Reflection – Learning Launch

Challenge

I work for one of the largest & reputed material manufacturer of my country. Our department is mandated to work  for increasing the revenue of the organisation by launching successful customer solutions. So, in the Covid Pandemic  scenario we were trying to identify the new normal in the country and the emerging needs of the consumer. There  was chaos all around with fear psychology seeping into everyone heart, and it was expected from a reputed company  like us to come up with a solution which will address the burning need of the consumer.

After much consumer research and deliberation within the team, we identified that sanitisation of grocery items,  parcels and potential virus carriers is a burning need of any household. As time was very important for the relevance  of the product, our team decided to work on a sanitizer which works on UV Technology.

Selection:

It was pertinent to us to move ahead with the initial design and the go for a small launch in a pre-determined territory  with immense focus on the time in hand. We were working on tight schedule and had to check the initial design and  the prototype. We opted for the Learning Launch tool with a stringent deadline and budget.

Application:

During the ideation process, we had taken into consideration certain assumptions. After the initial prototyping was  concluded we selected a geographical location to go ahead with the learning launch. We had to check whether is  perceiving the product in the same way that we assumed, the preferred price range and effectiveness of the channel  for the sales of the product. This activity was done for one week. Customers had their feedback for different features  of the product.

There were some questionnaires developed to understand on the customers feedback on our initial assumptions for  the business model. We also understood the different point of view of our internal stakeholders – channel partners,  ecommerce sites.

Insights:

The tool helped us to untangle the initial assumptions. The insights generated from the customer meet helped us to  rethink on the actual problem -  and the problem statement got redefined. The hypothesis at the beginning of the  project became null & void. The tool gave us the opportunity to engage with the end customers and gather the  insights. The assumptions were not confirmed by the data gathered. Based on the insights gathered, the concept was  put on hold.

Approach

We found the learning launch to be an easy to implement tool and it becomes very easy for our entire team to track  the developments. From insight generation to product launch, this tool becomes a part of the system. Identifying the  unarticulated needs of the customer is all the more easy with this kind of tool.

