This is the final report where is reported the whole process under which we went through to reach the final output: an innovation of meaning, the reason why behind the ticket of the company.

1. 1
The Squared Circle
Report

2. 2 3
with
Management Engineering
Design Strategy
a.a 2018/2019
Prof. Claudio Dell’era
Tutor. Silvia Magnanini
PROJECT WORK
team THE SQUARED CIRCLE
Marwan Abdelrazek 903373
Jacopo Farina 899204
Gabriella Ghiani 919256
Nicola Morandini 905867

3. 4 5
Index
Introduction
Abstract
Sensing new meanings
State of the art
Competitive analysis
Emerging lifestyle
Envisioning new meanings
Changes of meaning
Metaphors
Preliminary solutions
Re-interpreting new meanings
Selecting interpreters
Collaborating with interpreters
Re-interpreting process
Probing new meanings
The user and the context of use
The innovation framework
The uniqueness of the experience
Personas
Storyboard
Service Blueprint and Customer journey
System map
The fourth segmen
Annexes
Road map
Wireframes
MVP
References
0.
1.
2.
6.
3.
4.
5.
.6
.8
.13
.18
.23
.37
.42

4. 6 7
The company: Edenred
Edenred is a leading global company inside the industry of
transactional solutions among merchants, employees and firms.
Their actual innovation ambition is a shift from being digital migrants
to digital native: everything should be digital and mobile; the user’s
engagement should be increased and digital & marketing world for
merchants should be enabled by offering new value added services.
Giving a look to some numbers, they can count more than 770k
client companies, 44Mln of users and 1.5Mln of partner merchants.
They have three business lines: employee benefits, fleet and
mobility solutions and complementary solutions. Inside this huge
environment, they manage more than 2Bln of transactions each year.
ABSTRACT
The following research project is the result
of a challenge launched by Edenred. The
company asked us to change the meanings
to join their transactional ecosystem for all
the different actors involved.
Following the innovation of meaning
process, the different visions of each
member of the circle converged into a
final one that aims to be aligned with the
values and the mission of Edenred, but at
the same time reshaping their perception
from the customers’ point of views.
With our innovation of meaning and the
related solutions, Edenred will be able to
enable more and stronger value-adding
relationship inside the ecosystem, creating
trust in the brand at the same time. For
employees, the goal is to create people’s
daily fruitful and efficient experiences.
Not only allowing them to satisfy their
needs inside a trusted ecosystem, but also
addressingspecificneedsandpreferences.
Not only value for users, but our change of
meaning aims also at touch the reason why
merchants, small and medium ones that
can be considered experience providers,
should enter inside the ecosystems. From
a pure way to be known and exploit a
larger customer base, to the possibility to
have the right tools to better manage the
relationship with their customer.
This new digital ecosystem will allow to
know better and better the users allowing
Edenred to customize the type of offers
at the individual level and at the firm
level. At the same time, Edenred will have
the possibility to exploit, with the right
data analytics competences, the value
coming from the great amount of data
generated in the transactional platform.
They will convey new services both to
the companies and to a new customer
segment following Client-as-a-source or
Client-as-a-target strategies. This new
segment includes all the organizations that
could benefit from the knowledge of the
market served by Edenred to open new
business opportunities and to increase
the effectiveness of their organization.
Of course, this new segment will allow
Edenred to gain additional profits and a
higher reputation that will permit to grow
larger and larger in the future.

