Smart Scanner
Opportunity
Amid the recent slowing economic activity, COVID-19 has led to a surge in e-commerce and an accelerated need for digital transformation. Customs worldwide struggle to keep up with the increased demand and are forced to rethink their approach.
The Smart Scanner team saw an opportunity to apply the existing scanning technology to address the challenges with the increasing parcel demands. The team used its current strong customer standing to secure a pilot engagement with Cameroon customs for the new application, Smart Scanner.
In a joint effort, key stakeholders from the innovation network, Cameroon Customs, and the Innovation Squad (of which I was a member) formed a cross-functional team to execute the Problem-fit validation phase.
Goals
Enable the business to maximize an innovation's potential by creating and delivering solutions that significantly impact the customers' operation.
Deepen the understanding of the customer context to identify hidden needs that further increase the perceived value of the solution when addressed.
Reduce the project risk by applying a customer-centric approach early in the development phase that validates or invalidates vital assumptions.
Disclamer: All the names, logos, and important information are hidden for privacy reasons.
Personas
Through mapping the customs process and stakeholders involved, three key personas emerged. The customer-centric interview approach reveals not only the practical needs of the people involved but also brings to the surface critical insights that drive how they think, feel, and act.
Research & Analysis
Four rounds of interviews were conducted with employees of the Cameroon customs to develop an in-depth understanding of their needs and create alignment on a potential solution. Utilising numerous innovation frameworks, the team efficiently structured the research and identified additional value opportunities. During this phase, the team created an as-is and to-be user journey, a service blueprint 4 prototype versions.
Assumptions
In close collaboration with the involved stakeholders, essential assumptions concerning the concept were identified, tested and validated.
Prototypes
During the problem-fit project phase, four prototypes were developed. The first version was a high-fidelity UI design used as a sensitising material to engage the users. The final prototype allowed the customer to explore through an interactive experience both mobile and desktop use-cases.
The team quickly tested and validated the assumptions and further improved and developed the solution concept to a holistic, high, value service by following this approach.
