Getting hands on with design-led innovation

Rossouw

Making the session as hands on as possible, he says attendees will engage through various materials and methods, while learning how to define problem spaces, identify and explore opportunities, and collaboratively ideate solutions.

That sounds like a win to me.

Shifting focus to this year’s Loeries theme that ‘Creativity Unites’, Rossouw says, “Creativity does not only unite, it also connects brands and consumers, and digital plays a key role in making this possible.” However, he says companies are still struggling to deliver digital experiences that meet or exceed their customers’ expectations, despite making significant investments to enhance their digital capabilities. The reason for this is simple: Those companies are either not placing the customer at the centre of all their activities, or are investing in technology without understanding the digital needs of their customers and organisations. “Without a clear line of sight to what their customers need and value, without a human-centered approach to shaping their services and products, brands will struggle to connect with customers,” he warns.

Service design in the spotlight

Human-centric approach is the basis of service design, which Rossouw says is, “All about being truly invested in understanding and serving your customer – being curious, relentless in pursuing the ideal service solution. Now, more than ever, customers are seeking out value and looking for unique experiences.”

Added to this, a recent wave of new services are shifting our expectations as customers while blurring traditional boundaries and disrupting industries like banking. Rossouw says customers now expect and demand frictionless, flexible and personalised experiences, so the need to be agile and in a state of continuous innovation has become a prerequisite for any future-facing brand.

“We’ve been exploring the impact of this new wave of services for a while now, and released a white paper earlier this year called Living Services. It examines the move towards creating services that seem “alive” – intelligent, ubiquitous, learning, predicting and reacting to consumers’ changing needs and circumstances. Simply put, these are branded services that are personalised and change in real-time for every individual, wherever they are and whatever they are doing.

Rossouw predicts Living Services will usher in broader cultural/commercial trends affecting business and society most profoundly in six specific areas:

1. Our homes: A fusion of smart devices will ultimately come to manage our lives and protect our families and interests.
2. Our bodies: Smart wearable devices are just the beginning of a journey toward complete body management, continuous health monitoring and predictive and personalised treatment.
3. Our finances: Banks and insurance companies will move to continually advising and supporting the decisions and challenges we face every day.
4. The future of travel: Smart, driverless cars or connected trains will let us carry our digital lives and Living Services with us.
5. Our working lives: Employers will tailor our workloads and challenges to match our personal capabilities and challenges we face in real-time.
6. Our shopping experience: Retailers will recreate a digital version of old-style customer service, integrating themselves more deeply into our lifestyle choices and interests.

That’s quite a mouthful, but so is Rossouw’s most looking forward to from Loeries^® Creative Week™ Durban: Engaging with industry players at the masterclass, where they’ll discuss how services and products should be delivered to the ever-changing market. He’s also excited to be mingling with industry peers, hearing how brands connect with their customers, and sharing the best industry practices. He concludes that the Digitisation of Everything requires new thinking and a new set of connected capabilities to deliver ground-breaking ideas and transformative customer experiences. That’s why he’s thrilled that Accenture will be spearheading this at the event.

Click here for more on the Loeries^® Creative Week™ Durban Masterclasses.