Design Thinking & Strategy - Good Kitchen Case Study
Summary
TLDRThe transcript details a Danish municipality's initiative to enhance meal services for elderly citizens, collaborating with innovation firm Hatch & Blum. Initially tasked with improving the menu, Hatch & Blum employed a user-centered design approach, utilizing tools like journey mapping and co-creation to uncover deeper needs. They discovered emotional disconnects among seniors and kitchen staff, leading to a broader project scope. Through workshops and prototyping, they redesigned the meal service, resulting in a 500% increase in meal orders and improved satisfaction. The story exemplifies business model innovation beyond product development, focusing on the entire service experience.
Takeaways
- đ Denmark faces challenges with an aging population, including the nutritional needs of over 125,000 senior citizens.
- đœïž The municipality of Copenhagen aimed to improve the meal service for seniors, initially focusing on menu improvements.
- đ Danish innovation firm Hatch & Bloom was invited to innovate beyond just the menu, using a user-centered design approach.
- đ” Ethnographic research revealed unmet emotional needs among seniors and kitchen workers, leading to a broader project scope.
- đ ïž Journey mapping was used as a tool to understand the complete experience of elderly clients and kitchen workers.
- đ€ Co-creation workshops involved stakeholders in understanding challenges and generating ideas for improving meal services.
- đĄ Brainstorming sessions used analogies to shift mental models and stimulate creative thinking about the meal service.
- đš Visualization helped make abstract ideas more tangible, aiding in the decision-making process for new menu designs.
- đŹ Prototyping and experimentation were used to test ideas with actual customers, leading to iterative improvements.
- đ The project resulted in a 500% increase in meal orders and improved job satisfaction for kitchen workers, highlighting the impact of design thinking.
Q & A
What is the main challenge faced by Denmark in the context of the aging population?
-The main challenge faced by Denmark is serving the nutritional needs of over 125,000 senior citizens who rely on government-sponsored meals, with many suffering from poor nutrition and a reduced quality of life.
Why did the municipality of Costa Brau decide to improve meal service for seniors?
-The municipality of Costa Brau decided to improve meal service for seniors to address the growing social problem of malnutrition among the elderly, which was affecting their health and quality of life.
What was the initial assumption of the municipal leadership regarding the project?
-The initial assumption of the municipal leadership was that improving the nutrition of the elderly could be achieved by simply enhancing the current menu based on the preferences of the elderly clients.
How did Hatch & Blum approach the problem differently from the municipality's initial assumption?
-Hatch & Blum approached the problem by adopting a user-centered design approach, which led to a complete redesign of the meal service rather than just improving the menu. They focused on understanding the emotional and functional needs of both the elderly and the kitchen staff.
What is the significance of the ethnographic approach used by Hatch & Blum?
-The ethnographic approach allowed Hatch & Blum to deeply understand the behaviors, needs, and wishes of the elderly by observing and interviewing them, leading to insights that went beyond just fixing the menu to improving the overall meal service experience.
What is a journey map and how was it used in this project?
-A journey map is a tool that follows a customer or stakeholder as they receive a product or service, paying attention to their functional and emotional experiences. In this project, it was used to trace the entire experience of the elderly from the meal delivery to consumption, uncovering unarticulated needs and opportunities.
What emotional needs were identified for both the seniors and the kitchen workers?
-Both the seniors and the kitchen workers experienced feelings of disconnection and alienation. The seniors felt embarrassed about receiving assistance and lost control over their food choices, while the kitchen workers felt demoralized due to the low status of their job.
How did the co-creation process contribute to the project's success?
-The co-creation process involved stakeholders in understanding the challenges and participating in creating a new meal service, leading to ownership, engagement, and better ideas. It was particularly useful in generating and testing ideas, such as using restaurant analogies to rethink the meal service.
What is the purpose of visualization as a design tool in this context?
-Visualization in this context is used to make abstract ideas more concrete and understandable by using imagery. It helped participants feel more connected to the different options being considered for the meal service redesign.
What were some of the significant changes that resulted from the project?
-The project resulted in a new menu, new uniforms for staff, a new name 'The Good Kitchen', improved communication channels, and a 500% increase in meal orders in the first week. It also led to a shift in employees' perception of their work, making them more satisfied and motivated.
How does the story of 'The Good Kitchen' relate to business model innovation?
