Approach.

The idea of developing new business propositions is to fail fast.  I needed to rapidly research the market based upon the theme we were set.  Establish any gaps or opportunities within that theme that Hermes might be able to expand upon.  The entire process is designed to be four weeks in duration for each theme, with a lean team of three people.  The team would consist of a Product Consultant / Lead, a CX/UX Lead and a Creative Lead.  The team work together for the entire process to unsure all ideas, research and data is shared amongst the team.

The propositions I was asked to lead on were: 

1. Subscription - how might a subscription model work for a parcel delivery company? Are consumers willing to pay a courier business a subscription fee in return for a better service or improved product? 

2. Deliver to me - how can Hermes create a more accurate delivery service that negates the need to be at a residence, improving first time delivery and narrowing the window to accept the delivery?

The process that I have developed for this type of programme is simplistic in design to ensure the focus is on idea/concept development.  The steps of the process are as follows; 

Client Workshop, deep dive into the proposition theme, why is it being explored and what is the business vision.

Desk Research - A global look at the proposition theme, who is doing what and where, have any businesses in other countries uncovered an opportunity?

Competitor Insight - What are Hermes competitors doing? Have they developed any sort of similar product or service? 

Concept Development - A five day adapted Google Ventures (GV) design sprint to create a number of propositions relating to the theme. 

Testing - Each of the concepts is structured into a quantitative survey that is distributed to a research panel of approx. 1,000 people.

Validation - Analysis of the survey and assessment of each of the propositions, including a review of the verbatim comments.

The output is a detailed slide deck that is presented back to Hermes.  Each proposition is assessed and I make recommendations back to business on which ideas they should continue with or not.  The propositions are then fed into the Hermes Innovation team for further development.

Outcome.

During the project we created seven propositions in total.  Four that related to a subscription model, and three that related to deliver to me.  All the propositions were tested and assessed via a quantitative study that was distributed via Dynata to a panel that was specifically recruited.  

For each proposition I applied a ‘kill, pivot, continue’ method, the idea being that if a proposition doesn’t test well, we advise to kill it and not continue with any further investment.  Pivot would indicate that the proposition tested well, but with a twist. Continue with another iteration, but change the product / service based on the feedback.  Continue would be recommended if the proposition tested well in its entirety without any changes, and should be taken forward for further iterations on the same track.

I advised that of the four subscription propositions, two tested well and should be continued. One should be killed and the other pivoted, as we received positive feedback and ideas from the testing panel that might make it feasible.

The deliver to me theme produced three propositions, two to be continued with and one to be killed.  One of the prohibitions was pivoted by the Hermes innovation team and they recently (August’20) launched an integration with What 3 Words to improve the accuracy of their delivery service.

Two final 150 slide decks that contained depth research, survey data, details of each proposition and feedback was delivered to the Hermes innovation team.  These ideas have then been distributed into their extensive team for further product development.

Methods & Tools.

The information below details a selection of the methodologies, techniques and tools used to deliver the project.