5. 8 9
1. SENSING NEW MEANINGS
The state of the art Competitive
analysis
The transactions solutions industry has a quite
long history, since the ‘70s firms like Edenred
have been focused over this sector. Also, this
industry has been touched by some digital
innovations during the last years, but this
movement has not finished yet. Edenred can
be considered as the leader of this market,
particularly for its main business line: meal
vouchers. Some competitors can be found in
this actual competitive scenario such as the
French Sodexo or Zeta. Actually, the most
similar one is the first one since the vision is
redundant and because it offers both meal and
complementary benefits for employees, in
addition it offers also some services for school,
hospitals and private firms directly managed.
Taking a step back, we could analyse the
industry applying the Porter’s five forces:
Edenred is a global leader in the
transactional solutions dedicated to
companies, employees and merchants:
electronic card, online platforms or paper
vouchers allow to increase the welfare of
people, to optimize expenditures for firms
and to increase businesses of affiliated
partners. The offer consists in three
commercial assets: employee benefits, fleet
and mobility solutions and complementary
solutions. In Italy, Edenred delivers
more than 280 Mln vouchers per year, it
accounts more than 50k client companies
and more than 150k commercial partners.
It was established in 1962, from that time,
Edenred persecuted a vision of sustainable
growth for all the individual actors inside
the economic and social system. The
mission is to increase the quality of life of
people and performances of organizations
in an easy way exploiting their capability
of daily research for innovative
technological solutions.
Regarding its actual digitization process,
they’re offering several digital (mobile and
web) solutions that cover several needs
of each customer segment addressed. In
addition, they’re putting a particular
attention over the possibility to integrate
their actual offer with other ones to
increase the welfare for everybody. Finally,
they really care about the CSR, indeed they
have received some certifications for their
efforts.
EXISTING
COMPETITORS
THREAT OF
NEW ENTRY
BUYERSSUPPLIERS
THREAT OF
SUBSTITUES
EXISTING COMPETITORS (MEDIUM/LOW)
The market concentration is quite high in
favour of Edenred, because of this, as it’s shown
by the numbers, there is no possibility to have a
price competition persecuted by other players,
the only way there could be some problems
is through the introduction of some critical
innovation where someone else could exploit
the first mover advantage and create a lock-in
effect inside its ecosystem.
BARGAINING POWER OF BUYERS (MEDIUM)
If we consider all the three customer segments,
then we can say that the power is medium
because: power of client companies can be
considered high since they are big and could
choose to spend their money away; while the
power of merchants can be considered very
low since they have to accept all the conditions
to enter inside these ecosystems.
BARGAINING POWER OF SUPPLIERS (LOW)
Since in this industry are managed a huge
amount of transactions, there will be always a
great demand to satisfy with commodities such
as paper for tickets, for this reason every firm
could change supplier with no problem.
NEW ENTRANTS (MEDIUM/LOW):
Some digital players with a background in
different kind of experiences could think to
become a player inside this industry. Some
legislation and some high barrier to entry
prevent this movement from the outside.
SUBSTITUTES (HIGH)
This is the critical force; indeed, new
innovations have been developed and could
really change the way in which corporate
benefits are designed and could be exploited
by companies. More and more payment
modality has been invented that already
account a considerable number of users that
receives benefits in other forms. Continuous
improvement and network externalities are
the only lock-in effect generators.
1. SENSING NEW MEANINGS

6. 10 11
1. SENSING NEW MEANINGS
Emerging
lifestyle
INTELLIGENCE ON MEANINGS
Nowadays employees lie in a very busy and
stressful working environment. Companies
are putting always a greater attention to
balance work and personal life leaving enough
spare time to their workers. Since spare time
is becoming more and more important to
reach happiness, employees seek meaningful
experience. They don’t fear the unknown, they
like the discovery part. Mainly millennials
pay particular attention on reading reviews
and they pass time informing enough before
some decisions, while in other case they are
impulsive. There is a huge trend of relying
on some form of virtual assistants. Even if
there some researchers that talk about a new
individualistic era, some others have observed
new forms of interaction and a tension of some
people to know always new people.
Firms are trying to follow these trends by
offering to their employees always the best
solution also in term of additional benefits. At
the same time, they try to spread the corporate
culture in several ways because it’s becoming
fundamental to attract the best people from
the outside and give the right direction inside.
From the merchants’ side, there is growing
demand for new basic tools to compete always
better inside this dynamic context. SMEs are
not lagging, but they look for new ways to open
new business opportunities. They search for
new form to establish customer relationships
and to be nearer to their customer base. They
are also touched by the digital era, so they are
looking for new tools to exploit in order to
change their small operations in better.
1. SENSING NEW MEANINGS
Research and intelligence on Technologies
already adopted by competitors or in other
industries
Data analytics techniques have become the
new must have for every firm that wants to
be considered digital in the actual context.
Even if the corporate benefits industry is not
fully digitalized, all the players are trying to
persecute this strategic movement introducing
new digital tools inside the ecosystem such as
new POS, innovative e-ticket, several platforms
to fulfil every need, etc. This huge amount of
data, generated within the interactions among
users inside the different ecosystems, will be
the main source of innovation as well as it was
done in other sectors (logistics, marketing, …)
or by other firms (e.g. Alibaba, Amazon, …).
The value of big data is growing a lot and the
possibilities to fully exploit them are becoming
more and more.
Another phenomenon that is growing is the
one related to the virtual assistant: Siri, Alexa
and Tobi are only some of the examples of
this new technological trend. Having a digital
assistant that helps you avoiding you wastes
of time while looking for something is a value
added in the eyes of customers.
The last phenomenon investigated is revolving
around the software world: everything is going
to the cloud, also the way in which software are
used is changing. Actually, software are more
and more used without the possession of them,
they are used via internet as they are services.
This because it’s cheaper and often it creates
less problem than having something internally
that must be managed.

