Activating Your Innovation Radar Report, Vrienden van Vrienden Concept

INTRODUCTION DATE: 25-11-2013 MODULE: DB514 activating your innovation radar CLIENTS: Zuidzorg (http://www.zuidzorg.nl/) Vrienden van de Thuiszorg (http://www. vriendenvandethuiszorg.nl/)

This report is the result of the Master Module ‘Activating Your Innovation Radar’, a Master Module of the Education Industrial Design, Faculty of the Eindhoven University of Technology.

During this one week Module a group of 6 persons worked together on a service called ‘Vrienden van Vrienden’, a platform that brings companies, socialprofit organisations and user groups together.

The report is set up chronologically, starts with the very first assignment and explains the road from then on towards the final concept, and ends with the group’s vision, resulting in plans for the future.

WHO ARE WE?

SENSING SELF We looked at ourselves and developed our vision as a group on what it means to be an elderly. To do so different brainstorms were done and a visit was payed to the client. The result was translated into a video.

Our very first assignment was to get familiar with the target group, elderly, in a very short period (1 hour).

SENSING SELF BRAINSTORMS During this hour we set up a short brainstorm, focused around a persona (a made up elderly man).

The main goal of this brainstorm was to think of the values of this persona as a living human being and the impact it has on a human being to be old: What does it mean to be old? What kind of troubles do elderly bump into during his daily activities?

PRESENTATION

The thoughts and generated ideas were made concrete and grouped into 4 categories (tripping, social willing but unable, frustrating and stronger together). All these four categories were presented by making use of an illustrative movie.

FEEDBACK ON PRESENTATION

Our presentation mainly focused on the negative sides of being old, and we were warned not only to look for negative sides of the elderly life. Since we had chosen to use our limited time for the sensing self-phase to set up a hypothesis, we were advised to use our afternoon visit to our user group (Vrienden van de Thuiszorg) as a moment to test our hypothesis and to reflect on the outcome.

SENSING CONTEXT Sensing the context includes sensing the stakeholders, users, current situation, trends and such what was eventually again translated into a video.

VISIT TO CLIENT AND USER GROUP

Although we formulated a brief hypothesis on what it is like to be old, we still wanted to go open minded into our meeting with our new client and confrontation with our user group. We planned to conduct an user interview and ask as many open questions as possible, hoping to find out what the values and qualities of elderly are. In that way we can analyse the information afterwards.

FINDINGS SENSING CONTEXT Most important findings of our visit to the client and personas.

ABOUT ZUIDZORG AND VRIENDEN VAN DE THUISZORG Zuidzorg is a Health Care organisation that provides home care for elderly.

Because of the stricter regulations in the Health Care sector, Zuidzorg employees are forced to spend more time on actual household activities rather than spending time with elderly.

Both employees as elderly regret this development because both elderly and health care employees like to have more social interactivity.

That is why Zuidzorg has founded ‘Vrienden van de Thuiszorg’, a non profit organisation that aims for providing that little bit of extra care to vulnerable elderly.

However, because of the lack of financial means Vrienden van de Thuiszorg cannot provide help to everybody who wants to receive extra care.

Employees of Zuidzorg select elderly according to their score on a vulnerability scale. Which is based on three criteria: socio-psycho, financial and

physical means.

If elderly are not ‘qualified’, they are not invited for the activities arranged by Vrienden van de Thuiszorg, even if they would like to.

ABOUT ELDERLY

The amount of elderly will triple in the coming 15 years up to a million elderly in the Netherlands!

There is a very big variety within the user group elderly on all qualities of life (socio-psycho, financial and physical means).

Elderly like social activities, and social interaction, with relatives and friends, but also with strangers.

ABOUT THE MOBILITY OF THE ELDERLY Since public transport does not suffice in the specific needs of elderly, a lot of elderly are depending on personal taxi services in order to move outside their homes. However, this taxi-service is

profile - 46 years old - Profession: works full-time as a medical care worker of the ‘Zuidzorg’ for almost 20 years now - Happily married with 2 children - Mostly fixed clients which she sees almost every day - Personal contact with the clients - Knows here clients quite well

work opinion - Can not offer the care she wants due to the ‘marktwerking in de zorg’ - Quota and deadlines - Only time available for practical matters.

