SolutionSync’s collaborative approach

 

How it actually works on the ground

 

Step 1 – Exploration/Validation

Fieldwork is central to SolutionSync’s collaborative approach, where exploration, discovery, validation and making sense of people’s perceptions take place. 

To be in the field means to have direct, personal contact with people in their own environments. It allows for contextualizing research questions in their natural settings. The natural setting becomes the direct source of data and the skilled researcher is the key instrument. 

Our qualitative data analysts thoroughly work on largely descriptive data from interviews and observations to generate major themes, categories and case examples. 

By paying close attention to detail, descriptive vocabulary and direct quotes which people actually use, a sense of a story emerges. 

Systematic comparisons, deductions and thematic organization are carried out to better understand the underlying meanings of expressed ideas, beliefs and attitudes and to extract key findings from a wealth of detailed data about a defined number of people and cases.

 

Open-door policy and knowledge sharing

We work closely with our clients to engage all relevant stakeholders (e.g. marketing, business development, technical, R&D, production, risk management, finance, public relations, communication experts) in articulating the study objectives to ensure that existing gaps in knowledge are clearly identified.

The results and effects assessed through this approach are difficult to capture through standardized quantitative methods, which typically fit people’s ideas into predetermined response choices. 

Making sense of a given situation without imposing pre-existing expectations on the setting allows observations, comments and expressed views to drive towards the construction of general patterns and a picture that takes shape as the parts are collected and examined.

 

Step 2 – Concept Design or Improvements

Our interactive ‘Charrette‘ process is applied that fully integrates acquired in-depth understanding of consumers’ pains and need and which incrementally builds on the outcome of contextual research and input from key stakeholders to define and develop unique value propositions and/or concept designs or modifications in an iterative way of rapid prototyping. 

This participatory, results-oriented team process is focused on problem-solving and is based on intensive brainstorming, rapid prototyping and feedback loops. The outcome of this step is a novel prototype solution (e.g. concept, experience, and communication package or physical prototype) that is both consumer-driven and consumer validated.

 

Step 3 – Implementation support and project management

As unbiased, neutral players, we draw on our network of expertise in design, communication, engineering and project management to assist clients in:

• Transformation of concept and hardware prototypes into functional prototypes.
• Supervision of concept implementation and/or production of functional prototypes.
• Overlooking manufacturing to ensure user-led, needs-based development of solutions.
• Monitoring timelines, milestones, and outlined activities to ensure efficient execution of projects. 
• Ensuring quality consistency of solution development. 

We serve as liaison between client, communication agencies and manufacturing to ascertain manufacturing is led by the relevant consumers needs and business strategy in a consistent and sustainable manner.

 

Case Study: 
Crafting a culturally-sensitive Value Proposition based on consumers’ perceptions and needs.

Charrette

SolutionSync’s highly effective technique that brings out the best of Teams

Teams are a fundamental part of today’s workplace. However, as Katzenbach and Smith recognized in their landmark book “The Wisdom of Teams”, high-performance teams are extremely rare, and the difference in output between a high-performance team and an average team is enormous.

Many of the popular techniques to improve team performance – such as the use of consultants, special incentives, training programs, etc. – make only a small difference, because the true drivers of team performance are discipline, challenge, and creativity. SolutionSync designed a revolutionary results-oriented technique, Charrette, that enables teams of professionals to develop appropriate solutions to key problems and challenges in a systematic and participatory manner that builds on the “Design Thinking” approach.  

Charrette blends together key findings and relevant insights from the field, brainstorming, rapid prototyping and a series of deductions which participants undertake to reach an ultimate solution that is collectively rated as the ‘best’. In addition to its cost-effectiveness, a major value-added of Charrette lies in its ability to generate immediate results and to address the needs of a wide range of projects differing in scope and size. 

Charrette’s key strenghts include:

• Helping teams to sharply focus on a particular challenge that should be addressed
• Enhancing teams’ abilities to generate tangible results in a very short time
• Pushing up the bar with regards to how much a team could actually achieve
• Encouraging team members to think “outside the box” and to fully explore their creative potentials
• Promoting team members’ capabilities to build on each others’ ideas
• Creating a favorable environment, conducive to participation, collaboration and innovation

Teams from organizations of different scope and size who took part in the Charrette experience found it highly rewarding. Not only did Charrette inspire them to think “outside the box”, but it actually enabled them to deliver their organizations practical, novel solutions that addressed customers’ needs in a very short time. Examples of some challenging areas which Charrette participants successfully tackled include new product and service development, strategic planning, positioning and marketing, inter-organizational communication and coordination. 

 

Charrette in action

Clearly identify the design challenge
A well-articulated design challenge or “charter” is defined. It has to have a clear objective and a concrete output to be delivered within set timeframe.