7. 12 13
Changes of
meaning
At the very beginning of the path, every
member of the group was asked to envision a
change of meaning taking the perspective of
one of the three customer segment inside the
ecosystem.
After the first envisioning factory, couplets
have been formed accordingly to the similarity
of the vision. The next step was the group
forming through the mergers of two couplets
accordingly to the complementarity of the
proposed change of meanings. Our circle has
been finally formed after that.
In particular, the two original proposed
changes of meaning were:
_ From the satisfaction of the needs inside the
system to a system that satisfy my individual
needs;
_ From the provision of several standard
experiences to the delivery of meaningful
group experiences.
As it can be noticed, our attention has been
devoted on two aspects: the customization of
the offers and the social issue.
The first proposal refers to the possibility to
develop tailored offers that could increase
the specific utility functions of everyone, the
intention was to address not only the latent
needs, but also tacit ones. In this way, it could
be possible to avoid undesired stress for the
decision making, the system will take care
entirely of you.
The second one refers to the possibility to
create new mechanisms that could encourage
the possibility to build new and/or stronger
personal relationship by receiving the
possibility to enjoy meaningful experiences
with others, meeting new or known people at
different places.
To resume all the meanings inside only one
matrix, we built the Meaning map where the
combination of the two proposals generated a
third one that became also our vision for that
we persecuted for the rest of the journey. This
ultimate change of meanings implies that our
solution will be able to generate the best offer
according to the needs and the preferences of
the users, but not only satisfying something or
to open to a new discovery/exploration, but to
increase the quality of life of everyone. In this
case the role of the user could be both active
or passive accordingly to personal desires
and depending on the different situations.
Basically, the definitive change of meaning
has been: From “I join the Edenred ecosystem
because I can satisfy my needs in the system” To
“I join the Edenred ecosystem because it provides
me the best experiences for me”
2. ENVISIONING NEW MEANINGS
OUR TIME MAGAZINE COVERS
This time magazine covers represents the outcomes of the individual initial research of each
member of the circle.
1. SENSING NEW MEANINGS
The system
provides me the
best experience
for me
The system
enables new
group
experiences
I can satisfy the
needs in the
system
The system
satisfy my
needs
EXPERIENCE
SEEKING
NEEDS
SATISACTION
THE SYSTEM IS
A PERSONAL
ASSISTANT
THE SYSTEM IS
A TOOL
from to
toto
EXPERIENCE
SEEKING
NEEDS
SATISACTION
THE SYSTEM IS
A PERSONAL
ASSISTANT
THE SYSTEM IS
A TOOL

8. 14 15
Metaphors
TO EXPLAIN OUR INNOVATIONS OF
MEANING, WE DECIDED TO BORROW SOME
METAPHORS FROM THE SPORT TRAINING
WORLD.
I CAN SATISFY THE NEEDS IN THE SYSTEM
The actual situation could be associated to a
runner that run inside a track: he has a need
that is running, and he can satisfy his needs
inside the system (the track) in a standard
way. The same thing happens with the ticket
restaurant: indeed, every beneficiary could go
to have a lunch in one of the many affiliated
restaurants. Of course, he has to decide where
to go and what to eat and with who, as a runner
has to choose the pace to sustain and the
distance alone.
THE SYSTEM ENABLES NEW GROUP
EXPERIENCES
In this case, a runner could have the possibility
to go to the gym or to the park and run side by
side with other runners that shares his passion,
so new relationship could be established or old
ones could be reinforced. This could be applied
also for the generic user that could share
meaningful experiences with others, sharing
his passion with others.
THE SYSTEM SATISFIES MY NEEDS
In this case, we could use the example of a
runner that exploits the competences and the
assets of a specialist to train in the best way
possible. His role could be considered passive,
he only has to attend to the sessions and the
results will appear. This could be true also for
beneficiaries since they should only trust the
system that will later suggest them the best
possible choice to satisfy their own specific
needs.
Changes of
meaning (2)
Before going on with the development of some
preliminary solutions associated to different
scenarios, we decided also to focus the
attention on a second segment: our innovative
movement would have touched not only the
beneficiaries, but we attempted to envision a
new meaning also for the merchants.
InsideournewvisionforEdenred,wewantedto
change the reason why a merchant should enter
inside the ecosystem. Referring to the “small
medium merchants” as experience providers,
we thought that they should be encouraged
to join Edenred not only for the positive
externalities provided by a huge horizontally
opposite market. We envisioned to give them
the possibility to empower themselves giving
the right tools to be in contact with their target
market. Consequently, the change of meaning
in this case is the following:
From
“I join the Edenred ecosystem because I can
enlarge my customer base”
To
“I join the Edenred ecosystem because I can
empower myself”
THESYSTEMPROVIDESMETHEBESTEXPERIENCE
FOR ME
Finally, we could think about the new
generation of athletes and of personal trainers.
Nowadays, every sportsman lives the training
moment in different ways, depending on
several factors and circumstances, they also
have the possibility to choose what they have
to do. This could be true also for beneficiaries
whenever their role becomes active as they
assume importance inside the creation of their
own personalized offer. At the same time, in
both cases, it would be possible to allow them
to live real 360° experiences where they could
improve their quality of life following their
preferences and not standard routes.
2. ENVISIONING NEW MEANINGS2. ENVISIONING NEW MEANINGS