- She misses the time for social interaction.

ANS SMIT - ZUIDZORG EMPLOYEE

work description - Personal care (help with getting out of bed, washing, taking a shower, getting dressed, putting on compression stockings etc.)

- Domestic help (cleaning, doing the groceries, coordinating the household etc.)

- Nursing (preparation of medication, putting on bandages, administrating injections, wound care etc.) - Supportive guidance (structuring schedules, solving problems, supporting with the illness and/ or death of the partner etc.)

values: - People empathy - Affinity with health care - Likes to helps

very unreliable, which makes mobility a difficult task for elderly.

ABOUT MONEY

The government does not support Vrienden van de Thuiszorg, which will not change in the future.

At this very moment, Vrienden van de Thuiszorg has barely enough money to survive. However, Vrienden van de Thuiszorg is financially not capable of growing according to the increase of elderly.

ABOUT COMPANIES

Zuidzorg employees are very aware of the fact that companies are trying to design products for the elderly consumer market.

CONCLUSION VISIT CLIENT AND USER GROUP

Understanding of user group.

Because of the interviews we experienced the lives of our users first handed, and saw the difficulties in their daily activities, but also learned what

they think is important and what they value. Overall we think we understand their situation and thus what we are designing for.

But to get more feeling for this still quite complex situation we decided to create three persona’s and to look a bit deeper into the current related trend in our society.

PERSONAS

The first persona is one of a Zuidzorg employee. This to get more insight into the contact that they have with the elderly especially because they make the selecting of who goes to the “Vrienden van de Thuiszorg”. The second one shows a still quite independent elderly who goes to the “Vrienden van de Thuiszorg” not because she was selected but on her own request.

Lastly, an elderly is shown who highly depends on its surrounding and was selected due to his high score on the vulnerability scale.

Mobility - Owns her own car - On her way to the Vrienden van de Thuiszorg she always picks up a friend with her car.

- Due to some balance issues she is scared to take the bus.

profile - 81 years old - Retired, used to be a bank receptionist - Widow since her husband had died seven years ago - She is a frequent participant in the by the Vrienden van de Thuiszorg organised activities - Still lives independently but has plans to move to a home with more care.

TRUDIE DE VRIES - ELDERLY

Activities - During an organised activity she especially enjoys to socialize and experience new things - She is not picky in the kind of activities but crafting is her favourite.

- The activities within a week are always planned one in advance or more.

social - Family is quite busy with their own lives but visit her twice a month.

- Each Thursday she goes to the Vrienden van de Thuiszorg together with a friend.

- On Saturday she goes for grocery shopping together with her sister by car - On days in which no activity is planned she tempts to feel lonely

mobility - He has a severe disability concerning walking which limits him in his daily live.

- He does loves to walk and does this in the hallway, but no longer than a couple of meters.

- For his mobility he depends on the taxi on which he often needs to wait a long time.

profile - 76 years old - Retired, has work as a Philips employee for 52 years - Married for 56 years (and counting) - He has no living family left besides his wife - Goes to the Vrienden van de Thuiszorg because his wife takes him - Lives together with his wife in a house for elderly in which he is ability to receive the extra care he needs.

KEES VAN DER MEER - ELDERLY

Social - He is glad that he is still together with his wife who means the world to him.

- He tries to do to the Vrienden van de Thuiszorg each Thursday but sometimes the taxi is simply too late.

- He highly depends on his medical care worker who visits him every day and his wife.

- He has a good contact with his neighbours.

activities: - His wife who is still very active motivates him to participate in activities.

- He likes to just be among people - Activities are planned in advance together with his medical care worker.

TRENDS A closer look was given to the current trends in society out of which we stated some overall trends in our society and two main trends concerning the design case.

OVERALL TRENDS IN OUR CURRENT SOCIETY

As we see today new criteria are being formed in relation to products. One desires a product with which he can relate and connect. It becomes more about the experience, a shift from Quantity to quality. The consumer of tomorrow is seeking for real craftsmanship, therefor established brands will see a new revival an increasing market share.

As these brands stand for; dedication, research, passion and honesty they directly implement the need of the new consumer automatically in all their products.

