The classes I teach in Delft revolve around the notion that designers have the right mind-set to solve complex business problems. We try to give them the confidence to leverage from this mind-set in the real world. We do this by making it explicit to them what it is and by giving them some of the essential baggage they will need to find their way in corporate organisations.

We explain what a design mind-set entails by talking about wicked problems, about how understanding a problem and solving it take place at the same time. We talk about how visualisation skills have nothing to do with design as aesthetics but much more with the ability to grasp complexity and frame it in simple relationships. We talk about prototyping in the broad sense of the word, as business activity, envisioning and testing potential futures that enable companies to choose the right way forward. And we talk about iterative processes, empathy, understanding, teamwork, and creativity.

Then, we take them on a quick tour through the areas of business where they will hopefully contribute in the near future. We talk about the fuzzy front end of innovation, where there is no problem or project yet, only the need, or urge, or directive, to innovate. We talk about the role of brands in organisations and society and how they relate to innovation and design. And we talk about the shift companies are making from product and technology focussed to people and service focussed.

I know that I practise what I preach in Delft with my company. But for students it may be hard to imagine what their working life will look like. So what better project to give them than to have them research:
- How what they are studying is put into practice.
- If what we teach them holds true in the real world out there.
- If companies are in need of their skills.
So they set to work in July 2011.

What is the “Design the New Business” project about? from dthenewb on Vimeo.

After many discussions, various iterations of storyboards, and many late night Facebook sessions exchanging documentaries to be learnt from, the students decided to focus on three main areas:

The first: Complexity is the foundation for the rise of design thinking. A design mind-set is essential in solving complex problems.
As Jeanne Liedtka and Tim Ogilvie put it in their new book ‘Designing for Growth’: “We’ve come to
the end of the runway on maximizing productivity and re-engineering processes….The analytics-first mindset works fine for process improvement, but not for innovation. Our over-reliance on analytics denies our human capacity for creativity and results in uninspiring products and services, low growth, and pessimism about the future.”. Or, to paraphrase Marty Neumeier in ‘the designful company’: organisations are dealing with problems that are so complex, in a society that is even more complex, with customers having more say than ever, that managing your way out is no longer an option. “You have to design your way out”. In other words: design thinking is a mind set that can help solve problems that traditional, linear, ‘old’ management mind-sets can’t.
The movie sets out to discover whether this is true. The students aren’t raving about design thinking, but neither are they going to declare it dead like it was the latest fad as Bruce Nussbaum did in his infamous Fast Company post. They just want to know where design thinking’s at, in big multinational organisations that don’t have time for foolishness or fads.
So the students went out and interviewed key people at companies like Intel, Volkswagen, Océ, Virgin, and Philips, to find out whether their problems have indeed become more wicked, and to what extent designers, or managers with a design mind-set for that matter, have the answers.

The second: We need a new breed of designers and a new breed of business managers. And they need to become more alike. Or at least understand each other better.
We think that while many designers contribute immense value through the products, services, communications, environments and interactions they design, not all of them can help businesses solve their wicked problems. Nothing wrong with that, the world will always need highly skilled designers. But what does it take for someone with a design mind-set to actually contribute to the solving of wicked problems within large organisations? And what does it take for a business manager to embrace uncertainty, complexity, creativity, cross-silo teamwork, and prototyping? The students are talking to educators from institutions in Delft and Muenster to find out what the designer cum business manager of the future will look like. And how design and business education are shaping up to meet changing needs.

The third: the design mind-set is already playing a role in the new business. It’s already happening.
While the blogosphere can’t get enough of discussing the birth and early demise of design thinking, we see practitioners all over the world making a solid living on applying their knowledge and skills to real companies, adding real bottom line value to the balance sheet. They have a design mind-set and they are helping these companies grow.
The students are interviewing companies like Claro Partners in Barcelona, Design Thinkers, Zilver and In10 in the Netherlands, Engine in London, Alexander Osterwalder in Switzerland, and Protopartners in Australia. They are gathering case material that proves that design thinking in practice isn’t some fluffy magic wand but a solid foundation for processes and methodologies that help companies create lasting value for their customers.

The movie is in full progress as we speak. And I can tell you it’s almost like a design project: we had no idea what problem we were solving when we started, let alone that we could predict the outcome. Two months, thousands of air miles (remind me to plant those trees) and 30 hours plus of fantastic footage later we’re finding out that the problem we’ve uncovered (let’s make a movie to explore how design is meeting business) is no longer exactly matching our ambitions. The students are blogging, twittering and discussing the project on facebook like there’s no tomorrow. But now we are also thinking of a big screening event, including speakers and a lot of discussion. We have ideas for a teaching tool kit. We might even do local screening events around the world. But maybe, once the thing’s finished, we’ll be onto something new. Who knows, it’s a design process after all……..

But first, we, err… they, have a liiiiiiiiiittle bit of editing to do.
We will keep you posted, expected release: somewhere in October. Yes, this year.

In virtually every branding, service design or innovation strategy project Zilver does, customer journey mapping plays a central role. It’s a highly versatile framework that invites project teams to ask the right questions and find the right answers. It plays a role in several points in the project:

1. at the beginning, to assess what research needs to be done.
2. during, to map research insights and to generate business opportunities.
3. at the end, to map project results, design guidelines and innovation propositions.

What is it?