9. 16 17
Preliminary
solutions
FOR EACH CHANGE OF MEANING, AFTER THE DEFINITION OF THE MEANING MAP WITH THE RELATED
METAPHORS, WE WENT ON WITH THE DESIGN OF PRELIMINARY SOLUTIONS. WE DEFINED THREE
SCENARIOS:
SOCIAL EXPERIENCE
One of the values our vision
is introducing inside Edenred
network is the social experience,
where people will be involved
memorable experiences not just
using their benefits in the old way,
that sometimes implied any added
value.
The network mainly aims
at offering to employees the
opportunity to meet other people
who have similar preferences to
share with them their experiences,
which will be reflected on their
morale and social state and
increase their welfare. Expanding
their network or strengthening
some relationship will have an
impact also at the workplace
whenever there will be some team
working activities: performances
will be higher. In addition, HR
managers will have the tool to form
better teams thanks to the insights
generated by the system.
LATENT TO EXPLICIT NEEDS
The system is designed to react to the
needs of the employees, based on their
initial preferences inserted by them in
the system regarding their activity level,
diet they are following, favourite places
to exercise... System is going to react to
their performance and behaviours in
this aspect, so it will send notifications
with the possible activities they could
do at a specific time according to their
profile. Practically, the system will act
as a virtual assistant for employees,
offering best experiences.
EMPOWERING THE MERCHANTS
The third value will be mainly
targeting the merchants where they
can shape their offerings based on
the needs and behaviours of the
users.
They could increase the availability
of items most demanded by their
specific customer base, remove
what is not seen as appealing by
their customers, moreover they can
make promotions to attract more
employees. So, the system will act
as a communication tool between
the merchants and the employees,
offering more tailored services,
thanks to higher knowledge of
employees, which will be translated
to higher revenues for merchants.
2. ENVISIONING NEW MEANINGS 2. ENVISIONING NEW MEANINGS

10. 18 19
Selecting
interpreters
Once the team shaped the aforementioned
preliminary solution, a broader perspective has
been taken, again, to go deeper in the addressed
customers’ experience of life and to verify and
refine the new meanings and the solutions.
In this path, the role of the interpreters (as
people able to understand and influence
how people could give a new meaning to the
products) has been crucial.They were searched
from different categories and heterogeneous
domains, in order to capture several points
of view: same industry, adjacent industry and
outside the network. In addition, we tried to
have different perspectives around different
domains inside our proposals, so we identified
interpreters from all the three categories:
direct players, professionals and cultural
interpreters.
FROM THE SAME INDUSTRY:
Marco Mandolfo, bio marketing researcher and
consultant:
Despite his young age, he has a very
strong expertise in the marketing field. He
describes himself as a passionate about the
applications of digital technologies and the
related implications over people, business
and communities. Because of this, he could
help us in understanding the role of the app
as touchpoint and moreover as a personal
assistant for users and how this could impact
on their lifestyles and perceptions.
Alberto Dalmasso, CEO and co-founder at
Satispay:
Thanks to his knowledge over the payment
environment and the creation of a two-sided
platform, he could contribute us interpreting
our hypothesis among the possibility to
create an ecosystem where customers receive
customized suggestions and where direct
merchants-users interactions are enabled.
FROM ADJACENT INDUSTRIES:
Sergi Vila Costa, CEO and founder at Flykube:
few years ago, he envisioned a new travel
operator that books for you unknown travels
basedonyourownprofileandinterests.Nowhe
could contribute to our project by interpreting
and re-elaborating our idea of suggesting
and consequently taking people to live new
experiences. He could help us to define the role
of emotions inside the journey and how to deal
with the risk perceived of something unknown.
Daniel Canzian, JRE and executive chef at
DanielCanzian restaurant:
as a chef, he has the right and the responsibility
of proposing his own menu to his clients.
He take every day this decision, so he could
contribute to the project by telling us if decider
would be willing to receive some insights about
his customer base to empower his decision
making, but more important he could tell us if,
under his point of view, it’s right to guide users
in their choice to letting them live stronger
experience, as a chef does for tastes, instead of
allowing them to decide by their own.
AlessandroCarrara,founderatOpenGestionale:
he has been working inside the software
industry for very long time, in particular he
created an open source software for small-
medium enterprises so he could help us in
understanding if this customer segment is
struggling to find new tools to better manage
their businesses and if there are the right
competences among the market to appreciate
the type of software we have in mind.
Francesca Morichini, CHRO at Amplifon:
as one of the best women HR managers
among Europe (as defined by many articles),
we thought that she could contribute a lot
by challenging our assumption about the
willingness of companies to increase the level
of collaboration among their employees and if
3. RE-INTERPRETINGS NEW MEANINGS 3. RE-INTERPRETINGS NEW MEANINGS
they’re searching new ways to spread the firms’
culture.
OUTSIDE THE NETWORK:
Saimon, musician:
songwriters are perfect cultural interpreters
for us: they give to the public what they
personally think is something good, not what
people wants, they share something interesting
under their perspective try to satisfy latent
needs of audience, not explicit ones. For this
reason, he could interpret our vision of trying
to satisfy latent needs of users without asking
them directly what they need, but let them live
immersive experience, like concerts.
In addition, he could be a good interpreter to
telling us if people are still willing to live social
experience and not only individual ones.
Paolo Gaetano Volontè, sociologist and
professor at Polimi:
his research fields are fashion, culture and
technology. He deeply knows the actual
panorama of the society where digital and
physical aspects are becoming one thing. We
thought that he could contribute by challenging
eventually our objective of enlarging the
customers’ network letting them live social
experience. He could also help us reasoning
over the possible reactions provoked by the
system suggestions.
Marco
Mandolfo
Francesca
Morichini
Saimon Paolo Gaetano
Volontè
Daniel CanzianSergi
Vila Costa
Alberto
Dalmasso
Alessandro
Carrara