Due to our constant and ever changing society and values, the consumer of today got lost within the jungle of choices and possibilities. Therefor tomorrow the consumer will have to find a new rhythm in order not to lose himself.

This new sanctuary approach will question products and services in a different way.

Partly it will be back to basics. What is the basis, the very essence, of chair, of transportation, of a walking stick ? The only way to reach this goal is a collaboration of minds, working together, Communicating, sharing thoughts, perspectives and experiences.

This collective mental intercourse will raise us to new heights, deliver previously unimaginable success, and an intense, deeply satisfying experience.

As we see a new generation of elderly, they have new values, Used to travelling, multicultural lifestyles and ever changing environments they will not give up this lifestyle. Continuously they will want to be triggered by new information and want to keep up to date with new evolutions.

Since healthcare improves and therefor life expectancies will dramatically increase we can see a new lifestyle and leisure program. Somewhat it makes this new generation delusional what turns out in a hang on everlasting youth.

This new energy and positivism com-

bined with the knowledge they have will be of great contribution to society.

As they want to remain active there is a believe this will take more part in the middle society, since they used to live “ a new nomad* “ lifestyle. * new nomad ; person who is not attached to a certain spot or place nor relationships, has the flexibility and need to change elements once in a while in order to maintain personal satisfaction within life.

MAIN TRENDS: CURRENT SITUATION ELDERLY & CARE

At this very moment in the Netherlands, we have a total amount of 300,000 elderly people. Zuidzorg, the Healthcare organization who takes care of the social and physical wellbeing of these elderly who are living in the South of the Netherlands, has just enough money to fulfil in the specific needs of the elderly they provide care for.

However, while the amount of money available is decreasing, the total

amount of elderly in the Netherlands will increase up to the point where the Netherlands has more than 1,000,000 elderly in the coming 15 years!

COMPANIES AWARE OF A NEW MARKET

Because of this severe growth in elderly people a lot of companies see market possibilities in elderly as a new customer group. Therefore a lot of production companies attempt to design products adjusted to the specific needs of elderly, but tend to miss the insight needed to successfully design for this upcoming group.

CONCLUSION ON TREND ANALYSIS

So, companies aim for a more successful integration of elderly in their design process.

Social profit organizations aim for an ensured existence, individual growth and expansion of the social activities they arrange.

[GOVERNMENT]

STAKEHOLDERS OVERVIEW After having sensed the context we understood the current situation and knew which stakeholders were involved. From which the following global stakeholdersoverview was created showing the current situation including the main mutual relations, problems and happenings.

ZUIDZORG [HEALTHCARE COMPANIES]

GOVERNMENT IS CUTTING COSTS FINANCIAL SUPPORT

VRIENDEN VAN DE THUISZORG [SOCIAL PROFIT ORGANISATIONS]

PERSONAL CONTACT

SELECTS THE ELDERLY

LIMITED AMOUNT ACTIVITIES

ELDERLY [SPECIFIC GROUP]

GROWING MARKET WITH MONEY

E

VOGELS [COMPANIES]

UNCERTAIN OF THEIR FUTURE EXISTENCE

ELDERLY DESIGN [SPECIFIC DESIGN] NO CONTACT WITH ELDERLY

MISSES THE POSSIBILITY TO GAIN INSIGHTS IN ELDERLY

AWARE OF ECONOMICALLY INTERESTING NEW MARKET

OUR CONTEXT

CONCLUSION, DESIGN CHALLENGE & VISION With this clear overview in mind we were able to find and choose a design direction and state a clear group vision.

Zuidzorg is the Healthcare organization who takes care of the social and physical wellbeing of the elderly who are living in the South of the Netherlands.

Vrienden van de Thuiszorg is an extension of Zuidzorg, and is a non-profit foundation that gives elderly who are in extra need of care this little bit of extra attention. For example they organize social activities such as cooking classes or little trips. Because of the expected increase in the amount of elderly, the “Vrienden van de Thuiszorg” will probably have not enough money to continue their current activities in the future.

However, also due to this severe growth in elderly people a lot of companies see market possibilities in elderly as a new customer group. Therefore a lot of production companies attempt to design products adjusted to the specific needs of elderly, but tend to miss the insight needed to successfully design for elderly.

