepay before fuel options wherein the customer  will pay to our company in advance through online payment options like Netbanking, UPI etc.  We identified 6 key features under this initiatives and confident that the solution will like and  use by customers. However, basis my learning from this course, I suggested to test the key  assumptions and test the different elements of the solution before investing into the  technology.

Selection   As there were multiple key elements of Prepayment solution, it was important to test the  customer desirability and key assumptions before developing the full solutions.  We selected  “Learning Launch Tool” as it is important to conduct small experiments and test our idea and  prototype before designing the final solution.

Application   For our first learning launch, we decided to do “Concept testing” with 6 identified key elements  under prepayment solution to assess desirability of solution with customers. We use card  categorization and sorting methodology to understand customer desirability (and the reason)  for each 6 identified key features. We identified 20 people across 3 segments (segment cuts are  basis age groups, genders & fueling behaviors) and interviewed them for concept testing.     Basis positive customer feedback during concept testing, we decided to do second learning  launch by conducting “functional prototype testing” with our customers at fuel stations. We  identified 2 fuel stations in two different geography (one in urban city and one in rural area) to  test the solution with customers. We designed to conduct 3 days functional prototype testing in  each location covering all 6 identified key features. We developed a small application to test  the prototype and tested with 300 customers in each location capturing their feedback.

Insight

By applying the learning launch tool, our team tested the desirability of key features with  customers along with key assumptions. Although, we  thought that all the 6 key features of the  Prepayment solutions was liked by the users, after completing functional prototype testing, the  actual results reveal that 4 out of 6 features liked by users. Also, the key assumption  was that  customers are comfortable in doing Prepayment for fuel before coming to the fuel stations, but  prototype testing revealed that customers are much more comfortable to Prepay for fuel at the  fuel stations than prepay before visiting the fuel stations.  The insights were shared with Retail  BU and the team is incorporating the insights for final product design.

Approach

After seeing the result from our functional prototype testing and value of “Learning Launch  Tool”, our team has decided to use the “Learning Launch Tool” in our digital initiatives to test  the customer desirability and key assumptions and incorporate the insights into final product  design. Our team has realized the importance of doing quick prototyping and testing the  customer desirability and key assumption before implementing the final solution.

