This thesis explores how strategic and communication design can have an influence on the adoption process of blockchain or distributed ledger technology. It does so through dividing the thesis into four parts: Discover, Define, Develop and Deliver. In short: Discover: What is found is that distributed ledger development is a technology push development. Companies only explore the technical possibilities and the viability and desirability of the technology are underexposed. This has caused for a chasm to appear between the enthusiasts and the rest of business and society. Define: Through a set of interviews it is discovered distributed ledger technology can grow the fastest if it is developed in a collaborative setting. For this to happen, more people need to join in the movement. It is determined that a new mindset needs to be created. A mindset that is daring, bold and experiment friendly. Failure should be seen as a learning moment. Develop: To make sure companies can engage in mindset development, a tool is created. This tool is based upon the realisation that an immersive and playful experience is the best way to reach an audience. Thus, a workshop is developed, based on a set of canvasses. Define: As this thesis follows a lean development cycle, a simple prototype is developed. This prototype is then iterated upon through testing, reflecting and redesigning. In the end, a design of four canvasses and a booklet is created that help companies to on-board new partners. What was found, is that strategic and communication design are two fields that compliment each other in just right way to influence the adoption of DLT. Through the iterative and user focused process of strategic design, tools were created that help people to understand the complexity of DLT through a simple and smooth experience. At the same time, communication design provided the exact approach needed in guiding a group of people through the multiple layers of complexity of DLT-ecosystems. By understanding the abstraction of their own context in contrast to the technological possibilities, new understanding and appreciation of networked-collaboration was created. This new-found appreciation should ultimately result in a foundation of common ground and understanding, upon which the adoption of DLT can be built and spread.

For an incredibly long time, what exactly happens between the legs of female-sex people has been a great mystery. It‘s not common to talk about our vulvas and how we feel about them in detailed and specific terms - and yes it‘s vulva and not vagina, the vulva is the entire external genital area, the vagina is merely the internal muscle canal. It‘s so unusual that many women lack the vocabulary to describe their genitals and the education that‘s practised in the school system is sporadic and often only focused on reproduction. And the vagina is by no means the star of the show and definitely not the female equivalent of the penis. This is the clitoris, which is by no means just a little (apparently difficult to find) knob above the vaginal opening, but is a large and complex organ located beneath the skin‘s surface. A more or less fun fact, for example, is that it was not until 1998 that the complete anatomy of the clitoris was revealed in a study by the Australian urologist Helen O‘Connell (Fyfe, 2018). In fact, most anatomical books don‘t even show the clitoris and therefore not depicting the vulva correctly. Let that sink in. Conversations about sexuality, well-being or pleasure find no place and lead to misconceptions, rumours and often leave people wondering „Am I normal?“. This thesis aims to answer the question “How might a concept car look like for Yoni” as means of process and deliverable exploration for The Young. In essence this thesis is about the world and future of vulvas and which role Yoni could play to ultimately facilitate positive change in people’s lives. To explore this notion the method of developing a “concept car” was used to deliver a tangible representation of this future brand scenario. And because the social climate is changing and brands are increasingly acting as amplifiers of cultural trends and the introduction of questions and topics into the mainstream of society. At this point Yoni joins the conversation. Yoni has been offering organic 100% cotton period products since 2015 after the founder found that the products recommended to her by her gynaecologist were not only unavailable to the majority of consumers but regular period products did not list their ingredients and were full of synthetic fibres. That‘s why Yoni made it its mission to offer better products, products one would trust to touch their most intimate body part. Yoni wanted to change the market for more transparency and a higher standard of menstrual products and has achieved this, especially in recent years. Big brands are now also offering organic alternatives, explaining the ingredients of their products on the packaging or at least online and other brands have followed Yoni‘s lead. But with the constant fulfilment of the initial mission, it is time to find a new drive, a new vision. And the time is ripe to do so, people are excited and ready to overcome their inhibitions and have meaningful conversations about their vulvas, and are eager for opportunities to learn. And the market is not yet oversaturated with offerings. To answer the question of what exactly happens in the world of the vulva, this work started with in-depth research both in an interview study and in extensive literature and media research. It was about exploring the behaviour, feelings, culture, history and economy regarding vulvas and menstruation. The market, consumer and context research resulted in four distinct directions Yoni could follow in the future to have a positive impact on their users‘ lives. These directions were about pushing the menstruation conversation in society further, for more social justice, to build strong communities of people with vulvas to overcome gaps of knowledge and wisdom, to unlock knowledge about hormonal cycles beyond the binary view of period on-period off and finally to discover how to bring vulva care to the forefront of people’s attention to share knowledge, facilitate experiences and overcome bodily shame. In close collaboration with Yoni one direction was chosen as the means for Yoni to facilitate meaningful positive impact in the lives of their users and subsequently use this direction as a vehicle for organisational transformation and future vision. This direction is called “vulva care” and targets the redefinition of what true vulva care might mean on a time axis of 1 to 5 years. At the end of this axis stands the concept product of vulvovaginal microbiome testing and personalised vulvar care products which acts as a beacon for creative brand development. To make this concept product more accessible from an organisational point of view, the product was contextualised in a three step roadmap showcasing three distinct steps on how the company might develop for their current offering and structure towards a focus on vulvovaginal care using digital and care products infused with science and technology to ultimately future-proof a brand with incredible potential. At the final pages of the report you will find the translation of this concept product into a website and digital product prototype illustrating how Yoni’s brand future might look like.

