hive (part 1) - service design.
At Hive, food is special because it is made by amazing people. Their love, their stories, their life is put into their food. Hive offers unique experiences around food by bringing people together over home cooked meals. It facilitates deeper cultural exchange and builds communities. Through the Hive platform, people can discover meals for any type of social eating experience.
the challenge
Increasing number of people are have difficulty managing their fast-paced lifestyle, diet & health. This has resulted in large number of people getting out of shape. At the same time the booming travel industry has exposed people to food from different localities, though this food may not always be the true reflection of the culture & the region.
Today’s on-demand & convenience culture continues to redefine everyday expectations. For most people eating convenient food is easy, but eating convenient food that is healthy, delicious & authentic is difficult.
By 2020, customer experience will dominate as the key brand differentiator, more than price or product.’ How can brands create meaning and seize attention when people’s interactions are becoming faster and shallower? The challenge was thus to think of food as more than just a routine meal but as a memorable experience that serves as a catalyst for self improvement.
the approach
Desk research, benchmarking & trend analysis was carried out to understand the current landscape when it comes to people, food and their eating habits.
Next certain assumptions were verified by speaking to different groups of people through phone calls and in-person interviews. To make sense of all the research, the findings were analysed using structured tools such as stakeholder maps, empathy map, personas & customer journey map.
The goal here was to understand clearly the underlying problems & insights so as to develop a clear set of opportunities. Through the stakeholder map i understood the ecosystem i was designing for; who are the key stakeholders, where they come from and the level of influence they have on the main target user groups.
2 archetypes were then created; first were explorers who are on the lookout for authentic local food experiences wherever they travel. The second archetype focused on was a working professional who is looking for convenient food that is healthy. The helped me understand their respective behaviours, pains, mindset, feelings and maintain focus on their needs while developing the service.
Customer journeys were mapped out for different scenarios and contexts the archetypes go through.
This allowed me to identify the key elements of the touchpoints, high & low points. Insights were drawn up from which 6 oppurtunity areas for a new service concept were identified.
It’s important to differentiate between a service and an experience; services as time well saved and experiences as time well spent. The idea was thus to design a service-experience that steps in to become life-long partners of the consumer by offering tools designed to improve their wellbeing. Whether that means becoming more healthy or having a once-in-a-lifetime experiences.
THE CONCEPT
Hive is a platform that connects local chefs in a given neighbourhood with diners who are either looking for convenient & healthy food options or are looking for unique food experiences. In its essence it brings people together, facilitates cultural exchange and have a good time over food.
With the overall concept defined, it was time to come up with a strong UX strategy that would allow the Hive service-experience to be functional, desirable, social, sustainable and scalable.
A COMMUNITY OF LOCAL CHEFS
At the heart of the service are the people; the local chefs. These are individuals with a passion for cooking and hosting great experiences. The crowdsourcing of local chef was an important strategy that puts Hive in a great position to be sustainable and scalable. At the same time it ensures that there is an ever changing meal & experience variety with a personal touch & authentic taste, as every local chef is unique in their own way.
TRUST BETWEEN GUESTS AND LOCAL CEHFS
Trust is the most vital element that makes the service work, without it, none of the interactions will take place. It was thus extremely important to create conditions that fosters trust among the guests, local chefs and the service.
In order to cook a healthy meal, one has to use good quality & fresh ingredients. This lead to the strategic decision to expand the Hive ecosystem by creating Local Hive Markets. These will give the local chefs easy & quick access to organic, high quality & fresh ingredients to cook meals that are healthy - this in turns builds trust among the users towards the local chefs and Hive as the meals are truly healthy.
STRATEGIC PARTNERS
For the service to operate efficiently and effectively it needed to have complete focus in delivering its core value proposition. This meant that other activities needed for the service to function had to be managed through external partners.
INTERNET OF THINGS & DATA ANALYTICS
By tapping into contextual data, Hive crafts proactive and predictive services that allow it to take its consumers on personalised journeys. Access to various sources of consumer’s data (with transparency & consent), together with the Hive’s learning algorithm & data analytics, allows the service to breathes life into IoT - creating a truly living service.
BEHAVIOURAL CHANGE
One might create the best service & experience, but if the user does not change their behaviour to use the service, then it is useless. In the Hive service-experience there are motivational, ability & triggering elements that promote behavioural change.
The Hive service also includes other features such as Cravelist for users to add meals & experiences they would like to try in the near future.
Hive communities is another section of the Hive service ecosystem that involves organising of events, talks, masterclasses, farm visits and many other activities that bring together all the people to meet in person and build trust.
A service blueprint was mapped out so as to to ensure that all the UX strategic elements, functionalities, the different touchpoints, interactions and stakeholders of the service come together to create a seamless experience.
THE SERVICE BLUEPRINT
- Onbaording of user and local chefs on the platform.
- Local chef listing an experience on the platform and hosting an experience.
- User searching, booking an experience on the platform and attending an experience.
- User getting presonalised & cravelist notification depending on their context.
- Local chef preparing to host an experience and attending an Hive Market.
For each of these scenarios, the respective Jobs To Be Done was understaood and then the user flows was mapped out. For each step of the user flow; the context, stakeholders involved, touchpoints & goals/needs were identified.
A systems map and business model canvas was mapped out to identify costs and revenue streams in order to ensure that the service is feasible, sustainable and scalable in the long run.
the outcome
Hive is for everyone; whether you are exploring your town or traveling to a new city, Hive is an easy way to taste healthy delicious food while meeting & connecting with interesting people. With Hive one can learn about a country’s history and culture through engaging with local people and discovering its typical food.
How about a cheese and wine tasting in a beautiful Parisian home, learning how to make homemade pasta with a local Roman, a local supper club in a magical garden in London, or enjoying a feast of tapas with a local on a Barcelona rooftop? Hive ensures that you’ll find the perfect food experience.
Hive offers a truly farm-to-table experience as it is designed with the aim of providing an end-to-end service ecosystem. Local Hive Markets offers farmers the platform to sell their fresh produce to local chefs. By facilitating easy access to local & high quality ingredients to cook their meals from, Hive ensures that the meals users enjoy on their plate are truly healthy and delicious.
Hive goes one step further through its Hive collections. These are holistic Hive experience that first make sure that all the meals are healthy, authentic and delicious tasting. It then completes the experience by guiding users to enjoy the food at perfect locations with the right ambience, style, feel and comfort.
Hive moves away from basic transactions to offer compelling & memorable experiences. It taps into contextual data/attributes, machine learning algorithms & AI to craft higher levels of personalised service such as recommendations on food experiences that are tailored to the transient needs of the user.
Digital disruption does not call for a retreat from all physical infrastructure. Hive strikes a balance between human, physical and digital experience woven together seamlessly across the online and offline world.
To see the design of the Hive website & mobile app, check out the project;
