Tag Archive | business development

WELL DESIGNED BUSINESS

Dec6

How well your business adapts to changes?

The world is in constant change. Design knowledge is a vital competence in making companies ready to face changes in their environment. Design`s starting point should always be customers and their needs. Design thinking helps forecast the future and develop organization`s operations to be more flexible, resilient and adaptable.

The importance of design capabilities in safeguarding strong and sustainable business was the topic of Design Forum Finland`s panel discussion in October 2021. The panelists included Satu Heikinheimo (Fraktio), Aino Vepsäläinen (DFF), Minna Koskelo (11Helsinki), Jenni Tuomisto (Schibstedt), Juha Salmela (Spinnova) and Nora Haatainen (Fiskars Group).

Design as part of the business strategy

Senior service designer Satu Heikinheimo underlined that design belongs to all of us, and should not be isolated from the everyday life. Everything around us has been designed: every artefact, service and space is result of a design process. Whether you buy a bus ticket with the HSL app, reserve a medical appointment, or visit a library, all these have been designed by someone.

Employee experience is something that many organizations have recently started to design in order to make employees feel well at the workplace and at the same time increase the productivity and innovation. The physical working space, small services and well-thought details can make a huge difference in improving the commitment, cohesion and work ethic of the employees. Free breakfast in the morning, inspiring artwork at the office lobby or a joint Christmas tree decoration event among the employees may not be huge financial investments for the employer but can improve remarkably the employee experience.

Picture Colin Tessevich. https://www.shinehomepv.com/how-a-green-office-design-can-transform-your-business.html

Business models are also under enormous change and re-design process. In a relatively short time frame, new services and new ways of providing them have emerged. At the moment, world`s largest accommodation service is AirBnB which does not own one single hotel or apartment, world`s largest taxi service is Uber which does not own one single car, and world largest online shop is Alibaba which does not own any of the items it sells. Also, the covid pandemic forced organizations to impose remote work in a large scale which has enormously changed the ways people work and organizations operate.  

Platform economy has created totally new business models and all organizations are under pressure to revise the current models and adapt to the new expectations of the customers. The re-designing of business model forces the organization to conduct an in-depth inventory: who are our customers, what is our focus, how do we best serve our customers, and how do we differentiate from our competitors?

Design`s main objective is to bring clarity into unclarity and obscurity, and to make products and services as desirable as possible so that they fulfill the multiple needs and motivations of the customer. In design, people are put in the center. The starting point is to explore the real problems and then design a solution to them, versus having a solution and trying to sell that to customers. Without conscious design, services are often burdensome to implement and don`t solve the real problems people have. Hence, design saves money, reduces risks and improves the customer experience.

The best take-away from the panel discussion was the note that a designer should always find out the challenges and problems first, and not start with designing a solution. Design is not about innovating and creating, but rather about diving deep into the life of the customers and asking questions.

Where does the design process end, and when can a service designer consider the service as being ready? According to the panelists, service design is a constant learning process and effectively a service is never completely ready. A permanent learning mind-set is an important capability that a designer should acquire.  

Designing the future

According to Minna Koskelo the evolution of design starts with the product design, develops through service design and business model design up to the future design. Organizations that are resilient and have invested in designing their future are 33 % more profitable and grow 200 % faster than their competitors. Still, many organizations don`t actively and systematically forecast the future and prepare for it because they focus on short-term wins and profit. Investing in long-term future forecasts does not fit well in the quarter economy.

Future forecasting is not only about recognizing the signals, but also how to interpret them from the organization`s point of view. Most importantly, organizations and private persons should understand their role as active architects of the future, and stop being passive victims or spectators. Future is something we all create every moment.

Future cannot be discussed without mentioning circular economy and sustainability. Three companies presented their businesses that strongly lean on sustainability: Tori.fi (Schipsted), Finnova and Fiskars. Tori.fi platform facilitates the selling and buying of second-hand items. Every single day a stunning number of 20,000 deals are being agreed in Tori.fi, meaning that all those items find a new life and virgin resources are not exploited to fabricate new products. Someone`s trash can be a treasure for someone else.