Tripick is an online platform which makes it possible to save holiday destinations from different tour operators and share them with travelpartners so jointly the best location can be chosen. Users of the platform will search for a holiday destination just as they normally do, but when they have found a potential location they can easily save it on Tripick. In this way, they will have a collection of potential destinations from different providers at the end of their search. The platform is separated from the websites of the providers and when people want to book, it will be done through the website of the original provider. From the internal and external analysis some main insights are derived which are combined into a final positioning for Tripick, namely ‘Tripick is your personal online travel assistant for group holidays’. Tripick consists of two main USP´s to differentiate itself from competitors. First Tripick as an assistant, in which Tripick will assist on a wider range of aspects of the holiday than competitors do, by not limiting it to the search for an accommodation but also on other aspects of the holiday. Second, the focus on the group process instead of individuals or pairs. The big idea has been set up which captures the brand message of Tripick, namely ‘Your group guide to sparkling holidays’. This is translated into a design language which has an overall appearance of simplicity, pleasure and trust. The colours that will be used are white, green, orange and yellow. Furthermore, straight forms will be used with rounded elements and when possible symmetry will be strived for. The tone of voice will be informal and personal with an inspiring and supportive character. During the ideation the functions of Tripick are designed. Besides the main functions, saving, sharing and rating of accommodations, some sub functions have been designed. These are personalised filters, a travel overview, a cost overview, saving of transportation and activities, different chats and the option to view the site of the tour operator within Tripick. In order to make money with Tripick the business model Leverage customer data will be used. First party data gathered from Tripick will be sold to tour operators. With this data, tour operators can keep the availability of saved accommodations up to date but they can also provide special offers to persuade the customer to book their accommodation instead of accommodations of other tour operators that are saved on Tripick. Tripick will be launched in December 2017, because then people will start searching for their summer holiday. The launch event and the promotion strategy consists of multiple activities, but the main focus will be on social media, especially Facebook. The attraction of tour operators for the business model will start in December 2018, because first enough data must be collected to be able to offer a complete dataset.

Voice user interfaces (VUI) have arrived. Worldwide, this technology is in the lift and enabling the exchange of information through voice interactions. As a result of the growing popularity of this technology, companies fanatically started with the designing of their own skills and/or actions. But although, this over-enthusiasm, leaves the ‘why-question’ unanswered. This is the result of a technology push: the technology is leading, putting human needs in its shade What is actually the problem that a VUI is solving? And is this really better compared to existing solutions? How do we make sure the integration of voice technology simplifies and enriches our lives? How do we design voice interactions that matter? Human-centered voice design is the answer. Therefore, the central aim of this research is to enhance designers in the creation of meaningful voice interactions. The research has been divided into a theoretical background part and an exploratory research part, with methods including case studies, interviews and observations. The insights gathered through this research are boiled down into a condensed framework showing how designers could incorporate human-centered VUI design in their processes. The argument put forth in this research is that context factors and human-centered values determine to what extent a use case is meaningful, in relation to one’s job to be done. The proposed human-centered values are enlarging accessibility, enhancing convenience and/or enhancing experience. Building on this argument, a toolkit has been developed, turning the theory into a hands-on product to incorporate in every VUI design project. The toolkit includes a canvas to discover and validate human-centered VUI use cases and a card deck which both clarifies the canvas’ elements as well as triggers the designer’s VUI imagination with inspiring examples. With the canvas, you decide step-by-step if voice technology provides the right solution for the fulfillment of a job to be done, putting the needs of the human central to the modal. In chronological order these steps include: Framing the Job to be done, checking the context factors, ensure human-centered value and ranking the use case’s feasibility. The card deck with examples of contexts, target groups and specific types of interaction in which a VUI could be of extra value stimulates the creative process and hereby enhances the creation of meaningful voice use cases. Finally, the design approach and toolkit have been evaluated during a cooperative creative session with Valsplat and KPN online. Recommendatory insights gathered during this session create a revised version in the shape of a workshop. This set-up enables Valsplat to help organizations in creating voice solutions based on customer needs. With the results followed from this project, they want to initiate a new movement: putting humans in the center of the voice revolution, towards a world with voice interactions that are worthy of humans’ precious time!

