How to Lead Design Thinking When People Aren’t Familiar with It?

Why Strong Leadership Is Crucial

Even more than other change-management processes, design thinking requires active and effective leadership to keep efforts on a path to success.

How?

By leveraging empathy, encouraging divergence and navigating ambiguity, and rehearsing new futures. #commercialinnovation #servicedesign

The importance of customer centricity and customer experience in B2B

B2B companies will also need to shift to a customer-centered business model

Three Driving Forces in B2B Markets

Consumerization of customer expectations

Distinct characteristics of B2B purchasing

Evolving analytics and algorithms

Four Pillars of Superior Digital Customer Experience

Pillar 1: Comprehensive, Personalized Customer Experiences

Pillar 2: Segmented Customer Needs

Pillar 3: Facilitated Customer Interactions

Pillar 4: Customer-Centered Operating Models

Zero-based customer journey design

Zero-based design

Some interesting tips about how to succesfully transform customer journeys

1. Are all processes in your organization mapped against end-to-end customer journeys?

2. Do you have people with diverse skill sets on your journey-redesign teams?

3. Are your ideation sessions sparking true innovation or derivative ideas?

4. Is your organization as agile as your journey team?

CXO LEADERSHIP FORUM SUMMER EDITION 2018

CXO LEADERSHIP FORUM SUMMER EDITION 2018 'The new rules for business success in the digital age'. It was fun to participate in the CXO event, with a unique dynamic of cooperation between leaders from different companies

Maakindustrie en servitisatie: een sterke combinatie

Interessant artikel over servitisatie, nieuwe verantwoordelijkheden voor medewerkers en het belang van een kwalitatieve uitrol in de organisatie.

In dit artikel wordt heel sterk de nadruk gelegd op het belang van een transformatie naar een organisatie waar ALLE medewerkers betrokken en verantwoordelijk zijn voor het 'servicen' van de klanten.

https://www.agoria.be/nl/Maakindustrie-en-servitisatie-een-sterke-combinatie?

In opbouw! Under construction!

In (permanente) opbouw! 

Under (permanent) construction!

Om commerciële succesvol te blijven, moeten bedrijven in staat zijn om in een steeds hoger tempo nieuwe produkten en diensten op zodanige wijze te ontwikkelen en te commercialiseren, dat ze onmiddellijk perfecte oplossingen zijn voor actuele klantproblemen.

We spreken over het permanent creëren van unieke waardevoorstellen.

De running lean methode van Ash Maurya laat toe om niet alleen snel en gefocused op de belangrijkste risico's te werken in het ontwikkelingsproces van nieuwe produkten en diensten, maar daarbij ook permanent met early adopters te interageren. Dit laatste maakt het mogelijk om te leren en onmiddellijk bij te sturen.

So far so good... Vaak wordt het vergeten maar ook de commercialisering van nieuwe produkten en diensten moet eveneens nieuw ontwikkeld worden. Wanneer marketing en verkoop na (of al tijdens) de ontwikkelingsfase grondig nadenken over een nieuwe commerciële aanpak voor het lanceren van deze producten en diensten, en deze nieuwe verkoopprocessen ook grondig testen, stijgt de kans op een succesvolle lancering aanzienlijk.

Bij deze aanpak van idee tot commercialisering, is het belangrijk om veel aandacht te besteden aan het samenstellen van het innovatie team, het proces uit te tekenen, en te zorgen voor de juiste begeleiding.

In order to continue being commercial successful, companies must be able to develop and commercialize new products and services in an ever-increasing pace and in such a way that they are immediately perfect solutions to current customer issues.

We prefer to talk about permanently creating unique value propositions.

Ash Maurya's running lean method allows not only to work quickly and focused on the major risks in the development process of new products and services, but also to interact with early adopters permanently. This latter makes it possible to learn and to adapt immediately.

So far so good ... Often forgotten, but also the commercialization of new products and services must also be developed. When marketing and sales after (or already during) the development phase thoroughly reflect on a new commercial approach for launching these products and services, and also thoroughly testing these new sales processes, the likelihood of successful launches increases significantly.