11. 20 21
Collaborating
with interpreters
Marco Mandolfo: He graduated in management engineering at Polimi in
2017. He currently deals with both with academic research and consulting
with a strong focus on the fields of strategic marketing and biomarketing.
He explained to us that we are living in a time of strong digital
drive, where many innovations are being made in the way of
communicating virtually, making everything more real. He stressed
out the importance of this trend, without forgetting about the target
people we are addressing: nowadays workers are not millennials.
They are not so used to exploit digital devices for everything like
millennials do. He suggested us to insert physical touch points to
change the perception of the service.
Finally, he told us about the perception system: the users who use this
new Edenred service must feel cool, innovative and smart.
Saimon: He’s a student in game design, but he has a big passion: music.
He plays guitar and write song lyrics. He’s trying to reach always a greater
audience because he strongly believes that he has something to say.
With Saimon we talked about how personal devices have influenced
social experiences. During the drafting of this project we asked
ourselves several times whether individual services ruined the
collective experiences. Making a comparison with the music we
talked about Spotify and the concerts Asking to Saimon if Spotify had
diminished the interest of the public to go to concerts, his answer
was: “No, they are two completely different experiences and they are
not damaging each other, they are complementary. There is good
music and a community abreast good music. If I were alone with
the artist a concert would not have been a concert, it would sucks”.
Furthermore, he added: “Spotify give me the pleasure of discovery,
and this is the key strength of this service. It gives me the opportunity
to listen to the artists that I might like. In this way I can enjoy their
music and after joining their concert and their concerts”.
Francesca Morichini: She has worked for several multinational companies
(Barilla, L’oréal, Whirlpool and Amplifon) after her graduation in Political
science at LUISS in Rome. She is considered one of the most business
woman in Italy, but at the same time, as a mom, she’s always searching to
deliver better life-quality balance inside her firms.
As HR manager, Francesca Morichini has spent her professional
career trying to improve the relationships among the employees
in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of production.
Dr. Morichini proved to be very interested in our idea of sharing
experiences among workers because HR are always seeking for
something new. However, he warned us: “Not all people love to know
other people in their own free moments”.
Sergi Vila Costa: After two bachelor degrees in BA and in
telecommunication engineering, he started very early to found three
startup: Flykube, Edisonews and Travisy. He describes himself as a happy
entrepreneur that wants to make companies grow more and more.
We discussed quite a lot with Sergi, we spent a lot of time talking
about the feelings and the emotions of people that lives unknown
experiences as the one delivered by Flykube. Under his point of
view, people seek new and meaningful experience in a society where
almost everything is known, they are excited to do new things. Once
they do them, they fall in love with these experiences even if they
would have never thought to do them. In addition, he highlighted that
to deliver personalised offer that suits 100% with single individuals,
simple questionnaires are enough to start, then with big data
analytics you can refine profiles.
Paolo Gaetano Volontè: He’s an associate professor at Polimi. He is a
sociologist researcher in the field of science, fashion and design. He founded
two scientific journals with other colleagues. He writes several articles and
books about his research fields.
Trying to innovate the Edenred service we found ourselves several
times to examine solutions that we subsequently rejected as being
too invasive or not ethically correct. We therefore discussed with
Volontè if the new devices lead to an individualization of people.
He answered: “Human is a social animal. He will always need to
meet other people. New devices aren’t isolating people, they are
just changing the way in which we stay together”. He left us saying:
“When you’re designing a service, you’re creating the future. Make it
worth it to live it”.
3. RE-INTERPRETINGS NEW MEANINGS 3. RE-INTERPRETINGS NEW MEANINGS