The fashion industry is the second most polluting industry in the world, mostly due to the many ways fashion is polluting the environment (Fischer, 2015). First of all by the CO2 emission produced in manufacturing and logistics, second the massive amounts of water used in dyeing processes and production of natural resources, third the pollution of groundwater and rivers by pesticides and dyes and last but not least the enormous amount of waste created by fast fashion items that are only worn once. One of the most impactful garments in this industry is something most of us wear every day: a pair of jeans. The production of a single pair uses on average 8000 litres of water (Water Footprint Network, 2016). Besides water, toxic and corrosive chemicals are used to dye and ‘wash’ the jeans to its desired style. Every year, more than 2 billion pairs of jeans are produced worldwide, adding to its yet existing footprint (Greenpeace, 2016). Some brands in the industry are already putting a lot of effort into the production of sustainable denim. However, reducing the impact of the denim industry is not just up to denim brands and manufacturers anymore: consumers have to play their part as well. To raise awareness and higher the demand for sustainable jeans amongst consumers, this graduation project for House of Denim focusses on solving the following challenge: how might we help consumers buy better jeans? To raise the demand for sustainable jeans, the impact of a jeans has to become more transparent and understandable for consumers. In an attempt to achieve this, a jungle of certifications has popped up in the fashion and jeans industry, resulting in more confusion than transparency; many consumers are not familiar with any of these existing certifications. Besides awareness, understanding what a certification stands for demands quite some knowledge of materials or manufacturing from consumers. To make it easier for consumers to make a positive choice, Brighter Blue, a product rating tool, was developed in cooperation with denim experts and consumers. To accomplish this, the project used an inside- out approach to research the impact of a pair of jeans, to see what factors contribute most to this impact and to explore how this impact could be minimised. Afterwards, a case study was used as a parallel perspective, to see and learn how indices in other industries help change behaviour. Qualitative interviews with eight denim experts and a literature study on green consumer behaviour defined the most important challenges and design guidelines for Brighter Blue. These guidelines were further developed into a first minimum lovable prototype of the rating: the impact index. From this moment and outside-in approached was used to develop this concept using lean methodology. Through three design interventions with important industry stakeholders and (expert) consumers, the rating was developed into the final concept Brighter Blue. Brighter Blue is a positive and easy indicator of the best jeans out there: accessible on various levels to serve as many consumers as possible. By means of a hangtag and Google extension, the ratings are communicated to consumers, so they can look good and feel confident that they have made the right choice. An overarching platform conveys the message that sustainable choices do not have to be that hard or complicated: everyone can vote with their money. Brighter Blue helps consumers regain their power to decide and gives a little push to young conscious consumers that want to make better choices but not always know how. This thesis presents the development and final concept of Brighter Blue, including the rating methodology, working mechanism, benchmarks, prototypes of the various consumer tools, and a detailed plan for further implementation and market launch.

Technology is running faster than ever and, to keep up with its speed, businesses have been adopting design practices to turn the wealth of technology into value for customers. Companies are, therefore, renewing their identities and creating new business divisions to offer design capabilities to clients. Likewise, IBM iX is a department within IBM Global Business Services, that uses design techniques to solve complex business challenges. However, expressing the value of design in a business context doesn’t come without challenges. This especially happens in large organizations, such as IBM BNLX, where the IBM iX department encounters difficulties in defining who they are and proving their value to stakeholders. Specifically, the empirical analysis carried out within the organization demonstrates a lack of a shared vision and a clear positioning of the business unit, which suggests an internal intervention. Therefore, the central aim of this thesis is to help IBM iX enhance and communicate its identity both internally to create shared understanding, and externally to create awareness. The exploration of corporate theory shows that identity transfer is a long process that requires employees involvement in co-creation activities to help them internalize the it. Next to that, the notions of vision and positioning are explored as important elements that describe the core purpose of a business. In particular, a shared vision appears to be an essential element to express the “what” of a business while having, at the same time, the power to motivate employees in their daily work. Analogously, positioning is, by nature, an integral part of corporate identity building, due to his capacity to differentiate the organization from the competition. Based on the above-mentioned observations, and the analysis of theoretical frameworks from the literature, a process for the transfer of the iX identity is outlined and partially executed in the course of this thesis. The process is characterized by 4 main steps: awareness, understanding, internalize, communicate. To implement the process, two workshops are facilitated with employees with the goal to co-create IBM iX BNLX vision and identify their positioning which allowed to initiate the procedure of internal identity enhancement. To support the department in the external communication of the identity, a series of co-creative ideations are performed in close collaboration with iX employees. The results of these sessions include an iX story pitch and infographic to convey the identity internally and a marketing campaign whose purpose is to spread awareness among other departments in IBM. Final evaluation with IBM led to recommendations regarding the continuation of the process for the transfer of the iX identity. This includes a communication roadmap for the iX department that suggests the realizations of workshops, events, and constant renovation of the iX story.

Festivals are a growing trend, and although being a temporary event, most festivals have vast material flows with a large negative impact on the environment. The Dutch festival Lowlands, a three-day event, for example uses 300.000 kwh of electricity generated by diesel-fuelled generators, 10.000 m3 water and 500.000 kg of solid waste (Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions, 2017). As a result, the attention is growing to find ways how to organize more sustainable events. Initiatives like Green Events support this development, by seeing the festivals as an ideal testing ground for new sustainable innovations. One festival taking the green developments at heart to become a more sustainable event is DGTL revolution.Throughout the year DGTL Revolution is searching for new technologies and innovations, they can introduce at the festival to reduce their waste, lower their emissions but moreover create awareness and stimulate sustainable action amongst their visitors (DGTL Revolution, 2017). A project Revolution has focused on this year, is their plastic material stream. Despite of the hard cup and deposit system which is in place at the festival, the festival still has a large amount of single use plastic water bottles. The need for a change in our current wasteful plastic economy has been a subject which is being discussed more and more. The single use plastic bottles form an opportunity for DGTL festival to discover circular ways of processing PET bottles, minimizing their plastic footprint and taking the visitors along in this vision. This graduation project has started with an extensive research to the current sustainable efforts of festivals, the view of visitors on those efforts and the current challenges in plastic recycling outside the festival context. This is done through desktop research and several interviews with festival visitors and experts. A key finding of the research were the several barriers visitors experience, stopping them from behaving pro-environmental, like collecting and separating plastic at a festival or in their home environment. DGTL should facilitate a deposit system which overcomes those barriers of individuality, responsibility and practicality. The following design brief was formulated from all the insights of the research; ‘How can DGTL positively change visitors attitude towards plastic recycling, using the deposit system at DGTL as a vehicle, illustrating its aim and result increasing people’s feel of responsibility.’ During the exploration phase new innovations in plastic recycling have been approached to collaborate with DGTL festival, aiming to process the plastic bottles into valuable resources again. Next to those innovations, the focus was on getting the visitors more involved in the goal of the deposit system. Overcoming the barriers by increasing the practicality of the system and showing them the aim and result of the system. This could have an effect on their perspective towards plastic recycling, and stimulate them to copy this behavior outside of the festival context. The final concept which was implemented at the festival consisted of several elements. The central point was called the resource street. Here all the materials of the festival came together at the recycle hub were they were checked and separated (Figure 2). Furthermore the visitors were able to see the chemical recycling innovation pyrolysis, turning bottle caps into oil, a plastic container where all the plastic bottles were collected, showing it massive amount to the visitor as well as explaining how the bottles will be recycled into high quality rPET. This concept is further supported by several decentralised designs namely transparent collection behind the bars, signing with information about the system and last mobile collection vehicles. All those elements have been implemented at the festival and evaluated, through interviews, a questionnaire and some data analysis about the collection. This master thesis describes the first steps a festival can take, to move towards a more transparent resource handling, through which valuable resources can be regained from plastic bottles. At the same time, the visitor is involved in this system, leading to a larger effect by improving their perspective and behavior towards plastic recycling.