Customer journey mapping is a method for assessing, visualizing and improving customer experiences. It helps you view a product or service system from the customer’s perspective, thereby allowing you to identify opportunities for improvement.

The essence of customer journey mapping is that the relationship you build with your customer does not revolve solely around the purchase of your product. You can be of value to the customer both before and after the purchase. We call the string of events that a customer goes through in buying and using your product ‘the customer journey’. It is a journey that often begins before your product even comes into the picture, for example at home, on the couch, flipping through magazines for inspiration. And this journey does not end when the customer has purchased your product or service. To the contrary, this is where the usage, maintenance and maybe upgrading start. At the end of the journey, you always hope that the customer will find the way back to your brand. If you succeed at this, you will have built a sustainable relationship.

Customer journey mapping is not a tool exactly. It doesn’t provide a quick fix to a specific problem. It’s more a framework that allows you to get a grip on many different aspects of customer experience design. It is always about the customer’s experience, but it is up to you how you map that experience and what you map exactly:

You can use a very wide group of customers or a very specific type of customer. You could even choose to map the journey of a different stakeholder, like, say, a supplier. Likewise, you can analyze a highly specific situation, or you can choose to explore a more general journey. Then, for every stage of the journey, you can examine customer needs, your objectives, the customer’s objectives, the touch points that play a role, how these touch points are experienced, the emotions that are experienced, how your brand values are expressed, whether there are opportunities for innovation, what you wish to communicate, and so on.

This Slideshare presentation was made for TU Delft students of Strategic Product Design and Design for Interaction. It takes you through the why, how and what of CJM.

Why is customer journey mapping relevant?

1. To allow the customer to generate value
As Vargo and Lusch put it so aptly, we are moving from value in exchange to value in use. You don’t want to buy a car, you want to buy mobility. Rather than selling objects, organizations must develop eco-systems where customers can co-create value with them. This requires a holistic view of the eco-system that customer journey mapping can provide.

2. To create an integrated experience
Customers do not experience your product or service in an isolated fashion. When it concerns brand preference, they assess their total experience with that brand from beginning to end. If you can book a flight very easily and receive excellent assistance at the check-in counter, but, once on board, experience a horribly cramped seat and vile food, your total experience will be a negative one. So it is important for an organization to get a grip on the entire customer journey in order to ensure an unforgettable total experience.

3. To stand out in the market
In a saturated market with fierce competition, it is difficult to compete on product alone. The relationship you build with your customers before, during and after the purchase offers tremendous opportunities to differentiate yourself in the market.

4. To express your brand
Unique brands offer a unique product or service. But to truly express your brand and to take advantage of all opportunities to fulfil your brand promise, you need to look beyond your product alone. By identifying opportunities to do things in your unique way throughout the entire customer journey, you will create a stronger and more relevant brand.

When is customer journey mapping relevant?

Customer journey mapping can be useful for in a wide range of applications:

1. CJM as an analysis method
Sometimes, mapping is done solely to better project yourself in the life of your customer. This will often show you the areas in which your knowledge is insufficient, which can then be researched further. You can also use customer journey mapping to assess the current status of your brand, i.e. to create a snapshot of the status quo.

2. CJM as a visualization method
Modern organizations are full of complexity. And modern challenges are ill-defined and multi-facetted. Customer journey maps are a great way to make sense of at least some of this complexity. They can boil a whole lot of information down to one clear visual map. This alone is worth the effort.

3. CJM as a creative method
But customer journey mapping is also an excellent way to scout for opportunities to improve your offering or to develop new products, services or experiences. And it can guide the design of these products, services and experiences by providing focussed insights, requirements and guidelines.

How do you build a customer journey map?

To create a customer journey map, you carry out the following steps:

1. Choose your target group. Who do you have in mind for the customer journey? A customer profile (persona) or a stakeholder map can be helpful here.
2. Choose your theme. This could be a specific occasion, a specific experience or a specific type of purchase. If your theme is too general, the customer journey map will also be rather generic. It is better to make several maps for more specific situations.
3. Determine the phases that the customer goes through. Don’t confuse the phases with touch points. These may need to be redesigned, so they come later. Put yourself into the customer’s shoes and describe the phases she experiences before, during and after the purchase or use of your product or service. It helps to think of them as tasks: orienting, gathering information, etc. These phases form the horizontal axis of the CJM.
4. Decide what you want to examine for every phase. There are no restrictions, but the following steps yield a good foundation:

• What emotions does the customer experience during the different phases? You can map these in a graph, from very positive to very negative.
• What are the customer’s goals in every phase? What does she aim to accomplish?
• Which touch points does the customer encounter in every phase?
• What would be the ideal situation in every phase from the customer’s perspective?
• What is the difference between the current and the ideal situation?
• What opportunities for improvement can you identify?

These elements form the vertical axis of the CJM.
5. Fill the cells of the CJM. Do this as a team and involve as many different people as possible. Discuss why you include certain things. Take your time and do not attempt to finish it in one day. It is better to return to it repeatedly to view it with fresh eyes. Maybe you need to do some, or a lot of extra research to fill a cell.
6. Translate the CJM into a plan of action. What do you need to examine in more detail? What project steps do you plan to take? What ideas do you plan to implement and when?
7. Hang the map up somewhere where your colleagues can see it an can keep contributing to it.
8. Repeat step 1-6 for different stakeholders, different experiences etc.