While working with Steelcase in late 2008, I was asked to join a new venture called t2. This "blue ocean strategy" would boldly go where Steelcase's existing brands could not go – offering bold new easy-to-install products, shipped via FedEx, directly to the customers' door.
Our core team consisted of a savvy Project Sponsor, a brilliant brand manager, an ambitious marketing manager, Steelcase's online store project lead, an award-winning industrial designer, a stalwart mechanical engineer, and me – the experience designer.
The project kicked off with an information download from some bright folks with a smart idea. And while it seemed compelling from a 100,000-foot level, our new team needed time to explore the concept, reframe the problem, add new layers of insight, and develop refined offerings.
As experience design lead, I led our research efforts – visiting multiple small businesses and watching both professional and amateurs install Steelcase furniture. We also leveraged existing research and added our own insights gathered from my earlier venture, Workspring. Our analysis led to new criteria and new breakthroughs for our team. Meanwhile our product team refined our team’s design for a new product line that encapsulated our vision.
Intermittent reviews by the C-suite provided gut-checks, reinforcements, and ultimately a green light to kick our project into high gear. That’s when we learned that t2 would, in fact, take over Steelcase’s existing turnstone brand.
As we got closer to a more detailed vision, the real fun began. My interactive team created a digital representation of a customer journey as imagined through the ideas of a fictitious character. We layered content with user stories from primary research, built an augmented reality app that showed off our new product line, added t-shirt designs, redesigned turnstone’s logo, created mock-up packaging, and built a large presentation space to knock the socks of leadership. And that presentation could not have been more enjoyable. Jim Hackett, Steelcase’s CEO, and his team were blown away by what we had accomplished together.
I had a blast helping Steelcase re-boot its Turnstone brand – an amazing little engine that continues to impress.
