We are now living in an experience economy where human focused products and services are intertwined.
This is an important shift. Businesses and brands that fail to consider the holistic customer experience and service that surrounds their product will find themselves overtaken or left behind. What’s needed is to approach product development with a holistic mindset, this can mean considering human needs/psychology, social factors, organisations/businesses, whole services, platforms and eco-systems.
Take the electric toothbrush, for example. Along with roughly 67% of adults in the UK, I own an electric toothbrush. My dentist tells me that an electric brush is more effective than a conventional one. I buy my toothpaste from a supermarket which is cheap and convenient. I replace the brush head for my toothbrush every few months, and I buy those online which is not so convenient, but I can get brushes made of recyclable plastic.
Start-ups like Quip have seen the potential to disrupt this space not just with attractive products, but with convenient subscription services with timing cycles that integrate with dental check-ups and a motivational coaching and rewards app. They have addressed the pain points of the whole dental care ecosystem and targeted compelling solutions which work from a consumer, patient and dental practitioner standpoint. The result is over 3 million subscribers, acquired right under the noses of established market leaders. People choose and stick with products and services that deliver the best experiences. They remember how those products and services make them feel and sack those that don’t deliver when a better one comes along.
Start-ups often have the advantage of small nimble teams and a tight focus on delivering products or parts of a service that are most valuable to potential audiences. This allows them to better communicate their proposition and market themselves in a more targeted way. However, this narrow focus can lead to start-ups having a limited lifespan as they can struggle to access new funding, stay ahead of the market or grow their market once they start to extend their reach beyond their original narrow focus. On the flip side established companies also often create focused consumer-facing brands but these have a different set of challenges. Large organisational structures and lots of teams can become barriers to innovation, adopting or releasing new products to stay relevant in a wider context. Former Design Director of the UK Government and Service Design Lou Downe said: “Siloed organisations produce siloed services”. The same can be said of products made by large, siloed organisations with the complexity of many brands and many markets creating complexity, distancing decision makers from customer feedback and long lead times to get new developments to market.
One of the most helpful tools to break down these barriers for both start-ups and established companies is the service design approach of mapping and articulating services and interconnected user journeys that may extend beyond the remit of one organisation or team. Mapping services in this way helps to identify not only the areas of greatest opportunity to improve existing experiences with better physical and digital products but also allow growth into naturally comparable and complementary parts of the service.
Service design also helps us layer the elements needed to deliver a holistic user experience and drill down into the specific interactions that make up this journey – highlighting opportunities on a micro and macro level to enhance the digital and physical product touchpoints.One of the most exciting areas where this holistic approach is being applied is in med-tech and healthcare. Drug delivery, monitoring and therapeutic devices are all embracing the opportunities that connected devices offer to improve outcomes for patients and the delivery of care. The macro context here is the huge growth in telehealth and patient self-care that has been dramatically accelerated by Covid. Analysis by McKinsey indicates that telehealth has increased 28X compared to pre-Covid baseline.
But simply replacing a face-to-face consultation with a remote one does not generate better solutions in itself. The opportunity is to use a combination of technology and a service design approach within the context of remote care, to address user needs in a compelling and meaningful new way. One example is AI-supported teledermatology service provider Skin Analytics.
The service, which is accessed via NHS and leading healthcare insurers, combines remote consultation with patients capturing images of skin lesions via a smartphone device and lens posted out in kit form. The resulting images are analysed by AI to support clinician diagnosis and therapy decisions. The service works holistically and for all stakeholders. Patients get faster and more convenient diagnosis and treatment, clinicians get fast, consistent and reliable decision-support and healthcare providers can provide better and more cost-effective outcomes.
The benefits and application of new technologies based on this can tame the complexity of healthcare and the collection of larger data sets can open the door to more efficient and individualised care planning. Although there are hurdles to overcome with the fragmented nature of care provision and delivery, such as the need for data anonymisation and security of data, the opportunities for transforming healthcare are clear.
The lesson here is to think “service”, at both micro and macro levels. At a micro level, that means ensuring that all the parts that comprise the service, whether that be devices or communication touchpoints – work beautifully and at a macro level, that everything ladders up to work effectively within the encompassing system or environment.
Keen to find out more about our digital capabilities? Contact our Head of Digital, Tim Banks.
References:
McKinsey: Telehealth: A quarter-trillion-dollar post Covid-19 reality?
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