12. 22 23
4. PROBING NEW MEANINGS3. RE-INTERPRETINGS NEW MEANINGS
Re-interpreting
process
The contribution of the interpreters helped us
identifying, one by one, the potentialities and
constraints of the preliminary proposals and
allowed us to shape the final solution by going
deeper into both the employees and merchants
addressed user experience, their behaviours and
expectations.
Talking with the interviewed interpreters,
some strong and some weak points has been
highlighted. For example, the different type
of user involvement has been appreciated as
well as the possibility of creating new social
connections, but it must remain as an option if
someonedoesn’tlikethisfeature.Thepossibility
to know people has been confirmed, but it
emerged the problem of further adjustments
thanks to embedded algorithms. There is a
necessity to create a physical touchpoint beside
the digital platform: customers need a physical
presence whenever they must learn to use it or
to solve problems. For this reason, we decided
to add some lessons at firms’ HQ to introduce
the new service that will be run contemporarily
to the online introductory course. In addition,
some pop-up store could be opened during the
launching phase. For merchants, sales agent
will be enough.
Then, it has been recognized the value for
firms, but we must manage carefully privacy
and data. Finally, we will pay attention to the
soft levers to increase the perception from the
market of the new functionalities to attract
always a greater customer base.
Resuming, as a consequence of the re-
interpretation phase we reinforced the concept
behind our envisioned ecosystem: different
value propositions to each segment in order to
generate the desired values for everyone and to
allow Edenred to achieve its goals.
The user and the
context of use
EMPLOYEES:
Regarding the first customer segment,
analysing the actual panorama we identified
that their needs are basically the four indicated
in the table. Because of this, the solution inside
our vision aims at solving all of these in order
to convey a better quality of life, talking in pure
economics terms to improve their individual
utility function. The environment in which
the new offer will be placed is inside the daily
routines of each workers. It could be valuable
from a blue collar to a manager, the only thing
that everyone must do is to use in the right
the app to which they will have the possibility
to access. To start using it properly, they will
attend to basic exhibitions at their companies’
site and then live the experience as they prefer
based on their own profile. They will have
the possibility to meet new people, live new
experiences or always the most preferred ones.
MERCHANTS:
For this second customer segment, we have
discovered that there are three needs that we
could solve by addressing the new offer as
indicated in the table. Solving these needs, they
could increase the efficacy of their activities,
not only enlarging the customer base, but
having reliable insights (real time or historical)
to take decisions on and being closer to their
clients.
COMPANIES:
We said that companies are touched by a
change of meaning, so they will join the
ecosystem to increase the welfare for all their
employees. Observing the actual trends inside
the business area, we discovered that we could
add some functionalities that could increase
the attractiveness of Edenred even if the core
value delivered will be the same as before.
The new secondary value delivered will be the

13. 24 25
increase of the effectiveness of the role of HR
managers/employers. Indeed, our solution will
offer to them new tools to persecute their goals
or to facilitate their jobs in general solving the
mentioned needs.
The innovation
framework
The new experience will work as described in the precedent paragraph, but what is more important
is to show how the new system can be considered innovative. The innovation framework helps us to
define on which dimensions there are relevant shift.
MEANING DIMENSION:
the meaning will change following the
megatrends already identified during the
intelligence activities. Indeed, considering
the two segments touched by real changes
of meaning, it’s possible to see a clear link
between those changes and the trends.
For what concerns the EMPLOYEES, we have
pointed out the problems related to an always
more stress working life and the consequent
growing importance of a good life-working
balance where the spare times is more and
more meaningful and must be lived only
with high quality. We have also highlighted
the trends of the pleasure of discovery and
of growing reliance on digital assistants.
Finally, users of all industry are now used to
leave reviews and to read them before going
to a certain place. For all this reason, the new
meaning can be considered a potential one
that is based on identified lifestyles not fully
explored yet inside the industry.
Then, considering the MERCHANTS, we
have seen that there is a growing demand of
new way for creating relationships with their
customers and the importance of being visible
to a large digital customer base to open new
opportunities. In addition, there is a growing
competition, so they also are looking tools
to facilitate and to base on their decision
making. Also, in this case there is a change of
meaning.
TECHNOLOGY DIMENSION:
regarding the technological aspects, we have
identified some hot topics during our blue-sky
research and intelligence on technology. In
fact, there are more and more applications
inside different industries about the following
innovations. Machine learning algorithms
and data analytics tools are becoming popular
in each sector in order to find out reliable
forecasts and relevant insights about actual
customer base on which base strategic
decision making under the client-as-a-source
paradigm. Since our vision implies a platform,
this kind of technology must be managed and
embedded inside it to fully exploit the value of
the big data.
Then, looking at the B2B ENVIRONMENT,
there is a growing attitude to pay the access
to a certain software instead of buying it. This
SaaS paradigm will be included inside the new
digital ecosystem, too.
For both the reasons, on the technological
dimension there is a shift toward potential
technologies not embraced yet by the
industry.
MARKET DIMENSION:
(explain also the movement for the future)
taking into account the market dimension, it’s
shown in the precedent paragraph that the
same customer segments will be addressed
even if with new technology and changing
the meaning. As it will be described in the
following paragraphs, there would be the
floor to go beyond the actual served market:
indeed, there are reasons to think about start
serving a new segment (not only employees of
firms, but also single individuals) and a totally
new market. Edenred would be able to enlarge
its offer with new type of services that will be
based on its core activities to new actors. This
opportunity will be further detailed later.
As it can be observed by the figure, the proposal would be classified in the middle of the innovation
framework regarding the meaning and the technology dimension, while addressing the current
segments, even if there could the possibility to touch also that dimension in the future.
4. PROBING NEW MEANINGS 4. PROBING NEW MEANINGS