Finnova produces environmentally friendly textile fabrics from wood and waste using zero harmful chemicals. Finnova already has created partnerships with renowned brands. Fiskars aims at gaining 50% of the revenue from circular economy products and services by 2030. Renting and sharing are gaining ground also in the sector of small products and kitchen utensils. Tableware can be rented instead of buying, and old frying pans can be renovated instead of throwing them away.

Crisis and frustration contribute to change

Human beings inherently feel fear towards new things. In abnormal circumstances, such as the current pandemic, the need for social cohesion and forgiveness increases. The constantly changing world does not allow any organization to stay static.

On the other hand, not all innovations become shooting stars and not all can be scaled up. This is something that needs to be accepted as being part of the game. If an innovation does not work, it is better to let it go and start looking for new solutions. We can learn from our successes and failures but also from others`. As Minna Koskelo put it: frustration is an important resource. The annoyance contains the seeds for change. If everything goes too smoothly and nicely, it is difficult to find motivation to develop things.

Already now practically all sectors have adopted business models that are based on streaming and platforms. What will be the next step? How could we solve the challenges these new ways of delivering services have created? For example, a family may have five different subscriptions of program streaming, a Wolt driver has no right to benefits and sick leave, and not all Tori.fi sellers are trustworthy and can steal your money. While these services are here to stay, we must find solutions to the current problems and design them better.

Organizations should take a longer and wider perspective when forecasting and planning the future. It is worth looking across different sectors and analyzing drivers that are not directly linked to one`s own business: political, social, technological, legislative etc.

We cannot control the entire future, but we can control how it is being designed. It is important to pay attention to who is using the power when we talk about future. Who`s vision of future is it?

– Laura Ekholm

Embracing change at the Service Design Global Conference 2020

Oct30

The international community, Service Design Network (SDN), founded in 2004, arranged an online conference focusing on service design in October of 2020. The conference was planned to be held physically in Copenhagen, but due to the global pandemic, all keynotes, workshops, and other events were held online utilizing convenient tools for collaboration.

This year’s theme was embracing change, a topic strongly reflected in all presentations. Keynote speakers this year were employees of big corporations and experts in service design from different cultures, countries and time zones.

In this blog post I summarize two intriguing presentations and ponder service design trends and opportunities for value creation in companies.

Embracing change and service design today

Birgit Mager, one of the founders of the SDN community and the first Professor in Service Design globally, has attended every SDGC conference since the beginning. In a short introductory presentation, Status of Service Design Today, Mager explains current transformation in operations of companies and how the roles of service designers have changed over time. Although service designers by default are optimistic, the “new normal” (due to Covid) has largely impacted ways of work, she says.

Mager emphasizes that the important of technology substantially has grown, but the future lies in utilizing both new technology and data to create services. Currently, we already are using a lot of technology and conduct research online, but a change has happened in agencies, where e.g. data scientists are involved as new roles in service design, Mager explains.

In addition to these, ethics has been put as a focus when creating services. Other equally relevant areas are sustainability, accessibility, and participation, Mager mentions.

Designing aviation future through design

The Dutch aviation company, KLM, founded over a hundred years ago, has recently been facing challenges due to the global pandemic and how it has changed the aviation industry. The complex industry is naturally very regulated and evolves rapidly as consumers are becoming extensively environmentally aware.

In a jointed keynote, Ryanne Van De Streek, project manager at KLM, and Anouk Randag, service design consultant at Livework, presented a sample of methods through which KLM has introduced new ways to innovate and develop services.

As a company, KLM has already for some time put efforts on design and has also started design initiatives that currently are in use. KLM, however, wanted to continue developing these new methods with a goal to activate ~1500 employees, to develop competences and to involve innovation in a system by the end of 2023.

According to Randag, high impact can be created by utilizing, developing and scaling current initiatives. In her presentation and new model was presented that had been co-created iteratively within KLM as an organization.

Although KLM drastically have had to cut budgets due to Covid, Van De Streek explains that certain areas still are being put in action. For example, are their new service design principles and process (”KLM X way of working”) shared with new employees to foster agility, as this continuously is needed in their industry.