-The story of 'The Good Kitchen' illustrates business model innovation by not only developing new products or services but also innovating the entire business model to improve the meal service for seniors, leading to increased satisfaction and a more sustainable solution.
Outlines
đ Introduction to Design Thinking
The script begins by introducing the concept of design thinking through a real-world example in Denmark. The country faces challenges due to an aging population, particularly concerning the nutritional needs of over 125,000 senior citizens who rely on government-sponsored meals. The municipality of Copenhagen sought to improve this service and engaged Danish innovation firm Hatch & Bloom to enhance the nutrition of elderly citizens. Initially, the project was perceived as a simple menu improvement task, but Hatch & Bloom's user-centered design approach revealed a much broader opportunity. They utilized ethnographic research, specifically journey mapping, to understand the elderly's behaviors, needs, and wishes, uncovering unarticulated emotional needs and the importance of the job to be done. The approach also extended to kitchen workers, revealing a need to address their demoralization and lack of motivation, which was crucial for improving the meal service.
đ” Emotional Needs and Co-Creation
Paragraph 2 delves into the emotional needs of both seniors and kitchen workers, revealing feelings of disconnection and alienation. The seniors felt embarrassed by their need for assistance and preferred receiving help from relatives or friends over government support. They also valued control over their food choices and disliked eating alone. The kitchen workers were found to be constrained by perceived economic and logistical limitations, leading to repetitive, low-cost meal preparation. However, they showed a desire to do a good job and cared about their work. The Hatch & Bloom team conducted workshops to co-create solutions with stakeholders, including public officials, volunteers, and kitchen workers. They used brainstorming with analogies to shift mental models and generate ideas, such as viewing the kitchen as a restaurant. This approach led to the consideration of more enticing menu descriptions and other improvements, emphasizing the importance of co-creation in the design process.
đœïž Prototyping and Testing Ideas
In the final paragraph, the focus shifts to prototyping and testing ideas generated from the co-creation workshops. The Hatch & Bloom team worked with participants to refine menu designs, exploring preferences for colors, photos, and illustrations using the visualization design tool. They also tested prototypes with actual customers, leading to packaging design changes and the introduction of new uniforms and a new name, 'The Good Kitchen'. This process not only improved the menu and meal descriptions but also transformed the entire business model, increasing employee satisfaction and customer happiness. The results were significant, with a 500% increase in meal orders in the first week alone. The story concludes by emphasizing the importance of business model innovation, moving beyond just developing new products or services to innovating the entire approach to serving the elderly.
Mindmap
Keywords
đĄDesign Thinking
đĄAging Population
đĄUser-Centered Design
đĄJourney Mapping
đĄCo-Creation
đĄEthnographic Research
đĄPrototyping
đĄVisualization
đĄStakeholder Engagement
đĄBusiness Model Innovation
đĄEmotional Needs
Highlights
Design thinking is used to solve real-world problems, such as improving meal services for seniors in Denmark.
The municipality of Costa Brau collaborated with Danish innovation firm Hatch & Blum to enhance the nutrition of elderly citizens.
Initial assumptions about improving the menu were challenged, leading to a broader reframing of the project's goals.
Ethnographic research was conducted to understand the behaviors, needs, and wishes of elderly clients.
Journey mapping was used to trace the entire experience of elderly clients from meal delivery to consumption.
Kitchen workers' emotional needs were identified as crucial to the project's success.
The project scope was broadened to address both the seniors' and kitchen workers' emotional needs.
Co-creation workshops were held with stakeholders to develop insights and design criteria for a new meal service.
Brainstorming sessions used analogies to shift mental models and generate innovative ideas for meal service.
Prototyping and visualization were utilized to make abstract ideas more tangible for participants.
Testing prototypes with actual customers led to practical improvements in meal packaging and presentation.
The new meal service, 'The Good Kitchen,' was named to reflect the aspirations of all involved.
New communication channels were established to maintain close contact between kitchen staff and customers.
The transformation process led to a significant increase in meal orders and improved satisfaction for both staff and customers.
The project resulted in more than just a new menu; it innovated the entire business model for meal services.
The story of The Good Kitchen emphasizes the importance of business model innovation in design thinking.
