EXAMPLE REFLECTION-VISUALIZATION

CHALLENGE & SELECTION I am a freelance business design consultant. I employ design thinking techniques with  business model design frameworks to create people centric innovations. I was hired to  assist a local fast growing, nation wide, high-end bakery chain in developing a new  product to meet with the increasingly challenging market competition. The market  landscape was stagnant with the same repertoire of products. New entrants would simply  reproduce the same products over and over again, turing the market into mainly a price  based competition, oﬀering similar in quality products under diﬀerent branding. My ﬁrst  challenge was to convince the top management of the company to employ a people  centric approach and not the usual production focussed systematic approach that they  usually use. After long deliberations, I managed to convince them, under the promise that  the approach will be a low cost and fast“experiment” with eye opening insights.  The ﬁrst tool that I used was Visualization.Customers are people. People prefer to see  than to read. that was my assumption. It makes it easier for them to understand the  dimensions of a choice. After a quick review of the market, we decided to focus on an  under served segment: Children.

APPLICATION I designed sort of a visual survey made out of 10 segments. Each segment is composed  out of two pictures. There were no questions, just two pictures portraying two different  situations. For example, one picture would show a child, aged 3 to 5 years old happily  eating vegetables (broccoli, carrots, beats, etc…), versus a picture with a child in the same  age turning away from vegetables. Another example, a child happily and energetically  playing versus one with a child sitting and not doing anything. With a small team of  university interns, we went to social sporting clubs and met with mothers. We offered them  the pictures and asked them to choose the pictures that most likely described events/ situations occurring in their daily lives with their children. We made sure that we did not  interrupt them or inﬂuence them in any way. We also made sure that the group of mothers  we approached were diverse and covers a wide spectrum of mothers types (i.e., from least  to very protective, from least to very relaxed). We then asked them for their contact  information and whether or not they would like to be contacted later on.

INSIGHT  The very ﬁrst insight we uncovered was that children did not like to eat vegetables, and  that mothers were struggling to convince them to eat vegetables. The second insight was  that most mothers somehow are looking for ways to better interest their children to eat  better. We dedicated our eﬀorts to design a second round of testing by contacting some  of the mothers and asked them if they would like to share with us some stories about  their daily feeding interactions with their children. We wanted to conﬁrm the insights we  ﬁrst gathered with stories from the ﬁeld. We created a portfolio of stories that helped us  better understand the dynamics of eating habits of children and their interests in eating.  We understood that taste is a key factor, however the colours and textures of the food  itself is key to the ﬁnal decisions of whether or not a child would eat a certain type of food  or not.

APPROACH  I believe that using visual pictures was successful in showing the importance of the  people centric element in designing a product for the top management of the company.

They managed to see the emotions behind the decision making of selecting a certain  product versus another. However, next time, I would chose to make the pictures oﬀered in  a sequence of stories and not simply random. Combining visualization and storytelling in  one single test could be an even more powerful tool in understanding the “people” behind  the “customers”.


EXAMPLE REFLECTION - VISUALIZATION CHALLENGE & SELECTION I am a freelance business design consultant . I employ design thinking techniques with business model design frameworks to create people centric innovations . I was hired to assist a local fast growing , nation wide , high - end bakery chain in developing a new product to meet with the increasingly challenging market competition . The market landscape was stagnant with the same repertoire of products . New entrants would simply reproduce the same products over and over again , turing the market into mainly a price based competition , oﬀering similar in quality products under diﬀerent branding . My ﬁrst challenge was to convince the top management of the company to employ a people centric approach and not the usual production focussed systematic approach that they usually use . After long deliberations , I managed to convince them , under the promise that the approach will be a low cost and fast“experiment ” with eye opening insights . The ﬁrst tool that I used was Visualization . Customers are people . People prefer to see than to read . that was my assumption . It makes it easier for them to understand the dimensions of a choice . After a quick review of the market , we decided to focus on an under served segment : Children . APPLICATION I designed sort of a visual survey made out of 10 segments . Each segment is composed out of two pictures . There were no questions , just two pictures portraying two different situations . For example , one picture would show a child , aged 3 to 5 years old happily eating vegetables ( broccoli , carrots , beats , etc … ) , versus a picture with a child in the same age turning away from vegetables . Another example , a child happily and energetically playing versus one with a child sitting and not doing anything . With a small team of university interns , we went to social sporting clubs and met with mothers . We offered them the pictures and asked them to choose the pictures that most likely described events/ situations occurring in their daily lives with their children . We made sure that we did not interrupt them or inﬂuence them in any way . We also made sure that the group of mothers we approached were diverse and covers a wide spectrum of mothers types ( i.e. , from least to very protective , from least to very relaxed ) . We then asked them for their contact information and whether or not they would like to be contacted later on . INSIGHT The very ﬁrst insight we uncovered was that children did not like to eat vegetables , and that mothers were struggling to convince them to eat vegetables . The second insight was that most mothers somehow are looking for ways to better interest their children to eat better . We dedicated our eﬀorts to design a second round of testing by contacting some of the mothers and asked them if they would like to share with us some stories about their daily feeding interactions with their children . We wanted to conﬁrm the insights we ﬁrst gathered with stories from the ﬁeld . We created a portfolio of stories that helped us better understand the dynamics of eating habits of children and their interests in eating . We understood that taste is a key factor , however the colours and textures of the food itself is key to the ﬁnal decisions of whether or not a child would eat a certain type of food or not . APPROACH I believe that using visual pictures was successful in showing the importance of the people centric element in designing a product for the top management of the company . They managed to see the emotions behind the decision making of selecting a certain product versus another . However , next time , I would chose to make the pictures oﬀered in a sequence of stories and not simply random . Combining visualization and storytelling in one single test could be an even more powerful tool in understanding the “ people ” behind the “ customers ” .