IoT service for a business customer
A Tri-City company producing air quality maintenance devices is implementing an IoT solution on a large scale. The technologically prepared project is to fulfill important functions for product development and building relationships with customers. For this reason, it is a strategic undertaking of the organization and the board took up the topic of creating a service that will convince users to use IoT on a mass scale.
However, the biggest difficulty in the whole process turned out to be that someone else buys and assembles the device as part of a larger installation, someone else owns it, and completely different people use the effects of the devices. The search for real value for the user required the use of the design thinking methodology.
Design challenge
Creating a service that will allow the user to noticeably facilitate work and reduce the costs of operating devices maintaining indoor air quality, which will be more than a simple data visualization.
Stages of the process
1 / Desk research
benchmark, netetnografia
2 / Workshops with stakeholders
Collecting knowledge about potential users, choosing the direction of research.
3 / Ethnographic research
Report based on commissioned research - user shadowing, interviews.
4/ The concept of an ecosystem of services
Developing a value bundle and a service concept based on it.
5/ Service prototype
Quick prototype of a web application for users.
6/ Testing the service prototype
Ethnographic research with users.
7/ Implementation
Roadmap, implementation plan, cooperation with the development team.
Workshops
I invited people from the company who have contact with buyers, service providers, device owners and people involved in product development to the workshop.
Workshop goals:
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equalization of knowledge about the project.
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naming and selecting groups of users who may be interested in IoT services.
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gathering knowledge about users in the organization and defining the areas for research
As a result, maps of potential users and proto-personas were created, and the research contractor obtained guidelines for the preparation of ethnographic research scenarios.
Personas
As a result of workshops with a research company, the following personas were created as one of the report's products:
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object user.
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Service technician/installer.
Value proposition
The analysis based on the Value proposition canvas tool showed that there are very strong points of contact between Marek and Ewa's goals, needs and problems that are not oriented. This led to the conclusion that the IoT service should develop this space.
Service project
The service was designed in the MVP and full implementation variant.
It consists of information services, process support with tools for monitoring and managing events, failures and reviews.
The service is provided using applications such as CRM, e-BOK, with the participation of consultants, as well as SMS and e-mail notifications.
Service as a user story
In order to effectively present the operation of a complicated service, I have prepared a picture-comic user story.
The presentation was helpful both in relations with stakeholders, the management board, as well as in determining the risks and legal requirements.
The ecosystem map
The service is designed to provide the company with a new revenue stream:
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from the sale of parts and additional elements,
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from the sale of maintenance services,
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from the sale of subscriptions.
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An integral part of this stage was the estimation of the revenue stream, proposals for pricing plans.
Low-fi app prototype
Quick views of application screens for users served as a low-fi prototype. It includes such key views as dashboard, service management, notifications. It has been used as:
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part of the ethnographic study scenario validating the attractiveness of the proposal.
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element of the initial specification to start talks with potential contractors.
Prototype testing and business validation
While the proposal of functionality turned out to be successful, the time and costs of development collided the bold plan with reality. As a result, a conscious decision was made to use another application operating in the company's ecosystem. A small development of this tool allowed to offer users one of the functionalities tested in the prototype - remote management of the installation. Before adapting to work as an IoT element, the application fell into my hands, but that's a completely different story. the implementation of full implementation of the service has been suspended until the installation of IoT devices is scaled up.
Project roadmap and implementation
The roadmap assumes an implementation period of approximately 3 years. It was divided into 3 stages:
- Stage one: implementation of digital tools used internally, allowing for manual handling of user needs, and a parallel customer service team being built.
- Stage two: Implementation of a telephone application to operate devices using IoT communication.
- Stage three: implementation of a web application for self-service.
Copyright & NDA:
Copyright © Agnieszka Menczykowska 2022
The presented projects are implemented or in the process of implementation, however, their details must remain secret due to the NDA.