eday2010 julia leihener deutsche telekom

How sticky research drives service design

Julia Leihener (Telekom Laboratories, Creation Center/Berlin)Geke van Dijk (STBY Amsterdam/London)

Emerce eDay, 16 September 2010

How can we create a service experience that is enjoyable and valuable for the people we design for?

We need to put ourselves into the shoes of our future users and walk around in them for a while.

Qualitative, ethnographic research helps to:- identify customer insights and opportunities- inspire ideas for new services- evaluate and communicate results within organisation

The results of the research need to be ‘sticky’ to avoid that the shoes get lost during the process.

Project example:How can we enhance community interaction on mobile phones?

Telekom Creation Center

SPUR

STBY

Creation Center

SPUR

STBY

Research participants T-Mobile product managers

Research as inspiration:New ideas need to be nudged by something.

We considered editing right from the start through our scripting.

More than 250 clips > 1 day of editing > 36 movies

Example 1:We managed to get close to people even in moments when they wanted to be left alone.

Creation Center

SPUR

STBY

Research participants T-Mobile product managers

Inspiration Inspiration

Inspiration

Example 2:The results were powerful because we got very personal stories.

The movies were:intense, real, undigested, emotional, spicy.

Strong ideas need to be rooted in everyday life.From insights to concepts, movies offer strong evidence.

To see if the ideas that were generated would actually work, we need to keep getting back into those shoes.

Example 3:The movies helped us to understand how our concepts would work in everyday life.

Ideas only become really valuable both for the user and the company if they get implemented.

Project team

Research participants

Company executives

What the movies offer:- show the research and concepting process- illustrate opportunities for new services- explain and show the relevance of ideas

How the movies do this:- by providing a universal language- by helping to empathise with future users- by placing everyday life into every discussion

"The research and the ideas are burned into my head." Axel, Head of Messaging and Community Products

"It was not anything I could have developed at my desk.”Tony, Marketing Manager Messaging

"Now we have much more confidence

that the ideas we have come up with

are valuable for our customers."Thomas, Senior Manager Mobile Community Messaging

What happened ever since:- communication of selected concepts- development and testing of prototype- public presentation at Innovation Day

Thank you. julia.leihener@telekom.degeke@stby.eu