Lean startup – design thinking – empathy maps – value proposition design – customer discovery
The problem: A new version of a part-time business study was developed and offered by a prominent university of applied sciences recently in Eindhoven (Fontys Pro Economie). After the pilot phase the institute concluded that there were many aspects in the service framework that should and could be improved. They evaluated the programme but struggled how to go on.
Getting the problem sharp and formulating the challenge: We decided that we have to isolate the programme and study content clearly from the service facilities, otherwise we would get a blend of problems and aspects which we were not willing to tackle all at the same time.
The process design:
- Customer discovery – panel discussions
Since it was clear that student participation would be crucial for a better understanding and a good redesign a pizza session was organized first– a student panel discussion. Students were thoroughly asked about study motivation, current study patterns, current problems and then we focused on redesigning these situations and patterns into a feasible, work-private-study life supporting week schedule.
After the customer discovery pizza session the results were processed on 3 empathy maps for each student type based on study motivation (named Lisa, Bas and Rob). I chose to work with quotes. A second group of students validated the empathy maps and added new quotes as well. These maps were the starting point for a co-creation session of a whole day. Besides the empathy maps, I wrote 3 personal stories for the 3 student types.
- The co-creation day:
A, Empathize: the morning started with an intense empathize phase. All stakeholders participated including teachers, program designers, facility managers, learning experts.
After a presentation of the empathy maps and reading the personal stories the empathize phase was finished by transferring all the input to a value proposition canvas (the customer insight section) developed by Strategyzer (https://strategyzer.com/canvas/value-proposition-canvas )
B, The ideation phase: the group was divided into duos and asked to ideate as many solutions as possible to each factor on the right side of the value proposition map. They worked per persona.
C, Prototyping: The duos continued the process by designing possible value proposition concepts as a solution to their student persona. They clearly marked which aspects they were willing to solve and which not. After presenting their own ideas to each other they were asked to mark valuable ideas of others and mark aspects that are clearly common in all 3 cases. This lead to a next step during which the group could decide whether all student types could optimally be served with one value proposition or not.
The value proposition concepts were also assessed during a role-play similar to the ideas of the 6 hats of Edward de Bono.
The prototyping afternoon was closed with the final visualization of the prototypes/ concepts.
- Test round 1:
The first prototype versions were presented to all students of the programme. Students were asked to vote and divide a fixed amount of scores among the concepts based on their preferences. They were also asked to add remarks, tops and tips and were allowed to initiate an own prototype if they were not happy with any of the 2.
- Next steps: a few weeks were reserved to improve the concept based on short feedback cycles. The final version shall be launched by September 2019.
Feedback from the participants: “ We have been talking about these problems and solutions for such a long time but this approach really got us on a new track. You constantly let us focus on the core of the problem. The empathize phase definitely added high value to our work. We will definitely not forget the Rob, Bas, Lisa for a long time.”
Curious? If you subscribe for this business school programme in Eindhoven from September, you will actually be enjoying the result of this process.