In Part 2 of this six-part series, we investigate the first fundamental of our Design-led approach – Designing the Experience.
Businesses need a compelling vision to create a remarkable, valuable and branded experience. Without a clear vision, an understanding of your customers and a definition of the target experience (in a form that everyone can understand, and get excited about), there is no defined target for the service and value it should provide. Contributing teams and front-line colleagues need to understand why and in what they are investing their time and energy for them to be motivated and committed.
The associated challenges that businesses face:
- Imagining what a new service or experience could be and how to build it.
- Finding ways to differentiate and create new value for both customers and the business.
- Not only improving the service but making it feel distinctly branded.
- Needing to get everything aligned around a central view of customers and their needs, to avoid wasted effort.
- Developing an experience that understands the questions and challenges being posed of the current operation and business.
The activities and assets that help you succeed:
- Conducting qualitative design research and drawing inspiration from leaders in related worlds.
- Developing the vision and strategy for the target experience and the principles that underpin success.
- Creating customer personas to build empathy with the needs and values of those you are designing for.
- Imagining the ideas and new solutions and designing the journeys from which new services are assembled.
- Detailing the omnichannel design across all the interrelated touchpoints and channels in play.
- Prototyping and piloting the selected solutions to assess the customer and business value in the real world.
- Defining the value case to reassure decision-makers of the rationale for investment and change.