POTENTIAL DIRECTIONS

Already after our client visit we saw two distinctive design directions from which elderly could benefit. These grow through the creation of the personas, the research on the trends and creation of the total context overview. _1 Focus on mobility of elderly _2 finding a way to create a money flow towards elderly These findings were presented in the ‘sensing context – presentation 2’

FEEDBACK ON PRESENTATION

The movie we used to explain our findings was not clear enough to let others understand our process. We understood that our story was too complicated to explain in two minutes. However, because we wanted to share the big amount of background information we received the day before in our visit with the client and user group, we still wanted to try.

In order to make our story better understandable, we had to dive deeper into our own substance and to understand our context and story better ourselves first. So that is what we did: trying to get better grip on our context, and finding out how we could be of assistance to this situation, focusing on mobility and creating additional money flows.

After a brainstorm we found out that elderly do not necessarily generate valuable goods, but that, because of the interest of companies in the market for elderly, elderly do possess valuable knowledge.

Our idea was to design a service that would make this knowledge and experience valuable in terms of money, and so we came up with a concept platform that is called ‘Vrienden van Vrienden’.

DESIGN LENGES

CHAL-

Design challenge 1: Find a way to make the knowledge of elderly valuable in terms of money.

Design challenge 2: Design a cycle in which everybody who invests benefits. (time-money-goods).

VISION

We have experienced the important role of Vrienden van de Thuiszorg on the elderly individuals first handed.

Therefore in our view Vrienden van de Thuiszorg play such an important role in the life of these elderly that we want to improve the organisation’s cashflow in order to ensure the existence in the near future.

We can change society by making direct contributions to the vulnerable group of social profit organizations as well as we stimulate companies to make products that are better adapted to the user, leading to a better userproduct interaction.

INTRODUCTION CONTEPT

SOCIAL PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS

On the right an abstract functioning of our concept Vrienden van Vrienden is given together with an explanation.

BRIDGE & WIN-WIN SITUATION

+ ADDITIONAL LARGE AMOUNT OF PEOPLE WITHIN A SPECIFIC TARGET GROUP

INCOME & BENEFITS FOR TARGET GROUP

VRIENDEN VRIENDEN

VAN

Vrienden van Vrienden is a social benefit consultancy platform, that connects organisations, (production) companies and their target groups.

VALUE TION COMPANIES

+

ACCESS TO THE TARGET GROUP

PROPOSI-

For companies who aim for more efficient user research methodologies and better user insights, we “ Vrienden van Vrienden” are a platform that will help them to obtain user insights in a better and moral responsible way.

For social profit organizations which aim for an ensured existence we “ Vrienden van Vrienden” can help in achieving their individual growth and expansion of the social activities they arrange by generating an additional money flow in a way that is consistent with their personal values and of the individuals they represent.

For elderly “Vrienden van Vrienden” is an opportunity through which they receive the possibility to attend ad-

ditional social activities and become more involved in the technological and social developments.

Thus for companies who want a more successful integration of the user in their design process and for social profit organizations who are willing to expand their social activities “Vrienden van Vrienden” is the connecting element that helps these parties to achieve their goals.

Basically “Vrienden van Vrienden“ offers a unique combination of valuable networks (crowds) with an designers expertise, insight and ability to speak both the end-user as the producer its language.

CONCEPT DISCRIMINATOR // BENCHMARK

Wisdom of the) Crowd The important difference between us and others, is that we can make use of a crowd.

We represent a lot of elderly who, as

individuals, are already represented by a non-profit organisation. And because of the ‘voor wat-hoort wat’-mentality elderly who are participating in our program are not doing this out of sympathy for us, but also so that they can benefit themselves. Therefore we can rely on a crowd, which makes it relatively easy for us to offer contact moments with companies.

Benefit from investment In the current situation, elderly cost society a lot of money, because people, organizations or companies do not seem to know how to use this group to generate value for others.

Therefore the investments in elderly are mainly financially or materially and companies that invest get mainly gratitude in return, which makes it seem like companies are donating for charity.

However, we offer a way for companies to make an investment in society an investment in themselves: because of the financial investment in elderly, companies can more successfully penetrate the market for elderly, which

produces a big market opportunity.

