Edmond HuaReimagining the Mechanic Workshop product & service experience
Oil Industry Company |
SERVICE DESIGN
Team: Lead Designer, Service Designer, Visual Designer
Time Frame: 3 months
Tools: Mural, Illustrator
This is an internal client project, areas of identification and content have been blurred out. Only high-level processes have been presented, further details and insights can be talked about upon request and presented during interviews.
Background
An oil and gas “supermajor” needed support with mapping out one of their sub-brands customer experience. Supply shortages and COVID-19 lockdowns highlighted the weaknesses in the sub-brands service model. Our mission was to understand the broader challenges faced by the sub-brand, and to identify opportunities for improving existing, and creating new services.
Project Brief
Our deliverable was to understand the current state customer experience of IWS (Independent workshops) and look for opportunities and pain points.
IWS - Independent Workshops also known as automotive workshops, are establishments where you go to get your car repaired by mechanics.
IWS - Independent Workshops also known as automotive workshops, are establishments where you go to get your car repaired by mechanics.
My roles in each phase
What were the problems?
Difficult customer interview recruitment
Availability of interview participants was difficult. Due to the dynamic nature of IWS's, even workshops that had opted in to participate were unable to commit to a specific time for the interviews. As a result, a lot of time was lost in calling back and forth.
Tech Access
External contractors were limited to using MS Teams in the browser. Therefore, features that would be helpful for interviews, such as recording calls and voice-to-text transcripts were not available.
Availability of interview participants was difficult. Due to the dynamic nature of IWS's, even workshops that had opted in to participate were unable to commit to a specific time for the interviews. As a result, a lot of time was lost in calling back and forth.
Tech Access
External contractors were limited to using MS Teams in the browser. Therefore, features that would be helpful for interviews, such as recording calls and voice-to-text transcripts were not available.
The Approach - Discovery
Planning & Preparation
Moving on from our team onboarding and defining the research goals, we kicked off by identifying research participants for the next phase.
We prepared discussion guides and capture templates, to ensure we had some structure in place before we deep-dived into the interviews with SMEs.
Moving on from our team onboarding and defining the research goals, we kicked off by identifying research participants for the next phase.
We prepared discussion guides and capture templates, to ensure we had some structure in place before we deep-dived into the interviews with SMEs.
The Approach - Define
Internal Research
To understand the internal view of the current state customer experience, we interviewed 15 client SMEs from 6 different segments.
From this research, we uncovered 5 trends that represent over-arching observations that emerged, and allow us to identify unmet needs and opportunities to design for.
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Interaction Mapping
We also created Interaction Map’s to help reaffirm our learnings through visual means. These visulisations showcased the client’s interactions with different touchpoints between the customer, frontstage, and backstage.
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To understand the internal view of the current state customer experience, we interviewed 15 client SMEs from 6 different segments.
From this research, we uncovered 5 trends that represent over-arching observations that emerged, and allow us to identify unmet needs and opportunities to design for.
Interaction Mapping
We also created Interaction Map’s to help reaffirm our learnings through visual means. These visulisations showcased the client’s interactions with different touchpoints between the customer, frontstage, and backstage.
External Research
Next, we conducted 30-minute structured interviews with customers from around Australia, we managed to interview 9 workshops out of 17 nominated participants.
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We wanted to learn about the:
We used Insight Canvas’s on Mural to highlight and scribe our interview notes
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As aforementioned, due to the nature of these workshops, we found it very difficult to set concrete interview times. If we were to redo this process, I believe we should use a recruitment agency to source and schedule interviews, consider participants who are not client customers, and not call from Teams as the Caller ID showed as a US number.
Next, we conducted 30-minute structured interviews with customers from around Australia, we managed to interview 9 workshops out of 17 nominated participants.
We wanted to learn about the:
- Interactions and touchpoints that customers have with the client.
- Pain points (for example, problems, frustrations, or impediments) that customers experience while working with the client.
- Unmet customer needs that could be opportunities for the client to improve their service.
- Processes and systems that support or hinder customer satisfaction.
We used Insight Canvas’s on Mural to highlight and scribe our interview notes
As aforementioned, due to the nature of these workshops, we found it very difficult to set concrete interview times. If we were to redo this process, I believe we should use a recruitment agency to source and schedule interviews, consider participants who are not client customers, and not call from Teams as the Caller ID showed as a US number.
The Approach - Develop
Research Synthesis
Through a process of affinity mapping, data captured was organized around the common interactions between client and their customers.
For each client-customer interaction, customer research data was clustered into customer quotes, pain-points, client touchpoints and actors to reveal key themes and sentiment.
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Ideation Workshops
Opportunity areas identified in the customer journey map were the basis for two rapid ideation sessions. With a focus on generating many ideas and without constraints or limitations, a select group of 8 participants created and iterated over 200 ideas.
Workshop Structure:
1. Opportunity Areas
Review of customer journey context and customer pain points to ground the participants in the customer experience and allow them to build empathy with the workshop personas.
2. Ideation Fuel
Inspirational examples of products and services from other industries to get participants thinking about possibilities outside of the bounds of the client’s current infrastructure.
3. Ideation Activity
Individual brainstorming activity using a framework to prompt different perspectives to the same problems. Team discussion and playback after each segment.
4. Vote
Quick voting activity to identify the most popular ideas amongst the participants
![]()
Through a process of affinity mapping, data captured was organized around the common interactions between client and their customers.
For each client-customer interaction, customer research data was clustered into customer quotes, pain-points, client touchpoints and actors to reveal key themes and sentiment.
Ideation Workshops
Opportunity areas identified in the customer journey map were the basis for two rapid ideation sessions. With a focus on generating many ideas and without constraints or limitations, a select group of 8 participants created and iterated over 200 ideas.
Workshop Structure:
1. Opportunity Areas
Review of customer journey context and customer pain points to ground the participants in the customer experience and allow them to build empathy with the workshop personas.
2. Ideation Fuel
Inspirational examples of products and services from other industries to get participants thinking about possibilities outside of the bounds of the client’s current infrastructure.
3. Ideation Activity
Individual brainstorming activity using a framework to prompt different perspectives to the same problems. Team discussion and playback after each segment.
4. Vote
Quick voting activity to identify the most popular ideas amongst the participants
The Approach - Deliver & Validate
Journey Map Design
The customer journey map describes the moments that matter between client and existing customers. Stages do not reflect a linear journey, but independent interactions, separated into routine and on-demand.
The map was created on Mural (Client Request). I worked on a Journey Map framework writing the content and creating structure, whilst the Visual Designer focused on the illustrations and branding.
The customer journey map describes the moments that matter between client and existing customers. Stages do not reflect a linear journey, but independent interactions, separated into routine and on-demand.
The map was created on Mural (Client Request). I worked on a Journey Map framework writing the content and creating structure, whilst the Visual Designer focused on the illustrations and branding.
User Profiles
To accompany the Journey Map, we made a user profile to help represent the workshop. The poster showcased key findings about the workshop and brought to light major challenges they are currently facing.
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To accompany the Journey Map, we made a user profile to help represent the workshop. The poster showcased key findings about the workshop and brought to light major challenges they are currently facing.
The Results
Impact
In a couple months we interviewed multiple customers to investigate the current state of the workshop experience and identified big bets and small swing opportunities, ready for prioritisation and development.
In a couple months we interviewed multiple customers to investigate the current state of the workshop experience and identified big bets and small swing opportunities, ready for prioritisation and development.
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