In this approach from idea to commercialization, it is important to devote a lot of attention to the creation of the innovation team, to drawing the process, and to ensure proper guidance.

WRONG THINKING

WRONG THINKING

Think of the worst idea possible and work back to find new ways of solving old problems

'There are many creative tools a designer uses to think differently, but none is more counter-intuitive than “wrong thinking,” also called reverse thinking. Wrong thinking is when you intentionally think of the worst idea possible — the exact opposite of the accepted or logical solution, ideas that can get you laughed at or even fired — and work back from those to find new ways of solving old problems.'  ('Idea, Start by Imagining the Worst Idea Possible by
Ayse Birsel, Aug 16 2017, Harvard business review)

https://hbr.org/2017/08/to-come-up-with-a-good-idea-start-by-imagining-the-worst-idea-possible

Who said it would be easy?

Innovation is the future of any organization. It is, however, more than hard work. Let's be realistic ...

Let's be realistic ...Less than 30% of change programs are successful. Factors responsible for failure of change (including innovation) initiatives are for instance management behavior which is not supportive, the high degree of employee resistance, and the lack of required resources. 

How can we improve our success rate?

When we are aware of the following elements from the start of our innovation initiatives, we might have a chance to be among the 30% successful change programs:

1. Innovation needs to be done when it goes well with the business: when it goes badly with the business, it is really too late to have time, money, people and other resources available for innovation initiatives. Especially when we know that in any innovation project, there is a chance that this initiative will not reach the finish line. On the other hand, in a business where it is going well, there is not enough pressure to innovate drastically. It ripples further based on the current successes and it makes little sense to innovate and change thoroughly. Therefore ... put always pressure on innovation projects by reducing available time and resources. 
2. Each innovation group contains intrinsically more or less innovation potential:  'super designers' no longer exist. Innovation happens in team. The team potential is determined by the presence of participants with different mental models (how they look differently at the world) and different backgrounds (academic , jobs, community), the willingness to work in a team and to learn collectively (also under pressure and when it goes badly). Preferably, the team may not only consists of creative people. Even more conservative people are needed in the team. Finally, they should be able to decide autonomously, how they will work together (no pre-assigned processes).
3. Welcome to the war zone: it is known that many successful changes and innovations have come only after a lot of struggle and after reaching the bottom. So if you realize that on the road to success, you will have to convince management and employees more than once, you will have to deal with conflicts in the innovation team which will need to be resolved, innovation and change will best be done with limited resources and by working under time constraints, that there will be a chance that even the current business model will be thoroughly shaken, and that indeed the company may have to opt for a comprehensive transformation rather than a small change, ...you're on the winning side. It is perhaps best compared with the mentality, entrepreneurship and the growing pains of a start up or scale up.

[Service design] - What makes a customer really happy?

Listen to customers

An easy but very powerful key question in commercial innovation. What you really want to know about your (potential)customers…

What makes a customer really happy?

[Commercial innovation] Happy Customers

Nowadays, value propositions, segmentation and market approaches based on customer / buyer journeys and personae, are an integral part of modern commercial policy. But is this enough to make a competitive difference?

Sometimes companies forget to focus on the main DRIVER and main reason for commercial innovation initiatives. ‘What makes a customer really happy?’ is the underlying core question to gain in-depth insights into the customer's needs and wishes, their motives and emotional involvement, from the development of new services, from their commercialization, and from the daily realization of these services.

In summary, we can say that it is the personal context related to the the underlying question of what makes a customer really happy, that is more determining than only the technical writing of personae, journeys and value propositions.

If we are able to develop an 'iterative approach' to be in permanent contact with customers and prospects, to understand their real (emotional) challenges, to relate their personal context to our solutions and innovations, to transfer it optimally to the daily operational activities, then we create added value. ‘What makes the customer really happy?”, is the core question that every employee should ask him-/herself permanently.

Developing new services, products or even new customer approaches, without a clear answer to this key core question doesn't solve anything. In many companies, marketing teams, design teams and R & D teams are working on the (commercial) innovations of the future, but at a great distance from the end user / customer.