14. 26 27
The uniqueness of the
experience
Shown the reasons why the new system is different and innovative in comparison to the old one, it’s
worth to mention how the new service will be better in comparison to the actual competitive scenario
and why there are low risks of attempts of new entrants.
Personas
The Personas are archetypes of the potential users. Each persona gathers up the features of an existing
social group: from their social and demographic characteristics, to their own needs, desires, habits
and cultural backgrounds.
The main character inside our vision will be the employee segment. To better contextualize the
storyboard, we drafted the profile of this type of beneficiary.
4. PROBING NEW MEANINGS 4. PROBING NEW MEANINGS
USERS ARENA:
The system designed will cover an
empty space inside this scenario since
there are no other solutions that allow
both to be inspired and to do actions
inside a unique service covering
multiple type of experience, so the
new Edenred app can be considered
a first-mover and could benefit from
the related advantages. Then, it
couldn’t be so easily replicated by
incumbent since the initial offer will
be dedicated to a specific customer
segment (workers) that are well
known only by Edenred. In addition,
it could exploit also the fact that it has
already some digital services devoted
to them, so the critical mass reaching
will be performed quite easily.
BUNDLE OF EXP.UNIQUE FOCUS
FUNCTIONAL FOR
ACTION
FUNCTIONAL FOR
INSPIRATION
USABILITY HARDEASY
EFFECTIVENESS
HIGH
LOW
MERCHANTS ARENA:
about the other horizontal market, we
found that there is a trade-off between
usability and effectiveness of software.
For this reason, basic and single -module
software cannot be considered real
competitors, as well as modular ERP that
are too complicated for the addressed
audience. The only application that
has been launched few months ago is
Postepay Tandem that provides similar
functionalities as the one envisioned,
but Edenred could exploit the pervasive
presence in the opposite market to be
more attractive for new merchants and
at the same time it could leverage on
the physical presence already obtained
through POS inside the actual merchant
base.

15. 28 29
4. PROBING NEW MEANINGS 4. PROBING NEW MEANINGS
Storyboard
The storyboard is a visual representation which aims at describing the sequence of scenes the
customer is used to perform in the specific context of use.
1 2
3 4
The scenario proposed is involving the main persona, Claudia, who works as a financial
analyst. She has different hobbies as watching movies and doing yoga. Claudia spends
most of her time at work doing business meetings and phone calls, after work most
of her time is dedicated to her family. As a busy employee she doesn’t have a fixed
schedule, so some days she could plan to have lunch in the lunch break but end up
receiving phone call or having a meeting and consequently having lunch alone at any
other time. Sometimes, she misses her yoga class and as a result doesn’t do her daily
activity.
In this scenario, Claudia is on a business trip in Rome where she has never been and
has a disorganized schedule. Claudia finishes her business meeting at 2 pm. She wants
to have lunch now, so she opens the Edenred app and looks for some place where to go.
While she’s booking, the app suggests her to join another employee who suffers from
the same problem (also his meeting has finished late). They meet up in a restaurant,
have lunch and a quick chat. They both leave satisfied, energized, and motivated to do
other activities in the rest of the day, and they return to their work.