Design consultancy Vrienden van Vrienden initially consists out of designers, who are able to understand the needs and wishes of every involved participator, and can design and construct a suitable settlement to satisfy all participators. This makes us different from marketing bureaus or consultancy companies, who do research and end up with a conclusion of what should be different.

If a company wants a better integration of the user in its design process, it should only need how to call Vrienden van Vrienden, and we find a way to connect them to their target group.

APPLIED ON THE DESIGN CASE

To make this more concrete and understandable we will now apply “Vrienden van Vrienden“ on the actual design case.

For the company, we take the example of Vogel’s, a company specialized in making wall mounting gear for televi-

sions and accessories. For the NonProfit organization we take Zuidzorg, which has close contacts with user group elderly people.

Vogel’s sees the opportunities in the market for elderly, is trying to find ways into the world of the elderly, and has resources available. Zuidzorg does not have enough money to provide all the care for the elderly as they would like to, especially when the amount of elderly will increase drastically.

For companies like Vogel’s Vrienden van Vrienden provides a way to obtain the expertise of the Non-profit organization like Zuidzorg’s employees and direct contact with elderly, who, in return, gets supported emotionally and financially. Providing means to ensure existence in the future.

[GOVERNMENT]

VRIENDEN VAN VRIENDEN & THE ACTUALL DESIGN CASE This overview sketches the scenario in which the Vrienden van Vrienden concept is applied to the actuall design case of vogels, zuidzorg and the elderly.

ZUIDZORG [HEALTHCARE COMPANIES]

INCREASED WELLBEING OF TARGET GROUP LESS FRAMED IN SELECTING ELDERLY

NO/ LESS FINANCIAL SUPPORT NEEDED

NEW / MORE ACTIVITIES

ELDERLY [SPECIFIC GROUP]

VRIENDEN VAN DE THUISZORG [SOCIAL PROFIT ORGANISATIONS] ADDITIONAL INCOME & BENEFITS FOR TARGET GROUP

INVOLVED IN TECHNOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENTS MORE SOCIAL INTERACTION

E

VOGELS [COMPANIES] MORE CERTAINTY OF THEIR FUTURE EXISTANCE POSSIBILITY TO EXPAND

ELDERLY DESIGN [SPECIFIC DESIGN] VALUABLE KNOWLEGDE AND INSIGHTS IN TARGET GROUPS (EASY) ACCESS TO THE TARGET GROUP & NEW MARKET

ABILITY TO REACH NEW MARKET CREATE MORE VALUABLE DESIGN INCREASED BRAND VALUE (PLATE-MARK)

FUNCTIONING & JOURNEY MAPS STAKEHOLDERS To further detail the Vrienden van Vrienden concept we looked at how it would work in the real situation through all the different stakeholders perspectives and translated this into journey maps.

FUNCTIONING VRIENDEN VAN VRIENDEN What we now do as Vrienden van Vrienden is that we offer confrontation moments with the user group: moments in which elderly and the companies visit each other.

By making use of the experience and knowledge of Zuidzorg and their employees we are able to understand what persons might agree with, and how the user group can be of service to a company.

1 First we try to understand what the company wants and needs in an intake meeting 2 Then, based on the information from our intake meeting, we, together with the experts from Zuidzorg, think of a reasonable arrangement that satisfies the wishes of Zuidzorg and Vogel’s .

3 This arrangement is proposed to Vogel’s, hoping they agree on the terms stated.

4 This process is repeated until

we have found a solution that fits the terms and wishes of both concerned.

JOURNEY MAPS

This was basically our perspective within the concept, but how does it looks like when seen from the elderly or Vogel’s? Well we hope to give an idea through the following journey maps, featuring: _Walter Brouwer who works at the sales department of the Vogel’s company _Hubert Cornelis who works at de Zuidzorg and is a volunteer at Vrienden van de Thuiszorg, which is a social profit organization that gives elderly extra care and attention _Mister de Vries, who is an elderly that has been participating in the activities of Vrienden van de Thuiszorg for several years.

WALTER BROUWER - VOGELS

Walter sees a lot of opportunities for the development of new products and services for elderly. This market however, is completely new for Vogel’s and they have little knowledge on how to find and acquire constructive insights for their brand expansion.

Walter is contacted by an employee of Vrienden van Vrienden; which is a social-profit organization that is actively searching for companies who are interested in the elderly market.