Transcripts
to illustrate the design thinking
process that we've been talking about
I'd like to tell you a story about
design thinking in action as we go
through that story I will note different
tools and approaches that are being used
then at the end of the session I'll tell
you about some additional resources we
have available so that you can learn
more about them now you can use design
thinking to solve all sorts of problems
let's walk through one example to
illustrate what it looks like in the
real world to do so we're going to
travel to Denmark a country long
recognized for its distinctive attention
to design the Danes like citizens in
most developed countries recognized that
the aging of their population presents
many challenges one of these is serving
the more than 125,000 senior citizens
who rely on government sponsored meals
Danish municipalities deliver subsidized
meals to people who suffer from a
reduced ability to function whether that
is due to illness age or other
conditions many of these seniors have
nutritional challenges and a poor
quality of life because they simply do
not eat enough an estimated 60 percent
of elders living in assisted living have
poor nutrition an estimated 20% are
actually malnourished in response to
this growing social problem the
municipality of Costa Brau decided to
dedicate their efforts to improve meal
service for seniors and they invited
Danish innovation firm hatch & Blum to
work with them to figure out how to
improve the nutrition of their elderly
population municipal leadership saw the
project initially as straightforward in
order to get seniors to eat more the
current menu just needed improving and
they wanted Hatchin bloom to ask elderly
clients about their menu preferences
this is a great example of how to narrow
a definition of the problem to be solved
can drive a lot of innovation right out
the window before you even get started
the opportunity turned out to be much
greater and what action bloom ultimately
produced was much more than just a new
menu it was a completely redesigned meal
service that offered higher quality more
flexibility and increased choice this
dramatic reframing of the opportunity
emerged from the user centered design
approach that hatch and bloom brought to
the process in which they discovered
that nearly fixing the menu wouldn't
solve the nutrition problem let's look
at some specifics about how they did it
they began by exploring what is digging
deep into seniors behaviors needs and
wishes using observation and
interviewing to identify their elderly
clients living situation and try and get
at their unarticulated needs the
approach they chose to use was
ethnographic the specific tool they used
was journey map the journey mapping tool
follows a customer or stakeholder as
they receive a product or service or go
through a process it pays attention to
what designers called the job to be done
in some ways journey mapping is not that
different than the kind of flowcharts or
supply chains we might use in business
but there are some crucial differences
journey mapping recognizes that most of
us are trying to do jobs that are both
functional and emotional a lot of the
unarticulated needs turn out to be on
the emotional side making this tool very
valuable for uncovering hidden
opportunities to create better value for
people Hatchin bloom
used journey mapping to trace the
experience of the elderly from beginning
to end
they rode with food service employees
who delivered the meal they accompanied
them into the homes they watched as
clients prepared the food added
ingredients set the table and then
finally ate the meal they also
interviewed the supervisor of the food
preparation process in her workplace and
what they saw in the kitchen surprised
them
working in a public service kitchen was
a low status job in Denmark and kitchen
employees seemed demoralized and
unmotivated it was not going to be
enough to focus on the needs of the
elderly team members realized they would
need to address the problems of the
employees producing the meals as well
and so the team decided it was important
to broaden the scope of the project
beyond just improving the menu and they
helped the municipal officials
understand why this was necessary from
this dual focus on the people preparing
the meals and on the seniors receiving
them a set of interesting insights began
to emerge they discovered that both the
seniors and the kitchen workers had
important emotional needs that were not
being met
they were both experiencing feelings of
disconnection and alienation the social
stigma of even having to receive such
assistance weighed heavily on the
clients they were embarrassed help for
cleaning was considered acceptable in
Danish culture but helped from more
personal needs was much less so it also
mattered who was providing the help in
Denmark a senior hope to receive
assistance from a relative or a friend
if that was not possible perhaps one
could hire someone but it was a last
resort to receive assistance from the
government also painful to seniors was
the loss of control over their food
choices we discovered that deciding what
kind of food they put in their mouths
was the second most important thing for
the elderly after taking care of their
personal hygiene the head of the hatch
and Blum team told us and they hated
eating alone because it reminded them
that their families were no longer
around
all of these factors contributed
directly to the nutrition problem and
put it in a broader context the less
they enjoyed their situation the smaller
their appetites
the kitchen workers Hatchin Blum learned
we're making the same boring low-cost
meals over and over not because they
lack skills or because they just didn't
care but because of the perceived
economic and logistical constraints that
prevented them from doing something more
