Reflection – Learning Launch

Challenge

I am a consultant in new ventures and innovation strategy and my task is to assist companies in their  innovation process. One of my project has concerned a Real Estate company willing to integrate its offer  with innovative services. The company established a partnership with a Tech company to develop a highly  sophisticated IoT solution to manage lighting, temperature, ventilation and several domestic appliances.  Thus, the tenants could monitor and control their devices through their smartphone or with voice  commands. However, the majority of its tenants didn’t want to buy the IoT solution.   Therefore, the Real Estate company engaged me and my team to understand what didn't work in the launch  and to prototype a new solution.

Selection

Our team went through several design thing activities and tools. We have exploited interview and  ethnographic research to understand the tenants’ needs and their preferences. We discovered that the IoT  solution developed was too sophisticated and hard to use for the main target of the Real Estate company.  The customer co-creation process allowed us to identify the integration of a touch screen display as a way  to simplify the use of the IoT solution. Finally, we tested our solutions through the learning launch. Jeanne  Liedtka and Tim Ogilvie define the learning launch as a tool that enables to create an affordable experiment  that lets customers experience the new solution, to test key assumption with market data. In other words,  the learning launch is a tool designed for quickly test a prototype. The purpose is to learn and then improve.

Application

Our first learning launch focused on testing user experience and user interface. In particular, we wanted to  see if the touch screen display was intuitive and easy to navigate. We have set up a house in which we have  integrated the new solution and we let a group of tenants experience it. We observed how they moved  around the house interacting with the technology and we questioned them on the problems they  encountered using it. Specifically, we were looking for discomfirming data that would prevent some of the  potetial customer to buy the IoT solution.  Based on the feedback received during the first learning launch, we have optimized the IoT solution.   We have further simplified the menu in order to offer a quick access to the various functions and we have  included a virtual “navigation” of the house to manage the automations. In addition, we have also given  greater prominence to the section that indicates the expenses as the economic saving is the main reason for  purchasing IoT solutions.   After having made these changes, we performed a second learning launch. During the second learning  launch, we noticed that tenants interacted easily with the technology and we perceived their satisfaction.  Indeed, we collected a lot of positive feedback as well as requests for the purchase of this IoT solution. When  the Real Estate company’s executives saw the results, they decided they didn’t need further pilots for  learning launch and they elected to scale the new solution immediately.

Insight

By applying the learning launch tool, our team was able to design launches to test its assumptions. Our  assumption, generated by asking the what-if question, was that the tenants would have been more likely to

buy the IoT solution if it had been integrated with a touch screen display. The learning launch is a tool  exploited to reply at the what-works question and to define the boundary conditions. In other words, we  investigated under which conditions our idea would have been a good idea. The test proved that our  assumption was true and that the display would have actually simplified the use of the technology. So, we  tested and refined the prototype until we reached a solution that satisfies the potential customers.   This process allow us to minimize the cost of conducting experiments by working in a fast feedback  environment. Collecting the opinions of the potential customers allows us to identify the solution’s  weaknesses and to improve it. In fact, the mantra of the learning launch approach is “fail early to succeed  sooner”.

Approach

Given that our team already gone through several design thinking activities and tools, the learning launch  seemed to us an appropriate tool to pursue the innovation process of the Real Estate company. After two  learning launch, the client was satisfied by the results and proceeded to the official launch.   We will use the learning launch also with other clients as it has proved to be an effective tool for  understanding customers’ needs and their preferences. In fact, customers' opinions are traditionally  listened after the launch, which makes more difficult and expensive to make changes to the product.  Instead, the learning launch allows activating an iterative process in which the solution is tested and  optimized based on customer feedbacks before the launch, enabling companies to save time and money.

