In late 2018 I had the privilege to work with some of my global design colleagues from Spain, Japan, and Italy in the Digital Entity (NTT DATA Milan) studio for 6 weeks. During this time, a team of 4 of us were assembled to design an innovative service for a furniture company in Milan.
We were tasked with identifying new business model opportunities to provide this client a concept that would be appealing to younger generations.
We first began our ethnographic research by visiting a variety of brick-and-mortar stores around Milan. Secondary research was also conducted by the team to establish a solid understanding of the furniture market in Italy.
Market research and user interviews were used to formulate the initial persona we would focus on for the project - a professional millennial male. He likes to convey an on-trend and stylish lifestyle, but doesn’t have the time or expertise to design a space or keep it updated.
We brainstormed solution concepts from the pains and needs associated with the persona (wants/don’t wants). These concepts were then clustered and utilized to inspire How Might We statements to establish a point of view for the solution.
How Might We create an effortless and seamless lifestyle experience inspired by tailored and trendy guidance.
This statement conveyed the need for a furniture product that takes minimal effort from the customer to stay on-trend - customized to the customer’s personal style preferences.
The solution we designed is a furniture subscription service that allows a customer to “rent” on-trend designs with the ability to request refreshes for decor and furniture pieces as their contract permits.
The customer journey was designed to help understand necessary touchpoints and opportunities to consider during the design of the service model and application.
The application supports a brief customer “quiz” to understand needs and preferences of the user. Based on user inputs (including possible social media integration), the app offers fully designed furniture sets and service plans for the subscription.
The onboarding is designed to be effortless and engaging for the busy young professional.
A service blueprint was also designed to detail the customer, service, and technology interactions throughout the customer journey.
The offering map provides a view of the primary components of the service for users and the companies necessary for the business model.
The System Map details the material, informational, and financial flows necessary for the full service design. During this phase, the team also identified the opportunity to monetize data related to customer style interests as part of the business model.
Wireframes were first roughly sketched to understand key aspects of the app. The full application flow was then drawn and turned into a clickable prototype.
The final solution concept was presented to the client and is currently being managed by the Digital Entity team.