interesting the team also found positive
things however they discovered that the
generation of seniors they studied was
very responsible and capable in the
kitchen and had a keen sense of the
seasons and positive associations with
seasonal foods such as apples in the
fall and strawberries in the summer they
also often tried to customize their
meals by adding spices or using their
own potatoes or vegetables the Hatchin
Blum team also discovered that the
kitchen workers really did care and
wanted to do a good job once team
members had finished their ethnographic
research they moved into the what-if
stage for this they wanted to enlist a
broader group of stakeholders in
understanding the nature of the
challenges and participating in creating
a new and better meal service they
wanted to co-create with their important
stakeholders to accomplish this they had
a series of workshops that brought
together a diverse set of stakeholders
it included public officials volunteers
experts in elderly issues kitchen
workers and employees of residential
care facilities together they reviewed
the ethnographic research and develop
insights and design criteria to form
idea generation this kind of co-creation
is another important design tool
inviting stakeholders into the creative
process creates ownership and engagement
as well as producing better ideas the
co-creation tool will turn out to be
useful in every one of the four
questions as you'll see later
in the second question Hatchin bloom
used a brainstorming process in which
facilitators used analogies as trigger
questions to help shift participants
mental models of food service as they
generated ideas the facilitators asked
participants to think of the kitchen as
a restaurant triggering a creative rush
the kitchen workers they assumed then
must be the chef's and if they were the
chef's who were the waiters this began
to bring ideas like the condition of the
vehicles used for meal delivery into the
discussion they continued to work with
the restaurant analogy as they
considered the food itself until that
point the menus had been minimalist
factual descriptions of the food perhaps
detailing how it was prepared for
instance one item red liver potatoes and
sauce that's not exactly a description
that will make your mouth water is it
but now participants in the workshop
started to wonder maybe we should look
at actual restaurant menus
maybe we should describe our meals in a
completely different more enticing way
the third workshop move them into the
what Wow stage and continue to emphasize
the design tool of co-creation but this
time co-creation was used to test ideas
rather than generate them this third
workshop was much more hands-on and
involved prototyping at least in a rough
way the solutions coming out of the
what-if workshops for example hatching
bloom work with participants on three
different versions of the menu asking
them which they liked and how they felt
about various aspects such as the colors
they favored and whether they preferred
photos or illustrations they used a
design tool called visualization to make
these different options feel more real
to participants
visualization is one of the essential
design tools it's not about drawing a
skill that many of us don't have it's
about using imagery to make an abstract
idea more public and more concrete so
that it will be more visible clear and
understandable to others Hatchin bloom
didn't talk to people about the
different options they showed them the
different options they then moved into
what works testing prototypes with
different combinations and ways of
presenting the food with actual
customers the learning from this initial
set of experiments resulted in a second
project with some quick packaging design
changes that allowed for more modular
Mills where components were separated
instead of being mixed together the
process also yielded new uniforms for
employees and a new name the good
kitchen that reflected everybody's
aspirations it also included new
communication channels using newsletters
and comment cards to keep clients and
the kitchen staff in close touch with
each other and so a process that began
with a simple mandate fix the menu
evolved into something much more
significant as it moved through the four
questions using design tools like
journey mapping co-creation prototyping
and experimentation that process yielded
a host of dramatic changes a new menu
new uniforms for staff new feedback
mechanisms but equally important it made
everyone involved cognizant of the real
people they were serving or being served
by today poster brows seniors know who
is shaping their meatballs and preparing
the gravy in the kitchen and this
relationship between the kitchen staff
and the customers which is now both
personal and professional has increased
greatly the satisfaction of both
the results speak for themselves
reorganizing the menu and improving the
descriptions of the meals drove a 500%
increase in Neil orders in the first
week alone but the results were much
more about the number of meals served
one of the most important elements of
the transformation was the shift in
employees perception of themselves in
their work the kitchen workers are now
much more satisfied and motivate as a
result customers are happier with their
food if you have professional pride
you'll also cook good food and Murray
Nilsson the director of the good kitchen
told us good food has to come from the
heart what we are talking about in the
good kitchen story is about more than
just developing new products or services
we're talking about innovating the
entire business model I'd like you to
spend a few minutes now listening to
Jeremy Alexis a professor at the Chicago
Institute of design as he shares his
views on the importance of business
model innovation
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