Bring the team together
Because a successful Charrette largely relies on commitment and creativity, it is of paramount importance that the right mix of participants be identified. They should have diverse backgrounds, skills and expertise. With the right blend of participants, Charrette’s unconventional environment allows many barriers, such as those related to organizational roles, functions, hierarchies and personality differences, to melt, making way for the creation of a liminal setting, where all sailors are on the same boat, sailing towards the same destination.

Learn from the ‘experts’
The team gathers ideas – as many ideas as possible – to immerse themselves quickly into the topic. They do this by interacting with experts, who depending on the situation might be a team member or people external to the team, and by brainstorming to generate and capture key ideas.

Brainstorming and rapid prototyping
Charrette relies on the  progressive reiteration of 

1. generating ideas; 
2. using those ideas to develop solutions; and
3. building on external feedback to refine and improve solutions.

The team performs the first of several ‘rapid prototyping’ cycles where they brainstorm ideas which could be part of a solution, select a few ideas for prototyping, build a prototype, and test it in real-time. After getting structured feedback on their prototype using the SMART formula, the team enters into another idea generation and prototyping phase. 

Ultimate prototype solution
Finally, the team consults the ‘experts’ once again, these could be external consultants, colleagues, or anyone who can offer an informed opinion – and builds a final prototype which captures the best elements of all previous prototypes and of the feedback they have collected. 

To carry out a successful Charrette workshop, it is best to have 3-4 groups with 4-8 members in each group. Selecting the right venue for a Charrette is equally important. It has to be quite spacious and comfortable. The Charrette ends with a review of the process to solicit participant’s views on the overall experience and the definition of the next steps.

Is the recession a boom time for creative energy?

“Recessionary design: A boom time for creative energy” is an intriguing article published by the International Herald Tribune. It explores how the current economic crisis is bound to affect design. However, recession and depression do not necessarily have to crash down design.  Learning from past economic downturns, design illustrated that creativity could flourish in response to crisis, change and emerging social needs. 

Whereas designers turned to recycling and working with cheap materials to address past challenges, 21st century design is expected to expand into applying design thinking and design approaches to business systems rather than limiting itself to the creation of things. The need to transform businesses and enhance social services in response to our global crisis poses two areas in which the contribution of design thinking and creativity is expected to be invaluable. 

Get full article here – International Herald Tribune

 

“Optimism can help in bleak days …” that’s the message of this article. 

In the midst of growing fear and anxiety about the foreseen impacts of the global economic crisis, hope coupled with innovative ideas, unique initiatives and rapid responses to consumer needs can come useful. 

Despite a weary, stumbling economy, businesses such as JD Wetherspoon pub chain, Travelodge, Innocent and Tesco decide not to play it safe. They opt for innovation, expansion and seizing opportunities to realize long-term gains. While most of us lack confidence in the future prospects of a turbulent economy, these companies appear to see the economic recession as more of a help than a hindrance.

Get full article here – The Guardian

The Rules of the (Retail-) Game are Changing

In an overly crowded commercial world, where diverse products are more in abundance than ever before, big retailers are setting a new trend which is bottom-up and basically consumer driven. The relationship between retailers and manufacturers is taking a new turn, as retailers no longer want to only negotiate prices with manufacturers and choose from an existing range of finished products, but rather to have a say in what manufacturers are to produce for them.

“Big retailers want to be more in control”, says Frank Tyneski in an interview with BusinessWeek Innovation chief Bruce Nussbaum. Retailers want to differentiate products for their retail channels in order to address their customers’ unique needs. To achieve that, they are setting up their own research and design departments to gain better understanding of their customers’ needs based on observations, ethnography and other qualitative research techniques.

This acquired knowledge of consumers’ needs is then used to put pressure on manufacturers to create unique products especially for them. The rules of the game are surely changing!

[Watch Video ¦ click here]

When in Doubt – Observe and Ask

With times becoming tougher and the environment more competitive, it’s now more important than ever for marketers to focus on their customers or consumers, and to remember to make business decisions in the context of the effects those decisions will have on them.

One leader at asking and listening to consumers is the marketing giant, Procter & Gamble. In recent years, under the leadership of A.G. Lafley, P&G has refocused itself to the idea that the consumer is king — -and that the role of the company is to find out what consumers really want, and deliver it to them. In their new book The Game-Changer, A.G. Lafley and Ram Charan describe how multinational corporations such as P&G have transformed their approach to innovation and to deeply understanding consumer needs in a multi-cultural world where low-income families in fast-growing countries now have significant purchasing power. P&G did not merely adopt “The consumer is the Boss” as its motto, but as its real driver for innovation, product development and its quest for growth. The book illustrates how the principles of innovation need to go hand-in-hand with in-depth comprehension of consumers’ needs at the grass-roots level. It also highlights the importance of engaging multiple stakeholders in this process.

Here are two quotes:

On the structure of innovation:

“Long known for a preference to do everything in-house, we began to seek out innovation from any and all sources. Innovation is all about connections, so we get everyone we can involved: P&Gers past and present, customers, suppliers, even competitors. The more connections, the more ideas; the more ideas, the more solutions.”

