Now that we've began to better understand the design thinking process, let's look at a particular tool that's used during the stage of better understanding customer needs. Now, in the previous modules that we've talked about, we've talked about doing surveys or collecting information directly from the customer. In this particular module, we're going to talk about how to map customer customer experiences. You're kind of walking in the shoes of your customer, based upon your understanding on how they experience a product. And the way in which they use the product may uncover needs that they didn't verbally identify when you talked to them. Remember we said that design thinking of process is kind of based upon three stages. The first, the ability to understand the needs of your market. That's kind of being empathetic with it. Then, you develop your concept by visualizing a solution based upon the identification of that business need. And then the last step is when you actually develop your product concept, and having evaluated the market feasibility, the technical feasibility and the customer feasibility of the product to be able to design a marketing program to launch your product into the marketplace. So let's start with that first step there, how to be empathetic. How to develop a deep understanding of the customer experience. To truly understand how the customer experience a product, you need to be able to identify what's called the pain points that customers have. These are unmet needs. They're using the product or service even though they may become frustrated with the fact that it doesn't address all of their needs. At this particular point, you're not trying to solve the problem because you may end up solving the wrong problem. You just want to understand the total experience that the customer has to give you the context of the opportunity to develop a solution to it. So this a technique where you're experiencing either directly or experiencing through the stories that customers are telling you to identify what areas can be improved upon based upon what's called pain points in their interaction with your product or service. Developing that deep understanding allows you the end-user perspective. And IEO uses a framework that's called SPICE to get an idea as to how customer experiences a product or a service in the environment in which they experience it. SPICE is an acronym for the social interaction, the physical interaction, identity with the product, communicating during that service exchange, and the emotional connection that a customer has with the product. And you think of different many type of products and you can identify how a customer relate to the product, based upon their identity with it and the experiences they have. Take, for instance, Harley motorcycles. Harley customers are very emotional, in terms of identify with their product. It's one of the best known brands to establish that consumer brand connection. They have established such a good connection that people actually put tattoos of the word Harley on their chest and arms. And when you can begin to get people to change their body just using the brand name because of their identification, you know that that customer is directly tied to the product, both socially, physically, in terms of their identity. And in terms of how they communicate about the product because they're proud users of the product. That's someone who has an emotional connection with the product, that they want everyone to know that they're a Harley driver. Now, when we’re doing this, we want to understand what problems that they're having, even though they may have a positive experience. So we want to think in terms of the customers experiences, behaviors and motivations through the eyes of the customer. Our objective, in this case, is to identify the gaps in the process of creating satisfaction with that customer. And regardless of how satisfied that customer may be, there's always a opportunity to develop better satisfaction or increase their level of attachment with a product. Now any of the tools that we've talked about, surveys, interviews, observation, even the experimentation can be used. Harley-Davidson actually used what's called the Posse Ride each year. They sponsor a cross-country ride on a Harley motorcycle. And at each stop, they have some type of a carnival or fair event. And they travel along with the customers as they may go from Texas to Wyoming. But during that process, they're experiencing the same things as the other consumers are. And they're talking to the consumers about their experiences. Through that interaction, through that engagement, they are better able to identify different issues and problems, either with the product, either with the service in other product or any issues that the customers may have. Because there's spending in-depth time with the customer. So the objective, again, is to understand the fundamental problem that the customers have so that you can able to prioritize it. But you're doing it through the experience rather than just asking. In observations, users themselves may not always be clear to articulate the needs. So sometimes just asking them may not be sufficient. You need to observe how they use a product. In most cases, users are not product developers, so they may not know how to improve it. But they can tell you what they're frustrated with. What pain points exist, what things they dislike about it. You're trying to identify both the tangible aspects but the intangible product benefits that they're looking for. You’re looking for things that go well beyond just satisfaction and something we call things that delight the customer. Things that not only brings them back but actually make them effective salespeople in carrying the word through word of mouth to other customers. You empathize by experiencing the same thing your customers are. And by doing that first-hand, you have a better idea as to what those pain points are. You can look at a number of different contexts in which you might be able to do that, for example, the signal push button here in the US to cross the street. What are some of the challenges here in terms of this particular sign? Well, it may not be appropriate for all types of consumers. In this case, if you have some visual impairment, or if you have some hearing impairment, you will not be able to utilize this effectively because of the impairment. You can see, just by observing first-hand, when people use the product and whether they do not use the product. Based upon your observations, you can develop hypotheses, or ideas, about how to solve those problems. You’re looking for the meaning behind the experience that they use. And then you articulate your insights as to how to address those particular needs. The process is very simple. First, you need to determine who to observe. Well, you should observe the customers of the product. You should also observe the non-customers. So if you have a set of target customers for a product, they may be able to experience the product in a different way than someone who's not the traditional customer. So you want to have a wide range of customers when you're trying to observe how the product is used. Who should be the one doing the observing? If possible, it's better to have at least two to three people who can do the observing, so you can compare your information to each other. Are you observing the same things or different things? Does it require some level of technical expertise to understand how the customer's using the product? And, most importantly, anything that you observe, you need to be able to capture it, either in the notes that you take, in the videos, and on the audio. So one or more of these should be used to gather the information. So that later you can go back and review that information on how the customers are using the products and maybe what pain points they have along the way. How do you observe? If possible, unobtrusively. That means where you're part of the environment, but you're not interacting with that particular customer directly. So you're looking for both normal and abnormal use. And you'll be surprised that people will try to use products in a number of different way. You're capturing both the context, as well as free use of the product. So maybe there's certain areas in which you want to observe that fits your particular product. But also look for those opportunities where consumers use the product and it's not the intended purpose. You're trying to spend a day in the life of the customer in their environment, based upon how they use the product. After gathering that information, then you can begin to interpret and generate insights. Again, using the framework we talked about earlier of SPICE, Social, Physical, Identity, Communication, and Emotion. Social, what do people need from their relationship with others, if it's an environment that requires interaction with other people and that particular product. Physical, what do people need from a physical or functional level to actually use the product? Identity, what do people need to enhance their sense of self-worth or reinforce their personal identity? Remember the Harley driver? In addition to having the motorcycle itself, they want to have tattoos, they want to have emblems that say Harley-Davidson. Communication, what kinds of information do people need? When do they need that information? And how do they want to receive that information as they're experiencing the particular product and service? And then, finally, what do people need, both psychologically and emotionally? So in developing and using the customer experience approach, you need to be able to observe these types of needs. And the starting point is to be able to identify a particular market segment. Or your objective might be to uncover other market segments that may be interested in the benefits that your product has to offer. The first step is to identify the target market that you're looking for. We need to develop what's called a customer persona. So in the next module, we're going to look at how to easily develop a customer persona for the purposes of experiencing or developing a experience map with that particular customer.