Through a first consult Vrienden van Vrienden acquires more insight in the Vogel’s brand and understanding of their needs and requirements. These findings are translated into a plan that is presented to the Vrienden van de Thuiszorg. This plan is essential to safeguard the interests of the elderly.

After the right adjustments have been made Vrienden van Vrienden sets up an agreement between all related stakeholders.

After this agreement Vrienden van Vrienden will organize all necessary

activities, such as workshops, brainstorm or feedback sessions with the target group. They will act as a mediator throughout the whole process.

Vrienden van Vrienden will deliver a final report with their own recommendations for future steps for Vogel’s based on our expertise as industrial and service designers. After the collaboration Vogel’s will receive the plate-mark that is a sign that Vogel’s has successfully implemented the user group in its design process.

Through Vrienden van Vrienden Vogel’s will be able to easily reach and gain more insight within this growing new market, with a minimal amount of time and effort spent on it.

HUBERT CORNELIS - ZUIDZORG

Hubert is worried about the increasing number of requests of elderly who want to join their activities and the decreasing amount of money that is coming in. He is aware of the fact that this situation will create serious problems in the future.

No guarantees on results Company visit from Vrienden Van Vrienden Goal: brand expension in elderly market

Walter - sales department Vogel’s

Company plans meeting with Vrienden Van Vrienden

Cost lots of time to do research

No knowledge or insights on market of elderly

Compiling customized strategy for Vogel’s

Vrienden Van Vrienden

Agreement between all related stakeholders

Vrienden van Vrienden delivers report with advices for future steps for Vogel’s

First consult with Vogel’s Plan for Vrienden van de Thuiszorg

JOURNEY MAP VOGELS

Re-evaluation meeting

Customized courses workshop with the company and elderly

Vogels receives the“Vrienden van Vrienden” platemark

“Vrienden van Vrienden” approaches Hubert with the request to join their platform. They explain that Vogel’s is a company that is interested in designing products for elderly. Vogel’s would like to be connected to the target group of Vrienden van de Thuiszorg and is willing to invest in them in return. Hubert understands the possibilities for his organization and is very interested in this offer. Together with Vrienden van Vrienden he works on a reasonable arrangement and terms for the collaboration with Vogel’s.

With the help of Vrienden van Vrienden, Vrienden van de Thuiszorg will have more certainty in their cash flow, and thus existence in the future. This will result into more possibilities to grow and support a bigger group of elderly.

Furthermore the collaboration will increase their brand exposure, which stimulates finding individual donators.

For Zuidzorg this association will increase their brand identity and more money to spend on other activities.

MISTER DE VRIES ELDERLY

Mister de Vries would love to attend more activities, but because of the financial situation of the Vrienden van the Thuiszorg, the amount of events is very limited.

During one of his weekly gatherings a Zuidzorg volunteer informs him about a program in which he can participate in various activities together with other elderly in combination with an external company named Vogel’s. He hears that during this workshop will include several activities such as sharing his experiences, becoming acquainted with new technologies, testing products and discussing ideas and giving feedback.

Mister de Vries is really enthusiastic about this opportunity and signs up.

Through these diverse activities he has the possibility to become better engaged in society, to be more socially active while getting acquainted with new products and technologies.

More elderly who want to participate in activities

JOURNEY MAP ZUIDZORG + Hubert - Zuidzorg& Vrienden van de Thuiszorg

Informed about volunter join an acitivity where co nies are involved

Financial situation Vrienden van Thuiszorg

Would love to attent more social activities

Mister de Vries - elderly active in Vrienden van de Thuiszorg events

Decreasing amount of money

Approached by Vrienden Van Vrienden to join their platform

Meeting about the collaboration with Vogel’s and the agreement

Plenary meeting about Vrienden van Vrienden procedures

Customized course workshop with the company and elderly

ring to ompa- More social activities - Engagement in society - Acquaintance with new technologies and products - Being involved in the design of products for elderly Customized course workshop with the company and elderly

JOURNEY MAP ELDERLY

FUTURE Our near future and far future plans concerning the Vrienden van Vrienden Concept. Plus an example of a package which would be offered to a company and a rough startup estimation.

Yes, we are incredibly enthusiastic, and yes we have moved mountains to come to this final result. But we also know that you know that we only have worked on this concept for only 4 days.