If brands that operate in the digital context do not start building their own front-end AI enabled channels, they risk falling behind on competition (White, Addison & Fritz, 2018). But as these (often traditional) organisations implement AI-systems in customer-facing practices, it slowly becomes the new front-office brand ambassadors of the brand (Wilson, Daugherty & Bianzino, 2017). But even though many organisations are starting to invest and implement AI-solutions they do not seem to fully comprehend its impact on their brand and business (Capgemini Digital Transformation Institute, 2017. And, in a similar way that people can be annoyed or pleased by an interaction with a customer service representative, customer-facing AI also has the potential to shape the brand experience of users. This is due to the fact that people tend to judge and anthropomorphise interactions with such AI-systems, which will ultimately affect their perception of the brand and its performance. Therefore, in order for customer-facing AI to add value to the business as well as the consumer, AI-systems should be designed in such a way that they fit with the brand, and benefit the brand experience of the customer. Based on this, the following research question has been formulated: How to augment the brand experience of users in service-driven brands through customer-facing Artificial Intelligence? Furthermore, as this project has been performed in the context of Deloitte Digital, the aim is twofold. First, this thesis will explore how to design for AI-augmented brand experiences by defining brand experience, and the potential of Artificial Intelligence in it. Secondly, these insights should be presented in such a way that they are applicable for Deloitte Digital designers and strategists, so it can be implemented within their existing design processes. Hereby, the insights from each chapter are made actionable,and are translated into concrete add-on design tools and methods that can be used within the context of the client. These tools are illustrated and validated with a concrete client usecase (Volksbank).

Some consultants within KPMG advisory feel like the services that KPMG advisory generates for its clients, could be improved. They see a potential solution within the application of design activities related to design paradigms such as user experience and customer experience. However several hurdles are experienced within the introduction of these approaches. In other words there are difficulties with the successful introduction of an approach called design thinking. According to a market analyses, KPMG’s advisory services has maintained about the same size in a growing advisory market, where competition has increased the past seven years. KPMG is the only company of the Big Four that has not grown within the past seven years. In the meantime KPMG has lost its leading advisory position within the Big Four consultancies to Deloitte. The market for business services is changing. There is increased competition caused by growing competitors and new European and Dutch audit legislation. In addition clients expect better business services and better business service experiences. KPMG’s position on the advisory market, the growing competition and the development of increased expectations of business services indicate the need for new ways to develop better experiences for clients. Design thinking is an approach that can be used to do just that. Therefore the assignment of this project was to find a way to introduce design thinking in a successful way at KPMG and design a solution that would enable consultants to apply it in their profession. Design thinking is an approach that centralizes human needs by using technology driven solutions in combination with business feasibility. This way design thinking can be used to develop holistic systems that solve multiple problems at ones. The design thinking process exists out of three stages, inspiration, ideation and implementation. Each of these stages exist out of several design activities. To apply design thinking, a certain mindset is needed. One needs to be empathic, use integrative thinking, collaborative, optimistic and experimental to successfully apply design thinking. This mindset can be created under the right conditions. There are several hurdles associated with the introduction of design thinking within corporations. To learn why and how design thinking is applied within corporation, qualitative research was done with design professionals. This research resulted into several advantages that design thinking brings into corporations and strategies to introduce the approach into corporations. Through conversations and interviews with consultants several hurdles and strategies for the introduction of new initiatives, such as design thinking, were identified. Together with the results of the research with design professionals, these findings were translated into a list of requirements for successful design thinking introduction within KPMG. The value of design thinking should be expressed in terms time and money to make its application interesting for consultants. It should be applied within a service that has often been provided by KPMG and that as many consultants as possible are part of in order to succesfully spread it through the organisation. The proposal development process meets all the requirements that are addressed in these lists. Through the application of context generating methods, co-creation session and idea testing, design thinking can potentially safe a lot of time, increase proposal acceptance and improve the experience of clients at the same time. To enable consultants to take advantage of these design thinking characteristics, a toolkit for the proposal development process was designed based upon existing design thinking methods. The toolkit is called KPMG Essence and exists out of four stages that are associated with the design stages. These are 1. Plan, 2. Discover, 3. Ideate and 4. Preview. The first stage exists out of tools that guide consultants in planning a co-creation session and gathering context about a clients problem. The second and third stages exist out of tools that guide a co-creation session with all consultants that are involved with the development of a proposal. The fourth step enables consultants to preview their ideas to clients and gather feedback about the generated ideas. This enables consultants to learn what direction to take within the further development of the proposal and to estimate whether they can offer the client the solutions they look for, before they spend day on writing a proposal in vain. The Discover and Ideate stages were tested on a real life client case together with seven consultants. Consultants were very enthusiastic about the session and gave a the value of the session a 6 out of 7. At the end of the report a plan of implementation and several recommendations are made for further development. KPMG Essence provides a first step in the further application of design thinking within the proposal process. Furthermore it enables all advisory consultants to experience design thinking. As there are many more opportunities to introduce design thinking within KPMG the tool is expected to create awareness among enthusiastic consultants about how design thinking might also improve other services within KPMG.

