As we look towards a brand-new year here at Fuse we would like to take a moment to reflect upon who we are and what we do best as a company, for as a certain Socrates once said: “To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom.”
At Fuse, we have long believed that to design and deliver experiences that customers and employees really want and value, it is imperative that we not only understand them, but understand how those experiences actually fit into their daily lives. This goes to the heart of what we do as an organisation. We maintain that it is not enough to simply understand people, rather, we must strive to understand how people make a home for themselves in a fast-changing and increasingly complex world. For although our world may be shifting, the things that unite us, the things that make us human – our needs, wants, and desires – remain the same. In this post, I touch upon the four ways that we at Fuse apply our uniquely human-centred approach to addressing these human needs in order to create business impact: identifying new opportunities; building customer and employee experiences; establishing customer-centric workforces; and anticipating credible futures. Let’s take a look at each of these in more detail.
IDENTIFYING NEW OPPORTUNITIES
Identifying new business opportunities is at the core of what we do as a company. Without opportunity, there is no innovation, and without innovation, there is no progress. From our many years in the field, we have found that most opportunities are actually disguised as problems, at least at first. Once we dig a bit deeper however, we find that hiding underneath this seeming obstacle is an opportunity area waiting to be brought to light. We help businesses uncover needs that they cannot currently see and earn them a valued role in their customers lives. Through our uniquely human-centred approach combining social science with experience design and business thinking, we help our clients uncover and explore new opportunity spaces and get separation from their competitors. As a tangible example of this process, we helped kick-start a global semiconductor manufacturer’s data monetisation strategy for wearables. By combining qualitative research, data analysis, and value proposition design, we identified a competitive new data strategy that steered them towards a five-year roadmap to success.
BUILDING CUSTOMER AND EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCES
The philosopher of science Karl Popper once said of experiences: “We do not stumble upon our experiences, nor do we let them flow over us like a stream. Rather, we have to be active: we have to ‘make’ our experiences.” Since our very first days at Fuse, we have helped our customers build experiences based on a deep understanding of people. We recognise that experiences matter. Experiences don’t just deliver functional needs but create positive emotional impact and meaning. Where once goods and services held sway as the main mode of consumption, now experiences and emotion have emerged as key channels through which businesses can create value. Through our deep ethnographic research experience and customer-centricity we help our clients build experiences that are not only unforgettable, but relevant, timely, and delightful. The car buying experience is a case in point. Our client, a North American automobile manufacturer was struggling with low customer experience ratings and lacked understanding of its end-customer’s complete purchasing journey. Through in-depth interviews and dealership visits in three different U.S. markets, we reimagined the car buying experience to produce a strategy to improve the overall customer experience, align activities of manufacturer and dealers, and supported them in the creation of a new role tasked with “owning” the full customer journey.
ESTABLISHING CUSTOMER-CENTRIC WORKFORCES
To have sustained success in the new economy requires above all else, putting the customer at the centre of the equation. At Fuse we help to raise awareness and prepare workforces for a customer-centric mindset through establishing a common understanding within teams. To do this, we provide them the tools and metrics to build empathy and insights generation to create a relentless focus on their customers’ needs. We help companies create true growth, not just short-term gains, in order to prepare them for whatever the future holds. As an example of this work, our client – a medium-sized parts manufacturer in heavy industry – wanted to strengthen their competitive position and rethink their approach to innovation. In particular, they wanted to complement their advanced tech capabilities with increased user empathy to consistently create industry-leading solutions. Through an assessment of the organisations’ processes and systems, we helped them to create processes to identify the unmet needs of mining and construction workers and build creative solutions to address them.
ANTICIPATING CREDIBLE FUTURES
In a fast-changing and unpredictable world, understanding and analysing emerging shifts in order to anticipate credible futures has become increasingly important. At Fuse we help businesses navigate these shifts so that they may better position themselves to face the challenges ahead. However, picking up on the early signs of these emerging movements requires a culturally sensitive and human-centric approach. Through deep analysis of the social, technological, economic, and political we help inform our clients of what lies ahead. We provide the light that helps our clients chart and navigate the disruptions of tomorrow. The world is without doubt currently undergoing major changes in the way societies are organised. How will key factors (e.g. mobility, structure of work, housing, mental illness) impact the future of urban environments? Our client, a global technology and infrastructure company, wanted to identify the shifts that will define how European cities will evolve in the near future, and create scenarios of what they may look like in 2030. We interviewed over twenty-five topic experts and analysed industry reports and white papers to surface the most relevant shifts impacting urban living. Through ‘anticipatory thinking’, we fleshed-out the evolution of the most relevant shifts and potential obstacles over time to help them better collaborate with their partners and clients.
KNOWING FOR BUSINESS SUCCESS
I began this piece by reflecting upon the words of a certain classical Greek philosopher. But what does it actually mean to “know thyself”?
At Fuse we are keenly aware of how much more complex the world has become. Technology is advancing at such a rate that social conventions are struggling to keep pace. We are in a constant game of catch-up. Little wonder then that most people don’t take the time for self-reflection. Only by understanding oneself however, can we understand others.
We believe that one of the most effective ways of discovering who we are – our strengths as well as our weaknesses – is through the eyes of others. This is the crux of what we do at Fuse. We help businesses know themselves better through our expert outsider eyes so that they may truly flourish. We can only do this however by knowing who we are and what we stand for. In 2019, we aim to strive more than ever to listen, to learn, to examine our values and reflect back upon our choices. Let’s start the New Year together by getting to know ourselves better.