Enexis is one of the 7 network operators in the Netherlands. The most important task of a network operator is to install and maintain the energy network in the Netherlands. Enexis carried out a survey among its employees, resulting in eight different personas. We as ISS wanted to start providing a service experience for those eight personas, says Daan. ‘I participated in the tender team, and I wrote the entire service design story based on the outcome of the survey. However, in order to provide an optimal service experience, we first had to get to know the end users, and then to design a work journey around them. That was the common thread throughout our approach, and our shared vision in this is an important reason that ISS and Enexis have chosen each other. ‘
GET TO KNOW YOUR CUSTOMERS’ TOUCH POINTS
“To get to know the customer well, it was important to identify clear touchpoints. What is the first thing the customer sees when he goes to work? The bicycle parking or the garage? Does he then enter the office, or does he first have to go to the reception? These are all examples of touchpoints. We eventually formulated eight touchpoints and we put together a group of specialists for each of these touchpoints. Team mobility was responsible for everything around the journey from home to work, such as lease cars, bicycles, the garage and so on. Team catering was responsible for lunch, coffee etc. Each team contained people from both Enexis and ISS, which ensured balanced teams and the creation of a shared vision and language. Each team was responsible for describing the needs of the four personas for one touchpoint. Depending on the touchpoint, the needs can be very different. For example, persona Frank receives important guests, so he wants to radiate a luxury experience when a customer comes in. Another persona, on the other hand, does not attach much value to what the reception hall looks like.”
FIRST WORKSHOP: 32 VALUE PROPOSITIONS
“The first workshop was scheduled for June 2017. I had already sent the participants a number of emails, stating that it would be a great workshop. Everyone was very cautious, but there were high expectations. Of course I was very tense, because I had followed the Design A Better Business workshop, but now I had to give a workshop myself. In the first workshop we worked out the personas of Enexis and drew up a separate value proposition for each persona for each of the eight touchpoints. Beforehand, each participant had to prepare one of the four personas, and present them to the other participants during the workshop. Using the Persona Canvas, the group brought each persona to life. For the fast mathematician among us, we therefore came up with 8 touchpoints x 4 personas = 32 different value propositions. We have reduced them to eight value propositions by finding the common denominators. We drew up three service themes (that would apply to all personas) for each touch point, which we focused on in workshop two.”
SECOND WORKSHOP: 632 IDEAS
“One month later, in July 2017, workshop two took place. Prior to this workshop, each participant received a homework assignment concerning the strategic frameworks of Enexis and the role of ISS in this. By combining the three service themes with the strategic frameworks, the team put together a vision statement for each touchpoint. With the Customer Journey Canvas, the touch points were described even more clearly. Then we started with the Wall of Ideas, in order to come up with new ideas and solutions. After two minutes of brainstorming, everyone had written down his or her ideas. But this was not enough. It was then my job to ask trigger questions so that the participants really started thinking out of the box. We ended up with 632 ideas! The ideas were prioritized based on the Design Criteria Canvas. In this way it was determined which ideas must, should, could and won’t be used. At the end of the workshop, participants discussed which ideas should be implemented first.”
AND THEN? – 96 CANVASSES
“Okay, the workshops have been completed and we have filled 96 canvases. What is the next step? That was a challenge. How are you going to implement all these outcomes? Enexis said to us: ‘you guys are the experts, so what do you propose?’ We started with photographing and documenting the completed canvases in Excel. Then we compiled an overview of the outcomes for each touchpoint, so that you can see at a glance what the most important outcomes of the two workshops were. The content has been submitted to the Touchpoint steering group, and it has been decided that ISS identifies which projects add the most value, in the context of the Enexis strategy. For each of these eight touch points we have identified four quick wins, based on that whole prioritization of the ideas. In the course of the next month / month and a half, these four quick wins would be implemented. We have also set up four major projects, which were to be completed within the next year. At the starting point of every large project, we have developed a Business Model Canvas, so that we continue to use the same method during the validation stage.”
JOURNEY TO SUCCESS – “JUST DO IT!”
“When I look back to the beginning, I found this a really exciting process. I was pretty much the only person involved in service design, and to get all your colleagues to take part is a real challenge. You just have to do it. When I entered the innovation team at the beginning of January, my supervisor Herman gave me space to carry out my own ideas. In order to be sure that we are organizing our services well to the needs of the customer, I started with service design. I told Herman that I wanted to follow a project management workshop but he had a much better idea. He took me to the workshop ‘Design A Better Business’!”
DESIGN A BETTER BUSINESS
“To make a deep-dive on the design thinking, Herman and I first started to delve into this subject. That is how we came to the workshop Design A Better Business. The workshop really helped us. We learned a lot in two days. I applied all tools, canvases and methodology that were discussed during the workshop, directly to my own workshops. I regularly visited the Design A Better Business website to read about a particular canvas or tool. To really address everyone internally, I adjusted the canvases with our own branding and corporate look and feel. I consider the workshop format to be a great success, because it is now also being applied in other countries. The most important factor in this success, is that through the workshop, everyone contributes to designing the touchpoints and the new services. This creates shared ownership in the team and with the customer. I am working on designing a scalable workshop workbook, so that this method can be picked up by all international partners, in order to improve our services together and bring forth meaningful innovation. For me, this was and is a journey to success.”
Daan de Geus at the Design A Better Business workshop in Amsterdam (right on the picture)
EXPERIENCE IT LIVE
After Daan has followed the workshop of Design A Better Business, he started working on design thinking himself and succeeds in moving his organization! The best way to learn is by doing, and we want to give everyone a chance to experience the Double Loop Design process live. We would like to take you on this design trip and hope to inspire you to make your own journey to success, just like Daan.