This thesis proposes an innovation strategy to leverage the potential of connected vehicles for the fleet of LeasePlan, the global leader in automobile leasing and fleet management. This strategy has been developed through an extensive analysis of the internal environment, customer trends, industry developments, and emerging technologies in combination with Design Thinking and Roadmapping activities. It provides a set of solutions where the connected vehicle is believed to create the biggest impact for LeasePlan’s business, it’s market position and in meeting its ambition to shift towards a zero emission fleet by 2030. The automotive industry is at the beginning of a transition in response to the Paris Agreement and with ever greater demands in society for cleaner mobility. At the same time, the Internet of Things is one of the leading trends that is expected to rapidly transform the automotive industry, by introducing the connected vehicle. With LeasePlan’s total fleet of 1.8 million vehicles and soon a comparable amount of private charge points, LeasePlan has a significant influence on the development of sustainable transport systems. LeasePlan sees the growing request from its clients for expertise and guidance within fleet electrification. Clients try to find solutions to meet the rapidly increasing demand for charge infrastructure and to reach cost and footprint optimisation, while drivers deal with the inconveniences around electric driving. This study has identified how LeasePlan can use the connected vehicle to provide clients support in the zero emission transition and to deliver a desirable electric vehicle driver experience. The resulting strategy consists of the following four main elements, recommending LeasePlan to: 1) Provide Parking Support and Priority Load Balancing in the near term to increase efficient chargepoint occupation, to enhance efficient usage of charge capacity and to accommodate tailored advice on infrastructure expansion based on the real fleet behaviour. With Parking Support, drivers will be supported in their charge and park plan to enable fair chargepoint sharing. With Priority Load Balancing, smart capacity division increases charge flexibility for the fleet. This all results in minimum infrastructure investment for clients. 2) Introduce ‘Smart Charging’ in the second term for further reduction of the carbon footprint and energy costs for both clients and drivers by: automatically altered charging sessions and guidance for the driver to charge during the moments when the most green electricity is available and when the energy prices are low. 3) Develop a car-sharing system for a Connected & Electric Shared Pool, in the third term to realise optimal fleet efficiency, to create cost optimisation and to contribute to livable and cleaner urban areas. 4) Utilise the lease fleet to store renewable energy in the longer term. This realises energy self-sufficient offices and this brings profit for the customer when he plays with the fluctuations in energy prices during energy storage, while he contributes to the broader zero emission transition of its neighbourhood, region or even country. The strategy is presented in the format of a roadmap and the short term solutions are further conceptualized. The next steps for LeasePlan within each element are: further identify the market potential and monetary value, establish a profitable revenue model, build the partnerships and start the test and pilot phase to improve the design interaction. With this innovation strategy, LeasePlan becomes the reliable zero emission fleet accelerator, who takes the responsibility to contribute to a healthier environment and cleaner cities, while occupying a unique market position with its own expertise in fleet electrification, with the focus on its clients’ fleets and with the connected vehicle as its asset.

