Forward-Looking Strategies Help Companies Ward Off Disruption
IA Collaborative helps companies reimagine their products and services from the user point of view, often with the aim of warding off potential disruptions.
As part of this process, IA prototypes new businesses for its clients to inform new innovations and de-risk investments. Business prototypes include standing up the end-to-end service experience, complete with real employees and customers; developing and testing real digital interactions; producing branded collateral; and iterating on various profit model scenarios to figure out what parts of the experience users value most — and what they’re most willing to pay for.
This type of design thinking yields insights that help companies provide better service, he said, but it also helps make the case for long-term investments.
“We use methods that look at the comprehensive system: not just the customers or the technology, but both of them together,” said Wilbur.
All of IA’s projects started with the human need, Wilbur emphasized: identifying users’ pain points and reframing a business problem as a business opportunity.
Without a significant focus on people, businesses risk creating outcomes that are not at all what they intend or desire. Wilbur pointed to the words of urban planner Fred Kent: “If you plan cities for cars and traffic, you get cars and traffic.”
The antidote, according to human-centered design experts? Plan for people.
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