On the old regime of research:

“P&G was talking to a lot of people, but not listening to them. The company also tended to narrow in on only one aspect of the consumer – for example, her mouth for oral-care products, her hair for shampoo, her loads of dirty clothes for laundry detergents (most P&G consumers are women). P&G had essentially extracted the consumer (and at times a particular body part as well!) from her own life and focused on what was most important to the company – the product or the technology.”

ER

Nokia’s Dream Phones

In a rapidly changing world, where consumers’ needs and preferences are constantly changing and where new ones are inevitably emerging in line with global trends as well as socio-economic and cultural diversity, companies are racing to generate innovative ideas that enable their products to satisfy unmet consumer needs.

More than ever before, manufacturers of consumer goods are eager to get their designers out of their labs and to allow market researchers to walk unconventional paths in search for new horizons of creativity and innovation. To achieve this, consumers are no longer regarded as research participants or passive receivers and users of products and services. Rather, ordinary members of local communities from different walks of life are sought to share their own perspectives of what new products should be and do.

Alternative methods, such as getting ordinary people to engage in studios, film making and culinary designs, are increasingly being used to obtain user-generated innovations. BMW, Dell (IdeaStorm), Nike, and Starbucks are few examples of companies that chose to take the “full of nice surprises” road.

Very recently, Nokia publicized its similar approach to finding how ordinary people in different parts of the world envision their dream phone.

Image: BusinessWeek

[ Get the full story¦BusinessWeek ]

ER, PEZ

Test Institute’s Focus Group

Video length: 1:58 mts.

Wear Your Coffee

Photo: xsmommy

Salad Blaster Bowl and Other Gadgets

Fill it! Press It! Shake It! The new Salad Blaster Bowl is a 26 ounce, clear plastic container for salad, vegetables, and other small meals. The lid compartment is a two ounce chamber for your favorite salad dressing. When you’re ready to eat, press down on the top to “blast” your salad with the dressing. Shake the container, remove the lid, and enjoy!

Other new gadgets:

Denon Blows Hole In Your Pocket With ‘Bullet’ Earphones, February 18, 2008

Glass Radiators Make Staying Warm Really Cool, November 20, 2007

Nail Assist is Sadly Not What You Think, October 03, 2007

Top 50 Gadgets Of All Time, September 26, 2007

Ladies’ Facial Shaver Makes me Say “Whoaaa”, September 21, 2007

Countertop Pizza Oven, September 18, 2007

Dr. Whippy Ice Cream Machine Measures Sadness, Delivers Diabetes, September 12, 2007

The Note Toaster Design, September 06, 2007

Giant Lamp Terrorises Old People, August 11, 2007

RoboBoa – More Fun And Less Lethal Than The Real Thing, August 06, 2007

Magnetic Toaster Tongs Protects Fingers, August 01, 2007

Titanic Lamp Sinks Into Your Livingroom, July 31, 2007

Scary Espresso Maker Doubles As Lethal Weapon, July 30, 2007

Three-in-One Lawn Care Device Mows, Throws and Blows, July 03, 2007

Steampunk Lights Illuminate Your Home or Invade the Planet, July 02, 2007

The Coffee Table Aquarium, June 29, 2007

A Car That’s a Grill, June 25, 2007

The 3-Second Cuppa Tea, June 19, 2007

Snore Pillow Shakes You To Shutup, June 18, 2007

Froggetmee…Spoonsticks, June 18, 2007

Mystery Bulb Lights Up While Hanging in Space, June 11, 2007

Vu Coffee Table For Your Ugly Mug, May 29, 2007

LG’s Washing Machine Has an iPod Dock, May 29, 2007

The Gasmask Showerhead: Just Plain Creepy, May 17, 2007

LED Table Gives Your Meals a Sensual Glow, May 12, 2007

Digital LED Fan Isn’t any Colder than a Normal Fan, May 11, 2007

Geek Waffle-Maker: We’re Not Worthy, May 03, 2007

Lego Lunchbox, One More Step Toward the Lego Singularity, May 01, 2007

Portable Grill: Now you can BBQ on the Subway, April 25, 2007

Solar Grill Cooks Burgers with the Sun, April 10, 2007

Unlike TV Counterpart, Homer Fridge Magnet Says Just One Funny Thing, March 23, 2007

Sink + Toilet Makes Dirty Hippies Happy, March 14, 2007

Ondine ESS Electronic Faucets Give You a Techno-Shower, March 12, 2007

TurboChef Speedcook Oven Ruins Dinner 15 Times Faster, March 12, 2007

Lock Up Your Food, March 12, 2007

Auto-Turning Pasta Fork for the Stupid and Lazy, March 06, 2007

Television Microwave Makes More Sense Than Rock Lobsters, March 06, 2007

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