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To summarize, we can conclude that although service design is quite a broad principle, it can work as a great way to develop internal working methods and sustainable business in organizations. By being open to new ideas, utilizing current competences and starting initiatives, with a focus on building custom ways to work, organizations can achieve innovation and test new business models.

Written by Thomas Djupsjö
MBA Student at Laurea, University of Applied Sciences 

Design Thinking for Uncertainty

Oct1

The greatest learning that I got from the Design Thinking course was about uncertainty. Design Thinking as a concept and process was not new to me, but what really struck me during the course, was how Design Thinking can be used in a business context to manage uncertainty.

The future is getting less and less predictable by past data. For many in the traditional business environment the way to create new has been by careful analysis and research of the past and currents markets. In the modern ever so competitive business environment to really succeed this is not enough. New innovative solutions must be created. When you cannot trust the previous data and development methods you need something else to rely on. This uncertainty and need for innovation has given the rise of Design Thinking in the business world. It has brought the design process and mentality to the business context.

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Design Thinking – from brain errors to innovations

Sep23

Have you ever been in a situation when you know your business isn’t going as smoothly as it should? You know that something should be done but you don’t know where to start or can’t identify the business problems or the customers’ needs? How do you feel about failure as a part of innovating? Have you ever thought about establishing an innovation process WITH your customers instead of old fashioned way, FOR your customers? Are you confused?

These are all questions that pop up when talking about Design Thinking (DT).

What is it and how can it help to develop your business?

Design Thinking combines human-centricity and design methods with problem solving and innovation process. It focuses in organization’s ability to produce new content, develop business and make development work cross sectoral and organizational boundaries. DT’s core is located somewhere between human-centered approach, collaborative way of working and co-creation with stakeholders and the end-users.

The work itself takes place in multidisciplinary teams that are facilitated by designers whose expertise consists of the ability to match human needs with technical resources, constrains and objectives of the project or business, and ultimately conversion into customer value and market opportunity by using different DT process and tools. In DT feelings and emotions as well as failures and mistakes plays big role when achieving the results like new processes, services and ways of communication and collaboration.

There are multiple different Design Thinking process models that can be used. The choice depends on various factors, e.g. the characteristics of the innovation project and its context, the team dynamics and the time available for the process. There’s no such thing as a perfect DT process model and pioneers in the field all have their own opinions.

Design Thinking in practice

We had two-day intensive DT workshop where we concentrated on Evolution 62 model developed by Katja Tschimmel in 2015. The name of the process model refers to the six phases that all start with the letter E:

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Design Thinking – just another buzzword?

Sep22

Nowadays service design is a hot topic everywhere. What is behind the word design, that gets easily associated with luxury and high price. How is it linked with building better services?  Little ironically to the association, the roots of design lay firmly on the ground of functionality, simplicity and purpose. In the book Design Thinking for Strategic Innovation by Idris Moore, design thinking is defined as the search of magical balance between business and art; structure and chaos; intuition and logic; concept and execution; playfulness and formality; and control and empowerment. In practice meaning that Design Thinking is to be seen as a thinking process discovering new realities with the help of design culture and methods. Don´t let the lack of concrete in the definition bother you as the design thinking methods and tools are actually very tangible.

 

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Creativity meats processes

Two days spent on Katja Tschimmel´s master class clarified very well, that service design is actually a very structured process, where you proceed from phase to another to reach your goal. The process applies Design Thinking principles such as human centered approach, fast prototyping and co-creation. During the lessons we deepened our understanding by experimenting in practice the phases of Mindshake Design Thinking Evolution 6² model. Several other process models exist. Characteristic to the models is the alternation of divergent and convergent stages. I surely felt like being on a roller coaster ride as we were experimenting various tools of different phases in practice. As the theory was taught by doing, we were forced to innovate. Our process started with a mind map around the word studying and we ended up drawing visual business models. It surely was fun, but also very tough work as you experience such a wide range of emotions during the process. Ideo´s 3 I model explains this: You start from inspiration phase continuing to innovation and landing into the implementation phase.

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Women in Tech 2015 – match-making across industries to discover hot spots of innovation!

Nov12

Women in Tech 2015 was arranged on 7th October in Helsinki with the theme “Make a difference!” and lured women of all ages with an interest in the future of business and technology to participate.

