User, Business, Design (UBD) Innovation method

In this new innovation methodology, we bring together ethnographic, business, design and technical research in a focused way. This approach can be seen as a development of Contextual Design in which social and cultural factors are considered in the deployment of an existing technology. Each individual investigation is influenced by the multi-disciplinary context, through the presence and participation of experts from other disciplines. Those people also carry out their own reading and research in parallel with the fieldwork and brainstorming, which itself affects the way that they think about the process of creating solutions. This personal influence is particularly strong on the ethnography, since all members of the team take part in the fieldwork and contribute to the analysis in different ways. They are also motivated to ensure that the results of the ethnography are useful to their subsequent investigations. Since these investigations are concerned with the design of new technologies, products, services and business models, it is necessary to make the ethnography as forward looking as possible, and to make its findings more applied. To assist to get to the latent needs, our innovation methodology utilizes feed forward technique in which we create “what-if” design cases that are utilized as cultural probes to elicit latent user needs.

 

Our Engagement Offerings

We offer our clients and partners design and innovation studios. These studios focus on a creative and innovative strategic design process around the client’s design brief, whether it be early user field ethnography, new product/service creation, business model innovation, specific design challenges such as interaction, retail, packaging, visual communication or concept evaluation. The projects are lead, managed, and delivered by our professional staff of innovation consultants and principle designers. Depending on the client’s brief and need, teams are augmented with the industry-experienced faculty and top student talent from Srishti School. Feeding into the projects, Srishti Labs brings its continually growing knowledge of contemporary Indian society, market and successful design practice.We encourage the involvement of client staff and resources into the projects.

 

Concentrations of Strategic Design Briefs

Our strategic design innovation process focuses the work of the design studios into three primary areas, deep user research that leads to insights, end to end design concept development and implications of the concepts on the business model. Driven by the design brief, the projects in the design and innovation studios are a blend of these three. The creative output of the studios contribute in a range of areas important to clients from brand, marketing, product and service offerings, channels, technologies, R&D, manufacturing and business operations.

 

Concept to Creation

Feeding on a broad range of insights and driven by creative energy, the process followed in these design studios encourages breadth and number of concepts. They are iterated over searching for stronger value propositions and richer representations. The concepts are validated against potential users.

 

Indian Ethnographies

Rooted in the contemporary Indian life experience, design and innovation studios of Srishti Labs conduct a variety of ethnographies in India. Some are structured interviews of day in the life surveys of how people live. Others are deeper longer term studies such as new societal role of genders. All lead to insights that are relevant to product and services innovators in the market.Taken together, these ethnographies contribute to the Srishti Labs growing knowledge of Indian contemporary life in the areas of Work, Play, Learning, Health, Domestic Life, Friends and Family, and Life with Meaning. This ongoing body of work is foundational to all of the design studios.

 

Business Model Innovations

Successful new products and services must be fit into business environments.These design studio briefs consider both ends of the product, user and producer and the business equation that unites them. The projects innovate on the business model with classic business skills looking for stronger synergies with mechanisms of production, distribution, promotion, sales and location.

Related : Projects | Engaging with S.Labs