Yes, No, Maybe: Experience Prototyping at Scale Product designers Joydeep Sengupta and Adam Cochrane look into the issues of prototyping at scale, sharing insights on how fashion retailer Zalando is going about building a prototyping culture within a 14,000-person organisation. Adam Cochrane is service designer at Zalando SE. Australian-born, Berlinbased. Whether working with indigenous Australians or corporate Austrians, he has had the privilege to work around the world with diverse teams, solving complicated problems and creating delightful solutions. adambcochrane@gmail.com
Joydeep Sengupta is a product designer at Zalando SE. He has had experience designing for users on four continents, which has helped him build strong empathy towards different cultures. In the past he worked at Nokia, Honeywell and the Federal Reserve Bank. Born in India, his passion is cooking and country-hopping. contactme@joydeepsg.com
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What does it actually take to make proto types work at Zalando? Joydeep, who builds experiences in the area of convenience, describes the challenge of scale: “One unique thing for us designers, is the size of it.” Indeed, Zalando is large – it operates in 17 countries, and is Europe’s largest online fashion retailer, with over 28 million active users, which creates a few unique challenges. Scale has a strange way of distorting things. For example, you can have deep empathy and understanding for one or two users, or maybe even 50, but if you try to keep this up for all 28 million, you will surely struggle. To paint a better picture, we will share the details of three projects which illustrate the impact prototyping can have on an organisation: Jochen Saal, on using experience prototyping to validate the value proposition of a new service offering. Luana Moura Busquets, on using experience prototyping to share critical insights around payment within her team and the bigger organisation. And Dennis Harz, on introducing design and prototype-driven innovation in warehouse processes
Insights from Jochen Saal Jochen started seven years ago as a strate gic designer at Zalando, responsible for the app experience and the organisation’s future vision. Currently a research strategist, he helps Zalando empathise with its customers and make decisions based on users’ needs and pain points. Jochen’s case study concerns Zalando Plus, a premium service that offers faster delivery, free return home pick up and access to exclusive offers. The initial concept came straight from top
Getting our hands dirty prototyping the premium delivery service