Therefore these 5 tips

Learn from ‘them’, co-create and test together

Learn about 'them': learn and experience the customer in real life and their personal context, and not only from desk research. Test and co-create with customers at all stages of innovation and even during the roll out. Learn about the actual impact of competition on your customers and prospects.

Involve marketing and sales from the start: they know the customers in a different way and have access to them. By involving them actively from the start, it will become also easier for them to sell or market these new services and products afterwards. They will better understand what the added value for the customer will be.

Involve marketing and sales from the beginning

In-depth interviews

Create a system of  Learning Cycles: make use of short learning cycles with internal and external customers as important test. Adjust quickly in the learning process after interaction with and  feedback of the customers. Build, measure, learn, build further!

Quality of ideas * execution = value

Understand happiness: learn how to work with in-depth interviews, panels or focus groups in all phases of the development / commercial innovation. Go to the bottom to understand in detail what 'Happy' really means and how this can be reached during the customer journey towards happiness.

Learning cycles

Don't forget

'The Quality of ideas * Execution = Value' The world’s simplest formula… explains why you can’t forget commercialization. Develop and test therefore The Most Valuable Commercial Approach.

How does service design work?

Service design

Is an iterative process in four steps

Fundamentally and in reality, it is not a linear process and certainly not a standard process. But as service design is a complex process, we work in four different steps to structure the approach.  The basic service design approach consists of exploration, creation, reflection, and implementation.

It is also an iterative process. That means that it must be able to return to the previous step regularly, or even start all over again from scratch. It is necessary to be critical and courageous to step back, start all over again, or even stop the design process. The benefit of structuring the design process is that it enables a greater degree of reflection upon all activities, outcomes and influences of the design team.

Keep always the entire process in mind (from a helicopter view), especially when you put a lot of energy in the improvement of a concrete activity with lots of details.  E.g. if you are redesigning employee interactions between sales and marketing staff, it is also important to consider the organizational level and structure as a whole. In other words, it is not a success to work on interactions between two people respectively from the marketing and sales department, as these departments themselves need to improve cooperation and interaction.

Four steps

The starting point in the exploration phase is the customer. Whether it is for current customers or potential customers, it is essential to properly understand the situations, interactions, customer journeys, attitudes and expectations of the (potential) customers. Ways of researching are for example by going on an exploratory manner in conversation with the customer, customer panels, or by observing customers. The ways in which this information is obtained, and the attention to details are keys to future success.

During the creation stage, it is all about designing, testing and retesting ideas and concepts. It is a co-creative ideation process, where it is important to involve all main stakeholders and to work with interdisciplinary teams that include customers, managers, employees, engineers, designers, sales, marketing and other stakeholders. In this stage it is important to stimulate co-creativity as much as possible, and to work user-centred. Using sticky notes for visualizing the process is another key to success. The creation stage is closely related to the reflection stage. Practically, there are a variety of methods and tools which can be used in the creation stage. E.g. designing hypothetical stories, drawing storyboards (sequence of events), or even using Lego materials to express a service environment ,can all be interesting to use during the creation stage.

As already told, the reflection stage is closely related to the creation stage. However, in the reflection stage it is important to build or prototype service concepts in reality or circumstances close to reality. But the main challenge at this stage in the process is dealing with the intangibility of services. Therefore it will be very helpful to consider carefully how to provide customers with a good mental image about the future service. That is the main goal at this stage. In order to obtain emotional engagement for the new service, the way in which this is proposed will be of great importance. Methods which are useful for this purpose and help visualize the new service are again methods like  storyboards, a comic strip, video, photos, simulations and co-creation. Feedback needs to be collected in a thorough way through interviews, observation, surveys.

A design process is not successful, if the new service isn’t implemented properly. The implementation stage may be considered as a real change or transformation stage, with lots of obstacles and resistances. Therefore it is very important to work with ‘ambassadors’, who were already involved and contributed already in earlier stages. If they have a clear vision of the concept, and if they were already involved in developing and testing the prototype of the new service in interaction with real customers, there is a high probability of a successful implementation. Successful methods we use in this stage are storytelling, service blueprints, testing with real customers or role plays, business model canvas and action plans.

In every stage we have several workshops with main stakeholders, but with different goals, perspectives  and approaches.

