Mind Mapping and Learning Launch in the Cosmetics Industry

Challenge

I’m part of the hair care product development team in a cosmetics company. One of the most  significate challenges that we had to solve recently was the transition of the research and  innovation process from a technology focused method to a consumer focused one. In our  previous projects, once the laboratory teams discovered a new technology or process, we  would start developing new products and launch them in the market right away. But, most of  the time, those new products weren’t a big hit between costumers. And that’s why our  challenge was to keep developing innovation-led products, but now focusing on our costumers  and learning how they feel about our products.

Selection

For this challenge, our team decided to go with a combination of two design thinking tools.  First, we used Mind Mapping to understand better our costumers and search for patterns that  would help us in our problem solving. Later, we used the Learning Launch tool, producing small  batches of new products based in our consumer-led research to understand better how our  consumers felt about them.

Application

We started our innovation process by asking a group of 50 costumers and potential costumers  to come to the company’s headquarters for an event called “costumer day”. We started with a  survey to better understand our costumers’ routines, activities, relationships, habits, pains,  desires and how those elements impacted on their lives. Then, we divided them in five groups  for an activity where they should create an imaginary cosmetic product for their hair, pointing  the main benefits they expected from it.

When our “costumer day” was over, we started searching for patterns in the data we  collected. We were able to create four personas (who the company served). Using the Mind  Mapping tool made analyzing this diverse costumer group much easier. With these four  personas, we could develop our new products with a more consumer focused strategy.

The insights generated during the imaginary product creation were used in the Learning  Launch step of our project. Our goal was to transform all those insights and the benefits  pointed in innovative hair care products for each one of the four personas mapped with the  Mind Mapping tool.

The team was responsible for producing small batches of hair care cosmetics for each one of  the four groups (or the four personas) of costumers/potential costumers. We had weekly  sessions with the 50 costumers so they could receive samples of the new products (each one  received the product designated for their specific persona), test them for a week and give  reviews on the products they received the week before.

After a five-week journey and some adaptations in our first prototypes, our team came up with  four innovative products that integrated our portfolio as perfect matches with our consumers’  expectations and hair types.

Insight

Applying the Mind Mapping and the Learning Launch tools was challenging for a company once  used to business plans and technology focused development. For the first time, we were  listening to what the costumer had to say, what he/she expected from a cosmetic product,  instead of using the last laboratory discovery to give them something that we thought was  necessary and innovative.

The Mind Mapping tool helped us to see our costumers as real people instead of as some  stakeholders. The creation of the four personas was a key element to better understand the  main concerns and expectations related to a hair care product, as well as how would this  product be a part of our costumers’ routines and lives. The Learning Launch tool was very  important in the experimentation step and let us fail early and cheap with small batches of  new formulas, making it easier to find out what our costumers really needed and expected.

Approach

Using the design thinking tools, we discovered new, easier and more assertive ways to  innovate. Today the company uses both Mind Mapping and Learning Launch tools in the  product development processes. Later on, in a few years, we’ll be able to analyze the progress  made and the market results as an impact of the design thinking approach of our most recent  projects.