In 2014 two Industrial Design alumni from the TU Delft decided that they wanted to start a company that will demonstrate that a circular business model can be viable. They have developed a modular headphone, which they provide to customers as a subscription. Customers pay a monthly or yearly fee for the use of the headphone, which entitles them to free repairs and upgrades over time. The company has been growing steadily but too slow to become a sustainable business. One of the challenges they face is that need a better understanding of their customers in order to effectively build a brand and grow their business. The following assignment was therefore formulated for this thesis: Refine and validate Gerrard Street’s target segment and redesign its touchpoints with Gerrard Street. The analysis focused on creating a clear definition of Gerrard Street’s most important customer segment and on repositioning the brand. The synthesis and final design demonstrate how this should be implemented within Gerrard Street’s service through the design of a touchpoint. Refining the target segment Through a analysis of Gerrards Street’s internal environment was found that their business model is still in the early phases of adoption. It was therefore decided that Gerrard Street should focus their energy on targeting early adopters to build a strong brand before going after the early majority. The literature helped with describing the early adopters of services as young, well educated, having a high social status and do not mind taking risks. Customer research was used to develop a deeper understanding of the early adopters of Gerrard Street’s headphone service. Qualitative exploration through interviews provided direction for the target segment. A survey is used to sharpen that direction and to test some of the insights gathered during the qualitative research. Based on the customer research the target segment is described as: Young educated men that live in an urban area, who listen to music at every opportunity and use music as a social connector, he values progress and change and works toward self-fulfillment. The need for self-fulfillment is divided into three sub audiences that Gerrard Street can use for specific targeting: The passionate musician looking for musical fulfillment The young achiever looking for Professional fulfillment The Sporty lifestyle looking for Athletic fulfillment Repositioning the brand Gerrard Street’s mission is: “We will take the next step towards a circular economy by developing circular consumer electronics” Gerrard Street noticed that the market for people that are into the circular economy and headphone is too small. Therefore it is decided that they should demonstrate that the circular economy benefits the consumer more that traditional solutions, instead of focusing on the environmental image of their service. The headphone market, the competitive landscape and the environment of the consumers has been explored. Headphones have transformed from rather technical devices to lifestyle products. This led to many new entrants and a highly fragmented market, making it difficult to Stand out. Gerrard Street is competing in this market based on product form for a premium price with fewer features than its competitors. They also lack a specific lifestyle or a strong legacy. It is therefore concluded that they should put the emphasis on developing their service, which is the main differentiator from the competition. Based on new the target segment and the findings of the analysis Gerrard Street has been repositioned as: Gerrard Street, the audio service for doers, not talkers, for users, not owners, that connect through music and desire a great sound, carefree. Five design principles were created that provide guidance on how to express the Gerrard Street brand: Be Bold Confidence - Outspoken - Direct - Unapologetic - Doers Why so serious? Surprising - Fun - Professionally avoiding Seriousness - Don’t speak your parents language Quality is usability Making sure that you can always enjoy great sound experience - Here to serve - All grown up - keeping you online Circular products are better For everyone, but especially for our customers - Smarter choice - no brainer - Modularity - Repair instead of waste Engaging - A relationship - join the gang - Steer towards conversation instead of statements - Customer community - Honest about taste Synthesis To implement the new positioning for the newly formed target segment a touchpoint strategy was created: Adding value through the service by delivering a personal and social experience. An analysis of Gerrard Street’s current customer journey map pinpointed how they should adapt their service in order to deliver the desired experience. Ideation sessions on these on these different phases were used to develop a desired customer journey that serves as a vision for the development of Gerrard Street’s service. Moments of truth were allocated to parts of the Desired Journey that were especially relevant for achieving this vision. The moment someone’s headphone breaks down has been selected as the moment of truth. The repair experience is truly unique for the Gerrard Street’s brand, since it is the moment where they deliver on their brand promise of providing a great sound carefree. The final design The moment someone's headphone breaks down is usually considered as a very negative experience. The repair experience has been designed to radically change the perception by providing a moment where negative energy becomes something great and sharable. The customer should feel empowered by fixing their headphone, since they do not have to throw it away. The aim of the design was to let the customer consciously experience this moment, providing positive feedback and adding extra satisfiers. The final design serves as an example for Gerrard Street on how they can implement the findings of this thesis.

Accell Group is the European market leader in e-bikes and the European number two player in bicycle parts and accessories. Well- known bicycle brands in their portfolio include Babboe, Batavus, Ghost, Haibike, Koga, Lapierre, Raleigh, Sparta and Winora. Since Accell has decided to give sustainability a higher priority, there is a need to integrate sustainability in the product design process (also referred to as PDP). In the analysis phase of the project, the context, sustainable progression and product development process were analyzed. Insights from sustainable progression were that currently no strategy for sustainable progression exists, and biggest opportunities for lowering impact on the environment were in the use of recovered materials, and better end-of-use processing. Next, the product development process and its users were analyzed. Although designers are motivated to make design choices of influence to the sustainability of the bicycle and / or production process, the culture in Accell currently not actively encourages such choices in design as costs and speed of execution have a higher priority. To validate such choices in design, it should be quantified enabling it’s integration in bicycle requirement documents. These insights resulted in the choice of the circular economy as main approach in the project. It provides a clear vision (zero impact on the environment) and includes strategies that combine financial and sustainable demands. Furthermore, circular methodologies are being developed that enable to assess progression. In the circular exploration phase, the perspective of the circular economy is used to analyse the current bicycle lifecycle (from production to end-of-use) to spot opportunities for improvement. Various circular economy assessment methodologies are tested through application on Accell Group. Insights gathered from this phase were translated into requirements for the development of the circular tool. The methodologies, strategies and guidelines were discussed, validated and tested during the exploring phase on several project teams, and feasability also discussed with new business development and supply chain. Insights gained from these interactions were implemented in the development of the circular tool. In the development phase a circular tool was designed, using insights from the circular exploration. The tool functions a circular conversation facilitator, and simultaneously as a indicator for circular progression of a bicycle development project. Therefore, it can communicate the circular value of a project between project teams, I&T department and managements, enabling to set goals and work towards them. The score achieved in a project is linked to assessments created on a system, design and component level, using indicators such as (dis)assembly time, percentage of recovered materials, use of toxic materials and established recovery players in a project. Furthermore, it includes guidelines on these same levels to help thinking in circular loops, create circular business models, choose green materials and circular plastics, design for disassembly and finally select sustainable suppliers. Circular indicators were created to include in the documents used in the product development process, with the goal of gathering information about materials and components from suppliers. Finally, moments of using the tool were established for integration in the product development process. In the validation phase, the final Accell circular tool is tested on the a public transport tender. Finally, communication of the tool during the project is summarized, and recommendations for further activation within Accell are given