If you want more information about service design thinking and  to evaluate if this approach could be interesting for your organization, contact THRUST

For more information about our services, click here

Business model innovation

Commercial innovation by developing a new business model

Commercial innovation by developing a new business model, is one of the possibilities to create added customer value.

What is the best way to do it?

You can find some interesting tips about developing a new business model in the video from the University of St Gallen, Switzerland. (By Prof. Dr. Oliver Gassman). The video is also about typical myths in innovation.

Click here to read more about our services. 

If you want more information about commercial innovation by developing a new business model, CONTACT THRUST

The fourth part of the series shows how innovations come into being and what myths they are associated with. For more information on BMI see www.bmi-lab.ch For more Information on the Business Model Innovation Certificate - a certificate of advanced studies set in St.

For more information on business model innovation, go to www.bmi-lab.ch

The new rules of innovation

Innovation is taking risks

Interesting and inspiring TEDxBerkeley -talk about innovation. Uploaded on Feb 25, 2012

From Carl Bass , President and CEO of autodesk, Inc. Autodesk is the leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software. Formerly he was Autodesk's chief operating officer, responsible for worldwide sales, marketing, and product development. Earlier roles included CTO and EVP of product development.

His key message is that innovation is happening at an unprecedented pace and will continue to accelerate because of 5 trends:

1. The age of Access and Experience

2. Business Un-Usual

3. Digital fabrication

4. Rise of information

5. Infinte Computing

Watch now

Carl Bass is president and chief executive officer of Autodesk, Inc. Autodesk is the leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software. Formerly he was Autodesk's chief operating officer, responsible for worldwide sales, marketing, and product development. Earlier roles included CTO and EVP of product development.

For more information on commercial innovation methodologies and approaches click here, or contact THRUST 

What is commercial innovation?

Innovation or invention?

Innovation is often mixed with invention. Invention is typically linked to product or technology development (R&D). Innovation however, includes all non-product (or technology) innovation. 

What is commercial innovation?

The core of innovation is the commercial use of an invention. Commercial innovation includes all forms of innovation aimed at increasing customer value. Especially, it is about new business or market entry models, whole new service offers, better aligned and redesigned processes, improved customer experiences, transformed customer relationships, new distribution channels, extra customer tools and apps. It could also be about new visions on business potential, innovative value propositions, a different perspective on market segmentation and all other non-product innovations which provide more customer value.

The internet is one of the best examples of commercial innovation. In less than a decade, the internet went from being connected networks used by universities and the military to the very powerful commercial engine it is today. (Greenstein Shane, How the internet became commercial: innovation, privatization, and the Birth of a new network, Princeton University Press, 2015)

Increasing customer value?

Increasing customer value may be realized by either increasing the benefits as perceived by target customers or by reducing their experienced sacrifices.

Do you want more information? Contact us

Click here to read more about our services

Welcome to our new website!

The importance of commercial innovation

Hello world, this blog is about commercial innovation, customer relationships and service design thinking, but also about personal and team coaching.

Digitization gives new possibilities but is also responsible for the current disruptive economy. In this disruptive economy, new powerhouses emerge as Google, Apple, Facebook and others. They ensure that even very old, large companies shake to their foundations and begin to question their existence. For example, banks and insurance companies, but also the automotive industry are all threatened by new entrants who use often IT and digital solutions and have often a fresh look at traditional challenges. Why doesn't drive a car independently? Why does a surgeon operate still manually? Why do we still use physical (paper) money to pay?  Therefore, it is important that any organization continues to innovate. Certainly 'commercial innovation' has become even more important. It is not just about product innovation, but also about everything we do in order to service the customer better and the added customer value we create in this way.  Read more about it next time.

Personal coaching to activate individual potential

In this blog and website, however, we will also write about the importance of human interaction, personal coaching and building teams. Especially in times of rapid change, the quality of human contact, personal performance and team functioning is more important than ever. Also striving for a better balance and to more happiness, both at work and in private life, deserve more attention. The demand for personal and team coaching is therefore rising.

Next time we continue with commercial innovation and different approaches.

For more information about  our services, click here, or contact THRUST

See you again!