From Dull to Disney

Innovating with the product experience.  For most of us there isn't much chance to experience our own product and service from a customers perspective.  It is like that unknowable perspective of how we personally are seen and experienced by others.  But maybe there are things we can learn without having an out of body or out of company experience.  There are days we are pretty sure that we come across as dull and boring and other days as animated and interesting and the same can go for our products and services.  We can be pretty sure that waiting in line is dull and boring for most people but maybe there are ways to make it more interesting.  Tom and David Kelley of the award-winning Palo Alto-based global design firm IDEO tell us about what one big bank did to help customers cope with the monotony of line waiting.  They provided an interesting distraction during the wait and even though the wait time didn’t get any shorter, it seemed shorter and that made customers happy.  Or take the transformation story of GE’s cat scan machine.  It was a great product that did a great job of cat scanning only it was still scaring the little kids that came for a scan.  This often resulted in cancelled scans and costly rescheduling until the brilliant Doug Dietz at General Electrical Medical Division reinvented the experience with pirate themed adventures.  Suddenly what was once a terrifying experience to be avoided was transformed into an adventure that made kids want to do it again.

Wow!  What possibilities this opens up for every product/ service experience!  The payoff is huge for any one that takes time to reinvent their product experience to make it more entertaining and enjoyable for both the producers and the users.  

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