Starbucks innovates new offerings and tests with its store partners (baristas) before scaling
Starbucks innovation team employs various methods in different phases to capture partner feedback which is then analysed, synthesized and used to redesign its products before being rolled out to its stores worldwide.
Starbucks needs to run workshops that captures precise data, keeps participants engaged and is easy to learn and adapt to strengthen its innovation testing process
Introducing SBX Brew which consist of
VBO Framework, Resonance Test and Forcefield
VBO (Values, Benefits & Options) Framework, created for Starbucks to accurately determine the focus of its testing. It facilitates the application of the proposed Resonance Test and Forcefield analysis tool kits at various levels of abstraction within the VBO Framework during workshops.
Values, Benefits & Options framework helps Starbucks' innovation testing team clarify testing goals and optimize workshop preparation
The Values, Benefits & Options framework allows Starbucks' innovation testing team to clearly define their testing objectives and position themselves on an abstraction scale of values, benefits and options, enhancing the preparation of workshop content and testing materials.
Values are the principles that guide partner behavior and decisions. Ex: agency
Benefits refer to the positive effects or advantage of an innovation. Ex: saves time
Options are the different choices available in an innovation. Ex: milk steamer
“When I'm doing evaluative research, I make sure that there is some sort of forcing of priorities and clarify the things that really rise to the top because as I always joke - I can't just turn to my client 'they liked it.' Teasing out detail to me is the key part of evaluative research.”
-Chris Kann
Resonance Test enables partners to prioritize their feedback, sparking deeper conversations in workshops
Two test criteria's may be rated similarly but that does not tell us anything about the partners preference, while a resonance test helps us do just that. It acts as a spring board to elicit deeper conversations with the partners based on their rankings.
Resonance Test adoption resulted in
The toolkit is adaptable across values, benefits or options scale making it useful for all kinds of workshop scenarios.
Forcefield ensures
Easy to Instruct & Learn
Smooth Transition to Synthesis
Adaptable Across Mediums
It is easily adaptable to different mediums enabling smoother workshop facilitation.
Starbucks innovation team is now able to run workshops effectively and carry the data into analysis and synthesis phase smoothly
DESIGN PROCESS
Secondary Research
Research Papers | Online blogs | Existing tool kits | Books | Journals
What works for facilitators may not necessarily work for the participants. Tools that work across stakeholders and use cases must be recreated.
Secondary research to understand the best practices of capturing data effectively, conducting workshops and pitfalls to avoid was conducted. Workshop toolsets were explored and audited to get to understand what works, what does not and why.
Primary Research
Straight Interviews : 5 | Contextual inquiry : 1
The rule of thumb is to pretend they're all eight years old, everybody in the room and you just want to keep things really as simple as possible
-Sari Gluckin
Subject Matter Experts with vast amount of workshop facilitation experience were interviewed to get first hand insights on effectively conducting workshops in fast paced environments.
Analysis
Data Coding | Clustering | Needs to Specs
A successful workshop is where conversations are sparked between participants, ideas freely flow and point of views are exchanged.
Coding was used to organise data collected through primary research and identify patterns across SME interviews.
Synthesis
Easy to learn, adaptable across mediums and capturing accurate feed back were core factors considered during the team ideation phase.
Ideation + Prototyping
Ideation was supported with multiple quick prototypes to fail fast and create multiple iterations.
Multiple prototypes on tabloid and A4 sheets were created along with digital versions to ensure it is usable across mediums.
Testing
" Ever since doing the resonance test, I’ve been thinking about what I value in an espresso machine during my day to day…even things I hadn’t previously considered "
-Nolan
The tools were tested with baristas and feedback recorded was used to reshape the tools.