Therefore we can be honest and say that we at this moment still are not at the place we want to be. However, it is because of this honest enthusiasm that we have big plans.

NEAR FUTURE

For the very near future this means that we are going to start up, and look for ways to look for ambitious and innovative companies that allow us to apply our magic on their design process.

C I S TO M I Z E D COURSE PACKAGE To concretize the Vrienden Van Vrienden more an attempt was made to create a rough financial picture how money flows would go. This including the estimation of a Customized Course Package [CCP] and a startup budget what is needed. The CCP is a full day workshop, given by Vrienden Van Vrienden for the company on the

social profit organization’s location.

During this workshop the company gains understanding about the user from an expert point of view and has the ability to do activities with them like discussing their products with the elderly. It is estimated that a one day workshop, depending on the targetgroup, the facilities on the location, the amount of users, the amount of Vrienden Van Vrienden employees are involved and the amount of expertise that is consulted. Part of the payment goes to Vrienden Van Vrienden and external expertise stakeholders and the other part is donated to the social profit organization to support them.

STARTUP

A rough scenario is sketched for the first startup year of Vrienden Van Vrienden. It is estimated that Vrienden Van Vrienden, through active customer acquisition, will gain several customers which will participate multiple times in CCP-days to gain understanding in the user and want to be nominated for a Vrienden Van Vrienden plate-mark.

2025

[JOURNEY MAP VOGELS]

2013

6800

[CCP] Customized

Course Package

2600

4000

200 +

++ Potential customers for companies

6800

Incl. hourly wages: Zuid Zorg expertise, Vrienden van vrienden employees, additional costs.

Within a year several CCP-days are organized. The yields will not be sufficient for the participating social profit organizations but during the years the business and stakeholder model will expand.

VRIENDEN VAN VRIENDEN MARK (TRADEMARK) We have introduced a ‘Vrienden van Vrienden’ mark. This mark will serve as a reward for the companies that have made use of our service and is meant to be an sign, that shows the world that a company made use of our service in order to successfully integrate the user into their design process in an honest, moral responsible way.

It shows potential customers that because of this user integration, the product that carries this mark is more likely to actually fit the user group.

FAR FUTURE

For the future however, we want to help more people, and more companies. Within 10 years we want to have a platform, create a big crowd with a

big diversity, that we can call in for help for very varied design problems, and more companies who have problems with connecting to their user group.

More organisations means a bigger diversity in groups we can help companies to become more familiar with, More companies means a bigger variety in design processes that are in need of help.

Together this means we can help more organizations, both profit as social profit, to integrate in the world.

And in the end, this all also contributes to a world in which products and end users have found and adapted to each other better than now.

2025

SERVICE DESIGN

GROUPS REFLECTION

For all of us this has been the first time that we got acquainted with service design, which has been a challenge but also an insightful learning opportunity. We learned that the design of a service includes very different aspects compared to an interactive product, especially with multiple stakeholder involved. Designing (the start of) such a system has been very informative as we had the possibility to deepen out and get better understanding of the service we were offering. Working with journey maps and formulating value propositions supported us in the elaboration of the service.

BELIEVE IN YOUR DESIGN - AD VAN BERLO The hardest part for us was to grasp, describe and eventually define our vision as a company since we had different opinions about our position in the market. We found it insightful that through this module we could experience how challenging it can be to lay a good and sustainable foundation for a

successful company. After defining the “why� it became easier to agree on the smaller details and feel more passionate about our idea.

COMMUNICATING THE CONCEPT

We had given ourselves an unspoken challenge of wanting to define as much as possible of the Vrienden van Vrienden platform. In the end this resulted into the fact that we developed our final presentation in a different direction than intended. Instead of delivering a pitch and selling our idea, we had focused too much on getting the viewer to understand the whole concept, including all stakeholders and the way they were involved. The complexity and broadness of our platform proved to be quite complicated to explain and we experienced difficulties to prioritize all the information. Taking into account the given feedback, we decided to redo our final movie.

TEAMWORK

The complexity of the concept, our drive to get a grip of all its aspects (on

different levels of abstraction) already made this a quite challenging module.

But on the perspective of teamwork multiple difficulties occurred.

