Technology driving design innovation
It is quite evident that most of us interact with technology that is built using understanding human psychology to capture the essence of emotions too. It understands the needs of an individual and provides us with the right set of services and solutions in feasible ways. I come across technology on a daily basis, and as I think about it, it makes me wonder about the composition of this beautiful play between design and technology, a combination so powerful that we cannot imagine our life without it.
In our third episode of the podcast, I had a conversation with Ravi Badve. It was indeed a delightful conversation where we discussed the potential of “Designeering” and how organizations are making this their core motto to bring enhance their customer service a notch.
Ravi Badve leads as a Director of Customer Delivery at MasterCard, where he has continuously been collaborating with technology and design. With his enthusiasm for developing products that add value to people in their daily life, understanding Designeering from his point of view was insightful.
Rohit Lalwani: So, while you’ve been talking about so many interesting technological aspects, one of the organizations that we cannot miss talking about is Netflix. Now, obviously, our consumption during the last couple of days has gone high up, but if you look at what’s interesting about it is; it is known for a personalized recommendation, and in fact, it goes out and claims that it is one of their biggest differentiators.
What they also did some time back is they moved to customize the artwork so that it entices the user to watch the content based on their past viewing experiences. The question that I have is; What is your view on technology for creating perfect customer scenarios?
Ravi Badve: Netflix is really an example in today’s time, right? It’s about how they have been able to adopt and deploy technology to beat the worldwide streaming companies. There’s so much content, and if you think about it, it’s not only the technology but how it understands the personas of all its subscribers, and that is a differentiator. Truly. How did it happen with you that you’re all in the mood of watching a good movie or listen to good music, but when you go on to it, you don’t know what to see or what to listen to?
Rohit Lalwani: Happens very, very frequently with me.
Ravi Badve: Absolutely. And then when you come to see Netflix, it has never disappointed me personally, for sure, because they can understand the persona. Not only that, but they are also able to comprehend personas from the perspective of what I would like based on history and past watching experience. So I think they have done an excellent job, and a possible design-oriented, a designing approach of understanding the persona, creating a profile, and suggesting what the platform of Netflix can offer, will be the choice of a customer. So they have brought the technology, design, and empathy together to understand customers and their subscribers well.
Rohit Lalwani: So, while Ravi in your answers, you have been talking about ‘experience’ as a word very frequently, I think it’s become a buzzword today, and you know it’s become viral. The question that I have is, you know, I feel it’s probably a recent phenomenon. How did companies create an experience even before this?
Ravi Badve: Well, I think companies have always stressed on creating an experience with the products and services they have, and this is not a new term or something new. It’s just that we, as an organization, are more aware and conscious about what experience they will create in production services. It’s only one of the things that come to my mind. Do you remember the single-screen experience that we all used to have watched a movie with all the claps and whistles?
Rohit Lalwani: Absolutely, Salman khan film today or even Rajnikanth film is an experience to watch them on a single screen.
Ravi Badve: See there. And then we have these multiplexes, and those are different new experiences altogether. I am not saying good or bad, but the company’s organization is always stressed on creating experiences with products and services. It’s now that we are talking more about an ‘end to end’ journey that we can provide to a customer, and it’s just not a designer or a product that can be ring-fenced into a particular scope. So there, an experience is always essential. It has become more critical now in cutthroat competition that all brands are into right now.
Rohit Lalwani: Absolutely. Ravi, to share a personal example, we saw this Marvel film Black Panther at PVR in 4DX, and I was amazed by that, sitting in a regular multiplex theatre, the kind of experience that you could receive in terms of watching the movie. It was thrilling to be there and watch that film.
Ravi Badve: one more thing that comes to my mind, Rohit; What was the first phone that you used?
Rohit Lalwani: I used the NOKIA 3310
Ravi Badve: Exactly. And I am not surprised by that answer. My phone was also Nokia, and we have all seen an evolution of how the giant companies like this were gone entirely in the coming days when the digital revolution came through. So you are talking about experiences. If organizations aren’t able to understand the experiences that they can create, they lose the pulse of people, and that’s how Nokia is no more seen, and so many others are in the market.
Rohit Lalwani: Absolutely. Taking a cue from here, Ravi, one of the other companies that come to my mind, is Amazon. One of the best examples of a human-centered organization that’s using both technologies as well as designs to deliver a delightful customer experience. So my question to you; As an expert, can you share how they are blending both these domains to achieve their goals?
Ravi Badve: Well, Amazon is my favorite again there. There was a study on Amazon and another ten companies of similar nature, all big companies in the US like Costco, The Macy’s and all different big tycoons who provided products and services, physically as well as they had a chance to move on to digital media. But Amazon, for the last ten years, in recent years, they’ve grown 2000 times. And you must look at their vision statement, Rohit, and I recommend the listeners also to go and see what Amazon’s vision statement is. It’s not about you. No. There are no numbers in it, first of all, it’s not about being or growing 100% or in revenues or things like that you usually see. The vision statement talks about the most human-centered company that could deliver anything which is required on the planet. So there, that shows how much they care about the design and the human-centered part of it. So, Amazon is again an example of how they have brought design and technology together to create pleasurable experiences.
Sometimes, even if you’re searching for a book on Amazon of your favorite author, Amazon has a technology to have the book to the nearest go down, near your house, so that they can promise a one-day delivery or the shortest time delivery. So those are the kind of thinking that happens in that organization, and I am amazed and also amused by the type of products and services they offer.
If you don’t want to miss out more on how these two domains, technology, and design, are collaborating, head to our podcast to discover more. For details, do visit the profile.