The guest speakers Stephanie Keller-Bottom and Tammy Noll motivated us as women to be the change we want to see.

image image

Besides talking on the issue of women in tech, Stephanie introduced current trends of which corporate venturing standed out to me – that corporations are developing startup mentality and launching projects inside corporations. Tammy encouraged us to have more tolerance for risk of failure and more resilience. We should “fall gracefully” and move on with our focus – with devotion.

After the speeches I participated a nicely organized and lead workshop by Tieto Experience Hub’s Ksenia Avetisova and Fanny Vakkila on the theme Industry match-making as a strategic tool for innovation.

Tieto is approaching innovation and design with strategy driven collaborative models, engaging in the strategic themes of gamification of health, medializing commerce and energizing economy. They believe that innovations with breakthrough potential can be discovered in the hot spots between industries, companies and cultures. The goal is to create maximum impact and superior customer experience.

In the workshop we were divided into 8 teams. We started off with sharing our “superpowers” .

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Open data and its potential – free information for all

Nov5

What do we mean by open data? It is material which is created by public administration, organisations, companies or private persons and which is freely available and free of charge for the use of others. I attended a morning coffee event held by the Urban Academy, where launching of the open data of the City of Helsinki and its scientific implications were discussed. The Urban Academy´s main partners are the City of Helsinki, the University of Helsinki and the Aalto University. The Urban Academy brings together officials, policymakers, students, researchers and residents to share their experiences, knowledge and opinions with one another.

Tanja Lahti, Open data advocate and Project manager at City of Helsinki, Helsinki Region Infoshare

Tanja Lahti, Open data advocate and Project manager at City of Helsinki, Helsinki Region Infoshare

Tanja Lahti, an Open data advocate and Project manager at the City of Helsinki, gave an inspiring speech on how open data takes us towards a more democratic Helsinki. She stressed the advantages of open data: more effective public administration, improved transparency and democracy for residents and last but not least broader trade activity and more innovation for enterprises.

Mrs. Lahti talked also about one of the most important data openings this year – the Ahjo Explorer which is a free App providing residents with data on the political decision making of the City of Helsinki.The App is in a machine-readable form and brings openness and transparency into municipal politics and can be used in many different ways. The App allows the political decision making to be followed wherever and whenever with updates once a day. I found it very interesting when she spoke about an application that uses open data – the Blindsquare, which is the world´s most popular accessible GPS-app for the visually impaired and blind to help them move around the city using their smartphones. The app describes the environment and announces points of interest and street intersections.

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Lean Startup & how to test our most dangerous assumptions in an affordable and quick way?

Nov1

Tuomas Mikkonen from company called Connection held a one evening course on agile product and service business development with lean startup method. I attended this course in the end of September as it was available in the series of events organized by IT-Ekonomit and Ekonomiyrittäjät.

We all in SID 2015 have recently gotten familiar with Lean Startup concept, as one of our basic DT courses (New Service Development) has the Harvard Business Review article by Steve Blank as compulsory reading. So, I will not present detailedly what Lean Startup as a methodology is based on but instead will pick the major insights of the training.

“If they come, we will build it.”

Building a new business model starts with understanding the customer and creating the right hypothesis of her/his problem. The problem has to be…

General

Repeating

Painful

Expensive

Specific

and not yet solved.

It is crucial not just to test the hypothesis and the solution with real people, but also to test whether they are WILLING TO PAY FOR IT.

“Do not pitch the solution yet!”

When in the stage of testing our hypothesis of a solution, we should define the most DANGEROUS ASSUMPTIONS about it and test them. The ones that can cause it to fail – and those ones usually relate to the ACTUAL BEHAVIOR of people, not on technical challenges or organizational problems.

We should not fall in love with our idea in this phase – so pitching the solution is not the way to go yet.

3 principles of MVP

Coming up with a minimum viable product presumes we are able to assume we are wrong in everything before we have tested and proved the solution works. The second principle guides to observing the real behavior – not what people say, but what they actually do. Third principle is that of virtue of laziness – testing the most dangerous assumption in the most affordable and quickest way.

So how to test affordably & quickly?

