Service Design Master 4th semester
Thesis in collaboration with a Company: Creature Aps
This master thesis was as a consultancy for the Danish Company Creature Aps. The consultancy was defined as a supporting process for increasing sales by better communicating their value offer to their clients and team members. You can follow the process in Instagram using #mariamasterthesis.
Process and methodolgy
For further information please go to the Process report below, page 9.
The timeline depicts the plan for developing the master thesis in the given time by the educational program. It presents as well the methodology used: IDEOs design phases, specifying the activities and the results during the process.
Discovery
Company interview's notes. (Process report page 12)
As a first step for defining the problem statement the designer made some interviews to the Company team, gathering individually their perception about the Company.
A, B and C depict the workshop preparation and execution. D depicts the meeting with the client and the planning of the session. (Process report page 14)
For understanding the way Creature works a shadowing process was conducted, from the planning of a workshop until its execution. This process showed how the Company creates bounds with its clients offering more than they expect in the final product.
Clients and template for describing their experience with Creature. (Process report page 16)
Interviews with Creature clients were conducted with the aim to find out their perception about the Company’s value offer. This was made by the use of a template that permitted the clients to express during time their experience and evaluate which elements where the most valuable from this experience.
Creature's general customer journey. (Process report page 23)
This customer journey was constructed by the description of three employees of the Company; they described their experiences delivering their services to different clients. With a final discussion with the Company leaders the final customer journey was depicted as presented above.
Company workshop. (Process report page 28)
For further information on the workshop results and analysis please go to page 58 in the Process report.
This workshop was focused for the Creature team, aiming to understand the way the team perceives the Company’s values and how their past experiences have determined the actual way the Company works. The results from this workshop gave a clear image of the identity of the Company depicted as a customer journey on how to become a member of the team and identity elements.
Interpretation
Meeting with Thor and Peter, Creature's leaders. (Process report page 42)
Using the customer journey constructed through the employees’ experience, it was asked to the founders to write on post-its which were the values that the Company delivers to their clients. Together we placed the values on top of the customer journey making evident in which moments of the service the clients were receiving the specific set of values.
This permitted the leaders to perceive which moments of the service delivery where the most critical for showing their value offer to the client and when was the client more susceptible to their actions and decisions.
Customer journey comparison. Barcelona companies vs. Creature. (Process report page 44)
For having an overview in the consultancies market, interviews with different agencies from Barcelona where used to construct different journeys to compare Creature’s and analyze other possible ways of offering value to their clients.
This comparison permitted to understand how a different market behavior can bring valuable interaction ideas with the clients, as for example the use of a final survey as follow up for future projects or closing meetings that strengthens bounds between the Company and its clients.
For further information about the Personas please go to page 47 from the Process report below.
For a better understanding of Creature’s clients, four personas were created taking into account the four relevant client groups the Company has. These four groups are: Big corporations, start-ups, Organizations (non-profit) and the Government. Each one of these clients has different interests and needs that the Company should address with its particular consultancy style.
Process report page 49.
As part of the identity process and using the activities executed with the Company during the workshop a Creature persona was created as well as a customer journey that presents how a new member becomes a part of the team.
Ideation
Ideation workshop with fellow master students. (Process report page 67)
The objective of this ideation workshop was to collect as much possibilities for the Company as possible to have a discussion start point on the final problem the Company would like to solve.
During this meeting it was discussed the method the Company uses for developing their different projects. According to the phase the project is, the model will guide the next step in the process.
For Creature it permits an open approach to any type of problem, thus this model doesn’t lock the process in specific steps, but permits a customized approach according to the stage the project is on.
Customer journey proposal to Creature's service offer. (Process report page 72)
This proposal for the company’s service shows how they could work for delivering a complete experience to their clients, ensuring a loop at the end of the process.
This proposal makes emphasis in the connection between the messages the Company delivers in the social media for, in one hand gather followers and in the other make clear for the clients how they are making part of the social impact the Company is aiming to make.
The development of the service aims to specify the particular steps the Company follows for any type of service they are offering, standardizing their work, making more relevant the solution and possibility to collaborate with the client, than the precise tracing of steps.
For closing the service experience it was designed a closing meeting that will be obligatory for gathering the last thoughts around the solution designed, giving the space to the client to receive the “Creature thoughts” document, which will permit future reflections and will be a plus the client will receive for his experience with the Company.
Experimentation I
First iteration with the Company leaders. A. Introduction to the game B. & C. Playing the game and discuss C. Proposals for improvement.
The first design proposal was discussed with Creature and their feedback gave some new inputs in the development of it. The team leaders played the game using different old cases to analyze the usability and possible improvements.
Experimentation II
Improvement on the design of the time line.
For this second iteration we made a revision on the design improvements done from the first iteration meeting. Some final details were discussed and we made as well an analysis of the entire design process done during the semester, closing our activities together.
Product I
Final product: First meeting game for Creature consultants and possible new clients.
This proposal intends to help Creature to let their clients know which the values they stand for are and how is their working methodology, in this way evidencing from the first meeting which is the value the Company can deliver to them. The image above depicts the way the game should be played its steps and components.
Product II
Extract from the product report page 13.
Using the tools from the thesis process an opportunity for the Company was seen as a possible depiction of what the Company offers, from their customer journey and the models that describe what is essential for Creature: social innovation triple bottom line and their consultancy model.
Product III
Also making use of the tools created during the design process and taking advantage of the workshop with the Company, it was possible to construct a document that permits a new member to learn what the Company stands for and which knowledge of the market is relevant to start with for becoming a Creature consultant.
The tools are the ones presented before. For further information please go to the product report page 16.
Evolution
Service Design Master thesis, supervised by Nicola Morelli and Amalia de Goetzen.
Project by Maria Angelica S.