Role: Lead Service Designer
Team: Researcher, Business Analyst
M&S customers don’t have a compelling reason to use the app. M&S on the flip-side find that customers are more likely to complete purchases and increase their basket size if they do.
We were asked to discover the needs of customers for in-store digital experiences; exploring customers propensity to adopt new ways to shop via the app.
Business Challenge
To discover customers propensity to use digital services in-store.
Design Approach
To rapidly test low-fidelity propositions and concepts with customers in-store.
Process
After a sprint of design discovery which involved workshops alongside research into customer and technology trends, we set-up a series of in-store research days to test various propositions.
As a proponent of Eric Ries’ Lean Startup since it was first published I evalgenised taking a lean ux approach to formulating the experiments we wanted to run. This way of working was new to SplendidUnlimited but gave us the framework to rapidly explore ideas in a short amount of time. Layered on top of this, I organised the experiments into one week cycles; akin to google’s design sprints. This combination meant we were able to take an idea on monday and have tested our initial assumptions in-store with customers by friday, ready to plan the next cycle.
To achieve this, for each experiment we created a number of low-fidelity prototypes and recruited a small number of M&S customers. We walked with them through the store, testing various scenarios and digging into the ways in which they shop.
Service Safari
Test artefacts
In-store customer research
Outcome
We gathered insights to enable M&S to prioritise their roadmap and decide which concepts to develop further into business models. As a design team we refined the hypothesis based approach to rapidly testing propositions so that it can be applied to new client work.
Personal retrospective
For me this project was all about resilience. We were under incredible time pressure collaborating with a transitioning organisation that were under pressure to deliver results.
Through all of this we achieved solid outcomes, great team spirit and discovered an incredible amount of insight for the business in a short period of time.
Methods
Crazy eights
Service safari
Customer journey map
Design hypothesis
“I’ve been really lucky to have worked with Neil at Splendid, where we worked on a number of projects together. As a manager, he’s achieved that tough balance of being supportive, whilst also giving you the freedom to make your own mark on the project too. Whenever I had questions or concerns, Neil always took the time to explain which opened up new ways to think about the project.”