Smoke test: test the interest towards your solution with a web page. If people choose the solution, direct them into a newsletter or a waiting list for your solution. Measure the conversion rate – how many choose vs. do not choose the solution. (Tools: Wix, Unbounce, Launchrock, WordPress…)

Video MVP: create a video explaining the basic idea of the concept. Direct interested people to a waiting list or a crowdfunding site. (Tools: Moovly, iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, Youtube, Vimeo…)

Concierge: create a personalized automatisation to target group (or an illusion of automisation). Ideal for testing solutions that need a lot of coding or infra with small investment. Not easily scalable but works for learning – to validate which features are necessary and which not.

Wizard-of-Oz: automating or imitating service to the target customer. Service is embedded into other services or processes, not visible. Ideal for testing services needing plenty of automation.

Prototype / wireframe: physical product or software is prototyped, for exploring market potential and testing features. (Tools: Balsamiq mockups, Kinetisse, Axure…)

Lessons learned?

During the course we would work in groups on a hypothesis. Our group on my suggestion took the challenge of immigrant integration into Finnish working and civil life as a challenge to work on. At first we got along with the subject very well and the discussion was versatile, we could see that all the criteria of a relevant problem were fulfilled. The challenges started in the testing phase. The lean startup as a method is more suitable for ideas that have a strong web-service based element and for ideas that are very well and narrowly defined. But I did get a good repertory of ideas from the team!

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(This post contributes to the course of Current Topics in Service Design.)

Digitalization has to be lead in organizations – but how?

Oct18

On 30th September I had the chance to participate an event organized by PRY (Projektiyhdistys ), which is the local Finnish association belonging to IPMA (International Project Management Association). IPMA is known for its project management certification system.

The purpose of this theme event of digitalization was to get introduced to methods and lessons that can be of help in advancing digitalization development in organizations in Finland and thus lead us as an economy back to the growth trend.

I think this as a current issue in design thinking as service designers participate in design projects involving digital concepts and their skills are also needed in transforming an organization’s mental mode towards design thinking (DT), due to the growing pressure to digitalize processes or entire business models that requires DT approach.

Why is everybody now talking about digitalization?

Vesa Ilmarinen, the founder of Katalysti company, probed us first on our perceptions of digitalization. He defined it as an operative change that needs leadership. Currently, digitalization is a hype term in the media and it arouses both concerns and hopes. Concerns in that it destroys many jobs and hope in that it creates new kinds of businesses and job opportunities. One could imagine service design to be one of those new opportunities. Vesa mentioned trends leading to digitalization being rapid technological development that affects consumer behavior patterns, shift of power from service and product providers to consumers and thus the increased demand for rapid responses, honesty and transparency from organizations.

Finnish success stories of digitalization

Vesa has recently published a book together with Kai Koskela on challenges of digitalization in Finnish companies, called Digitalisaatiohaaste – Yritysjohdon käsikirja. The first edition was sold out in a month and second one is coming soon. There are plenty of examples of Finnish success stories in the book, here a few he mentioned:

  • Kalevala Koru – 3D-printable plastic jewelry
  • Finnmatkat – travel agency online services
  • Enevo – optimizing disposal of garbage with garbage bins containing sensors

Elementary in making digitalization a success story

according to the authors is not solely the technological capabilities,

but introducing new kind of leadership and ways of working to the organization.

Digitalization often requires renewing strategy,

operative model of the company and the company culture.

How to proceed with this change?

Vesa introduced four lessons on how an organization can take leadership in the digitalization development. They are grouped on the following image with related activities specified further.

4lessons_digitalize_organization

During the remaining part of the event, project manager Pirjo Saksi from Ministry of the Environment shared her experiences on stakeholder management as a tool for leading change. Her project is the first joint development project in the public administration (national register for housing company shares of stock) involving diverse public actors. Thus stakeholder analysis is of great importance to engage everyone and to enable decision making.

(This post contributes to the course of Current Topics in Service Design.)

Design Thinking helps you to move better when creating something new

Oct8

We had two great mind shaking days on September when Katja Tschimmel introduced us to Design Thinking (DT), the concept and toolkit for creative processes. You can call DT also a mindset: “the way of thinking and doing”. It is meant also for organisations and businesses outside design field.