One of the key business models Gorenje andASKO have researched upon is a service model of circular washing machine under a pay per use (PPU) business model. PPU business models are currently mostly used within shared washing rooms, which is also the segment in which ASKO will enter withtheir first circular washing machines. However, even though PPU business models help nudge sustainable consumer behaviour, it can also have negative effects on consumer acceptance towards PSS and create negative emotional connections towards the brand itself. Key competitors currently offer circular products under PPU or leasing business models, but lack differentiation and clear unique selling points. To date, most competitors in the market struggle to offer new experiences with a circular product launch and seem to solely meet the requirements of potential regulations. However, this also offers an opportunity towards ASKO, as they have a chance to reposition their brand towards a broader target market and create new and unique brand experiences which set themselves apart from competition. MyASKO is a sub-brand and brand extension of ASKO which is targeted towards “aware millennials” who are using shared washing rooms within student accommodations, serviced apartments or communal homes. MyASKO also offers a digital brand experience which is rewarding and gives members the opportunity to proactively contribute towards local & global sustainable initiatives by choosing to wash on sustainable modes. By making the experience more rewarding and by engaging with local communities through sustainable initiatives, MyASKO increased the chance to create brand loyalty and potentially keep members for future circular washing machines for the private domestic market.

In order to realize sustainable customer growth, a company could adopt different strategies: opening up a new market, developing new products, etc. Based on the SWOT analysis, No Label is small and lacking capital, while its main target group (middle-class men, aged 25-45) is growing rapidly. Thus, No Label’s biggest opportunity lies in focusing on the current market and attract more potential customers within the market. After several interviews with its potential customers, the designer found the main challenge for converting its potential customers to real customers is that those people don’t hold a strong belief that No Label is a “relevant brand” and “My kind of product”. The believes that the brand is relevant could result in higher brand loyalty and positive responses to brand-driven activities such as their willingness to pay a premium price, keep purchasing the same brand, adopt new products and so on. This project focuses on leveraging branding and design to elicit the belief of "relevant brand" and "My kind of product", thus converting potential customers of No Lable.

Smartphone companies sell around 1.4 billion phones every year all across the world (Gouwens, 2020). The phones that are being sold, often replace a phone that is still working fine and we only use our phones on average for 2.7 years. This creates an enormous amount of e-waste. Fairphone believes in a fairer electronics industry by making a change from the inside. They aim to make an impact by creating products that last, reducing e-waste, choosing fairer materials and putting people first. However, Fairphone is still a small player in the smartphone industry. The number of phones sold by Fairphone in 2019 is sold by Apple every 3 hours (Chau & Ryan, 2020). Fairphone wants to grow their market share and wants to appeal to light green consumers. Light green consumers try to find a balance between sustainability, quality and price while purchasing new products. Apparently these consumers live sustainably and consume consciously nowadays, but they do not purchase a Fairphone at the moment. The first part of this thesis aims to get a better understanding of the reasons of these consumers for not purchasing a Fairphone. Secondly, the insights gained from this part are used to develop a design solution that triggers these consumers to consider purchasing a Fairphone when they are in need of a new smartphone. Through a survey (n=255), semi-structured interviews (n=30) and an exploration of the literature, 73 reasons for not purchasing a Fairphone were identified. These reasons are clustered and summarised in fifteen barrier cards. By facilitating creative problem solving sessions with Fairphone employees, many ideas are developed which are summarised in a strategic roadmap. The most promising ideas are translated into con-cepts. These concepts are presented to potential customers and their feedback is used to select the most feasible, viable and desirable concept. A group of consumers appreciates the Fairphone concept, but they are not in need of a new smartphone at the moment. Through the Friends of Fairphone program, Fairphone encourages these consumers to keep their current phone in use for as long as possible. After all, the most sustainable phone is the one in your pocket. For every month they keep using their phone, Fairphone will reward them with a 1% discount on Fairphone products. Today, these consumers forget that buying a Fairphone is an option while looking for a new smartphone. Through monthly updates, the Friends of Fairphone program makes sure that they will consider a Fairphone while they are looking for a new smartphone. A working web application prototype is developed which is validated with the Fairphone user group. 86.1% of this group (n=417) would have signed up to become a Friend of Fairphone. An implementation plan is presented which contains the required next steps for launching the Friends of Fairphone program. The Friends of Fairphone program requires low investment costs, totally aligns with Fairphone’s mission and has much potential of attracting a new group of consumers.The most sustainable phone is the one in your pocket.  

This thesis introduces the vision and implementation to involve and empower end-consumers in the circular economy. This thesis is the graduation project of Strategic product design master’s program, developed for Circularise, a B2B company who connects supply chain. It aims for an in-depth understanding of the users need and challenges in the purchase decision of durable products with recycled plastic components. The project began with literature researches of consumer behaviours with circular products. It also looked into their behaviour with blockchain technology, and current support that blockchain technology provides to a circular economy, namely, supply chain transparency and others. The new target segmentation was created according to literature, and user research was done with the target group. Contextmapping method was used to collect the user’s insight, and qualitative data were analysed. The results showed that consumers lack trust in sustainable claims that were advertised by brands, consumers lack motivation since the sustainable impacts are not clearly measurable, and more. The research also showed that blockchain technology in supply chain transparency could provide consumers with trustworthy sustainable data to support their purchase decision of the product. Based on these insights, new target segment (end-consumers), brand identity, platform design, and a roadmap of implementation plan were created with value exchange between consumers, brands, original equipment manufacturers, part manufacturers, material manufacturers, and recyclers in the future. This thesis aims to empower consumers by translation blockchain’s sustainable claims from manufacturers, into product storytelling. With accumulated value, it also proposes a long-term strategy to connect the consumers to the supply chain. This will further influence the connection of the chain to recyclers and close the loop for the circular economy in the future.