For example; we were always late with decision-making and having long discussions about minor details.

After the module we evaluated why we didn’t reach our expectations including the ones about the teamwork. A major role in this was the fact that we hadn’t assigned a team leader and a timekeeper from the beginning. Next tot that we didn’t defined our personal learning objectives, introduced our skills and expertise to each other. This created at times a frustrating working environment that decreased our efficiency but increased the irritations amongst the group. In future collaborations with new teams we all will take this experience as a valuable learning moment to prevent similar situations.

AN ACTIVATED INNIVATION RADAR

The most valuable aspect in this module was our direct contact with the stakeholders involved and the way we

used actual client contact to validate our thoughts and discuss our findings. We found out that only after truly understanding the different perspectives it becomes possible to connect the dots. Vogel’s for instance made us become more aware on how we could sell our ideas, and gave us insight in reasons for companies to participate in our platform. However, we also experienced what happens if you do not apply this lesson: then your audience does have an overview of your (context) analysis, but does not know what it is you are asking of your audience.

We see innovation as something that needs to be sustainable and beneficial for multiple stakeholders to keep a product/service running, and this process of keeping the wishes of Zuidzorg, Vogel’s and us in mind while designing made us aware of the difficulties of service design. We found out that having a vision and awareness of the different roles we can have as a designer is crucial to create a bird’s eye perspective on trends in our society. Through this module we got a taste of how it is to design a system

in which there are no loose ends, with a good integration with our individual visions. Although the teamwork has been a struggle from time to time, we are proud on our platform Vrienden van Vrienden and the insightful journey that came along with it.

REFERENCES

SOURCES

Trend Food Forecast by Anouk van Ranst | graduation essay | 2012 Verganti, R. (2009). Design driven innovation: changing the rules of competition by radically innovating what things mean. Harvard Business Press.

C. Otto Scharmer, Katrin Kaeufer, (2010) “In front of the blank canvas: sensing emerging futures”, Journal of Business Strategy, Vol. 31 Iss: 4, pp.21 – 29 Different perspective of Sensing. http://www.prosintraining. com/2011/05/reality-check-you-dont-get-to-setthe-topic. html Journeymap based on the McKinsey Consumer Decision Journey Osterwalder, A., & Pigneur, Y. (2010). Business model generation: a handbook for visionaries, game changers, and challengers. Wiley. com.

The golden circle by Simon Sinek Source: http://www.ted. com/talks/ simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html

METHODS USED

In this module multiple methods were offered to use during the design process. Globally the canvas “sensing emerging futures” [Who, How, What] was iteratively used during the module. Sensing from the user perspective is done by making persona’s via a journey map and by creating a multiple perspective journey map of the Vrienden Van Vrienden concept. During team brainstorm sessions mind maps and spider diagrams were made to brainstorm on different topics. Furthermore the business model canvas is used as a ground for making the Value flow chart including the money flows. Next to this the value proposition of the concept formulation in one sentence is used to communicate the design accurate and simple. Another communication tool that is used to get the message across was the “Golden circle” by Simon Sinek. This report will mention the used methods in an explicit and implicit way to explain the Vrienden Van Vrienden concept.

SPECIAL THANKS

SPECIAL THANKS

First of all, thanks to all the participating companies and their employees that gave us feedback, valuable insights and inspiration about their company, vision and their personal interest in the project. We would like to thank Hubert Cornelis van Vrienden van de Thuiszorg, for his warm welcome and introduction to the elderly in the community house. We would like to thank the elderly, participants of the Vrienden van de Thuiszorg, for sharing their experiences and stories. Last but certainly not least, thanks to both lecturers Ad van Berlo and Lu Yuan for this learning experience, their feedback and support during the process towards the Vrienden van Vrienden concept.

TEAM

Jan Zekveld (j.e.zekveld@student.tue.nl) Yasemin Arslan (y.s.arslan@student.tue.nl) Anouk Ranst (a.v.ranst@student.tue.nl) Martijn Peeters (m.m.l.f.peeters@student.tue.nl) Marjolein Kors (m.d.kors@student.tue.nl) This project was part of the Master module ‘Activating your innovation radar’ given by dr.Yuan Lu at the University of Technology Eindhoven, Netherlands.

OMOR