DT_SIDcourse

We had a concrete case and went through DT process using Evolution 62 model, which Katja has developed, as our guide through creative process. In different spaces of the model, there are several tools from which to pick up the most suitable ones. Those collaborative tools helped us on our way to get understanding and knowledge of the people and context, emerge and generate new ideas from the insights, define and evaluate solutions and finally prototype our value proposition.

It was a very good learning process by doing and we had fun!

Characteristics of Design Thinking

DT is human-centered approach. Multidisciplinary teams design product/services with users. Users are experts in interaction with products/services and their experiences are always true. When understanding other people you need to be able to empathize by stepping on your customer´s shoes (remember to take your own ones away first) to understand their mental state (emotions, feelings), motivations and hidden unstated needs in their context.

Visualising the problem and solution helps to build common understanding. Visualising is like “an external visual memory” for creative process. It frees space to dialogue, to thinking and to seeing all aspects between the problem and solution. Making abstract issues tangible and concrete is important. Early, cheap prototyping and fast failure belong to DT cost-effective process.

Design thinking is iterating and non-linear process although models are usually visualised in sequence order. What is common for DT models is that divergence and convergence phases follow each other. Design thinkers need to be comfortable with uncertainty, unexpected situations and incomplete information.

Using abductive reasoning, seeing new perspectives and future possibilities that do not fit on existing business models is typical.

DT is made for businesses

I see that Design Thinking concept helps organisations to think wider the innovation possibilities to develop existing value propositions, innovate new ones and solve problems to create better future.

Design Thinking brings to business people guiding structured model and helping tools to innovate and develop their businesses in complex, fast changing ecosystems where value chains aren´t linear anymore and you need to understand value networks with multiple actors when constantly developing your business. DT encourages organisations to experiment beyond existing products/services.

There is several good DT models to choose from and it depends on issues like existing resources, timetable, context, innovation field and of course which model feels to be the best for organisation`s purpose. I see this part also a challenge for DT concept as it is offered to business organisations which may not have experience from design models and tools before hand. The challenge can be that organisations do not have time to figure out which model to choose, they may feel confused about different models available and that way loose interest.

Build innovations through humans and experiences

I read Vijay Kumar`s 101 Design Methods book, which presents a structured, practical design thinking approach for building innovations within organisations.

Kumar raised the importance to understanding organisation as whole, its culture and processes, and what innovation actually is, before diving into the innovation process. In my point of view Kumar sees DT possibilities even wider perspective, not only as a concept for innovation processes, but change management tool to building innovation culture to organization`s DNA. In his book he raised four key principles that can be found from organisations, which have been successful innovators.

1# Build innovation around experiences

2# Think of innovations as systems

3# Cultivate an innovation culture

4# Adopt a disciplined innovation process

I see that the wider understanding about the humans, their experiences and context is crucial for building reliable innovations. Especially I like the first principle as it is really human-centered concentrating to user experiences beyond the product or services e.g. running shoes vs running. Reframing the perspective greatens the possibilities for innovation. Design Thinking process helps design thinkers to create this kind of experience-focused innovations.

Kumar`s easy to follow DT model for innovation processes is divided into seven modes. Every modes has their own goals and activities. Book practically guides to cultivate right kind of mindset in every mode. Right mindset helps being fluency enough to be creative and effective in the innovation process.

Vilay Kumar`s Design Innovation Process modelThe modes and 101 methods of Vilay Kumar`s Design Innovation Process model

Vilay Kumar`s Design Innovation Process model, seven modes and 101 methods.

The future and world we are living may seem to be foggy, but when you go out and observe world with empathy and then visualise your insights everything comes clearer. Design Thinking is there to help and guide organisations to better future.

Written by Marjukka Rantala – Laurea, Helsinki, Finland

Sources

Tschimmel, Katja 2012. Design Thinking as an effective Toolkit for Innovation. In: Proceedings of the XXIII ISPIM Conference: Action for Innovation: Innovating from Experience. Barcelona.

Kumar, Vijay 2013. 101 Design Methods: Structured Approach for Driving Innovation in Your Organization. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New Jersey.