The project is about an online second-hand trading platform running in China, named Paipai Second-hand (Paipai). The project aimed to tailor a branding strategy for Paipai and deliver the according brand knowledge through a holistic brand experience to create Paipai’s brand image in consumers’ mind and build up its brand equity. Starting from the market analysis, the author investigated the context around the brand. Parallelly, some user studies were conducted to understand the user needs. The conclusions from both parts resulted in a re-defined brand positioning, including the target group, the category, and a series of benefits. After, some other researches were designed to learn users’ desires to brand experience. Based on the brand strategy and the user needs, a design guideline was created to lead Paipai’s brand experience design. Some paradigms reflecting the requirements from the guideline were designed and evaluated by users. The result of the evaluation showed that the brand experiences were desired and the design guideline was effective. The project has three distinguishing features. First, it took a user-centered approach. End-users were invited to participate in every step of the project so that their needs can be maximally detected. Second, the result of the project was mainly based on first-hand studies, which can ensure that the results of the project are tailored for Paipai and are the most likely to be the suitable solution. Third, the project aimed at a holistic brand experience to establish the brand equity rather than some marketing activities for hot spots, resulting in accumulative brand knowledge. The deliverables of the project were a re-defined brand positioning, a set of determined brand personality, a design guideline for desired brand experience, and a series of touch points paradigms.

Our relationship with money is a complicated one. Whatever your stance is, it is clear we all need money, whether we like it or not. It allows us to buy our basic necessities to survive. Food, heating, a roof over our heads. Next, it also allows us to thrive, by enabling us to buy things and experiences to help us develop as individuals. So, if we need money, why not try to get more than the minimum, so we can actually thrive? Take good care of ourselves and our loved ones? This thesis, set out to help achieve that. To help and enable more people to set themselves up for a life of less worries and more financial security and thus freedom. Young adults reach a phase in life where they start earning a proper income, often quite a hike compared to living off their parents or as a student. The question that arrives en masse then, is what to do with that extra income. It is easy to also start spending more, but that’s not always the wisest decision. Many turn to their savings accounts, but with interest rates close to 0 and inflation devaluing your money’s worth, parking it all at the bank is not the smartest move either. After building up a safety net of cash, investing should be brought into the equation, to help young adults build wealth and take care of themselves, today and in the future. People seem to realize the necessity of investing more and more, as seen by the latest increase in the amount of retail investors, both here in The Netherlands (17% increase in 2020 as reported by Centraal Beheer, 2021) as internationally: 15% of the current investors started in 2020 said CNBC (Fitzgerald, 2021) The problem here is that many retail investors invest in a risky way. 44% of new investors said they were trading short-term in 2020. 2021 then has seen the rise of many ‘meme-stocks’ such as Gamestop (GME), AMC, BB and many others, where retail investors just “yolo” into buying them, regardless of any fundamentals. Incentivized by the massive gains they see others post, as well as peer pressure, newbie investors massively pile into bets (it is called Wall Street Bets for a reason), treating the stock market like a casino. On the other side, we see individuals who are scared away from investing even more, because the situation described above confirms their biased opinion that investing is very risky and dangerous. It is clear that both groups need to be taught how to invest the right way: long term, diversified and slowly. Investing a little bit each month (Dollar Cost Averaging). This method may be the most boring, but it also the most successful. Furthermore, investing and finances in general have a lot to do with psychology. How can you resist the Fear Of Missing Out, the ups and downs of the stock market and stick to your plan? Research made clear that a mindset should be taught to young investors. Many of the users surveyed stated they were ready to start investing, but didn’t because of a lack of knowledge (34%), not knowing how to start (21%), thinking it was too risky/scary (17%) or thinking it was too complex (15%). The existing solutions, such as YouTube videos, Podcasts and books didn’t take these issues away, as became clear in the user interviews and the context research. After the research phase was done, a precise User Journey was created, pinpointing the issues people phase when trying to get started with investing. The following conclusion was drawn: users want to get more knowledge on the subject of investing, from a source they trust and offered to them in a gradual, guided manner, with their starting knowledge in mind. People often feel overwhelmed and lost. After the phase ‘from research to design’, the report follows with the design solution: MoneyMinds. An online platform on financial education that is mindset-focused, gives fundamental knowledge and gives people the confidence to be independent. Through video courses, exercises, personal coaching and a helpful community, MoneyMinds aims to empower young adults to take control of their financial lives, to learn about and start investing the right way, with the right mindset. The report finishes with a strategic part, that describes how MoneyMinds can be realized: the value proposition, the business model and a full brand manual, allowing for a consistent online presence and matching the audience. All things considered, this Master thesis offers interesting insight into a relevant problem of today, with a clear path forward. I hope you enjoy reading it.