Managing research and design for an overseas greenfield project

Case Study

This major grocery retailer was finding it difficult to compete with new online disruptors in Central Europe. So the business opted to create a significantly wider home delivery catchment area for a significant competitive advantage.

Problem space

How could this be achieved given that logistical and operational resources were limited? The business decided to offer a new fulfilment method; via courier. This presented a unique set of problems that needed to be investigated and designed for:

• The proposition was immature and needed to be validated
• Having groceries delivered by courier goes against the natural expectations of regular online grocery shoppers
• Many customers in the new delivery areas may be accustomed to shopping shopping
• It may also disconcerting for customers not be able to shop the full range of products, for example, perishable items could not be delivered.

Design processes

• It was essential to start by understanding the business maturity level regarding proposition development and customer research
• This was closely followed by the promotion of insights driven development by recruiting a local research agency and working with them to have online research at the heart of the decision-making process
• Various research pieces were commissioned, ranging from street canvassing to remote testing of features

• The end to end journey; from customer acquisition all the way through to physical returns was analysed across all business units
• Before diving into solutions, it was necessary to evaluate the proposition to see if there was a tangible demand and what the various service charges would be
• A very thinly sliced journey was created as a minimum viable product for trial launch
• Followed be optimisation and feature roadmaps.

Results

• A launch of a new service pilot and rollout strategy that required relatively little bespoke development
• Introduction of online insight driven processes to local business units
• Established strong relationships between Central European and global teams