16. 30 31
4. PROBING NEW MEANINGS 4. PROBING NEW MEANINGS
1 2
3 4
Usually on Tuesday, she attends a yoga class after work, but she is in Rome today. She
thought she won’t be able to do her hobby, but while she was still in the office, she
receives a notification of a yoga class very close to her location that is suitable for her
after dinner. So, she goes there and have a good time, then she goes back to her hotel
happy and motivated.
After experiencing the value added by the network, Claudia will be asked to leave
feedback for both merchants. In this way, the app will better know Claudia to be able
to define more customized offers and increase their quality of life, but at the same time
merchants will increase their visibility and will have access to a greater customer base
that will allow them to better design their offerings.
Storyboard

17. 32 33
4. PROBING NEW MEANINGS 4. PROBING NEW MEANINGS
Service blueprint and
Customer journey
To better design the entire experience for beneficiaries, we tried to envision the different
phases along their customer journey. To do this we identified four different phases: awareness,
entering, use and advocacy. During the first phase, customers will enter in contact with the
new service proposed by Edenred. They will be starting to be aware of it through the marketing
actions that Edenred will undertake before launching the new App on the market. In addition,
they will be affected by the positive word of mouth generated from the beta-test where lead
users will be involved. After this phase, users will enter for real into this new ecosystem. During
the HQ introductory lessons or individually, they will download the app and they will sign in it
with their account and they will fill the initial survey that will be used to collect basic data and
to create an initial rough profile. The third phase will be the experiential one. Users will use
the app in an active or a passive way and they will have the access to every experience in the
catalogue according to their own needs and preferences. After each experience, during the last
phase, they will be asked to review it for two reasons: on one hand they will generate inputs to
refine better and better their profile; on the other hand they will be able to share their feelings
and experiences with the whole ecosystem and in a certain sense they will contribute in the
value generation for other users. Of course, they will be remunerated virtually with a higher
rank if they will review more places and they will be recognized as expert users.
To better visualize all these decisions, the team created the following hybrid oriented graph
between the customer journey and the service blueprint.

18. 34 35
As it can be observed in the system map, the ecosystem will include four layers: the three
original ones plus a new customer segment that will be analysed deeper in the next paragraph.
The digital platform will enable transactional actions among employees and merchants (two-
sided markets). These two customer segments will gain positive network externalities, at the
same time they will generate a relevant amount of data during their interactions. Leveraging on
this data, Edenred will be able to “digest” them and later deliver new services: for employees,
it would be able to give personalized suggestions according to specific profiles increasing
their welfare; for merchants, inside the new software that they will use, they will find insights
and real-time data on which they will take better decisions in addition to better channels to
communicate with their customer base through promotions and booking management; for
companies, Edenred will be able to give them data regarding the compatibility of employees
to form better working team and personalized suggestions for activities aligned with their own
firm culture; for the new segment, it will be able to offer them not only a traditional client-as-a-
target services, but enhanced advertising, then Edenred will also capable to deliver marketing
consultancy services and/or selling market insights (data trading) to them. In the meanwhile,
Edenred will leverage on this data also for individual scope following the E-ethnography
strategy in order to deliver always new and better functionalities or offers according to the
market changes. Of course, the tickets, both in electronic and material format, will be the main
access key to the environment: companies will continue to purchase them, employees to use
them and merchants to accept them. In the end, a new change will be the fact that merchants
will pay a fee for using the software if they want to use it.
System map
The system map clearly shows the flows (material, financial and information) the solution will
generate amongst the main stakeholders involved.
4. PROBING NEW MEANINGS 4. PROBING NEW MEANINGS

19. 36 37
The fourth segment
(offering, value proposition, …)
A new market will be addressed inside our innovation of meaning: all the organizations that
would benefit from a better knowledge of one or two of the markets already inside the Edenred
ecosystem. The value generated for them will be the increase of the effectiveness of their
organization (so higher profits or better operations in general if we consider also no-profit
organizations). Edenred will exploit several strategies: E-ethnography and Data trading with
different companies or Enhanced advertising only for advertisers. In these ways, organizations
will be able to have a clear overview of the market to take better decisions and identify new
opportunities or to increase their customer base/awareness. Edenred will enable them to do
these things through tailored market insights, ad hoc consulting services and advertisements
inside the platform. Annexes
4. PROBING NEW MEANINGS

20. 38 39
Road Map
A strategic plan has been drafted to visualize all the steps needed to get to the vision:
Firstly, an MVP must be created and then run in order to test the main hypothesis of the final
PSS. Then, it starts the development phase where the different databases already managed by
Edenred must be integrated into a one comprehensive platform and at the same time some
lead users in each segment must be identified. After that some marketing and communication
actions, while the beta-test is running, must be performed to create both awareness and desire
inside the whole final market. Here comes the launching phase where the first version is
released through the direct selling to merchants and to companies and thanks to some training
course both for employees and for merchants. In the meanwhile, some iterations following an
agile approach will be conducted to develop always better functionalities. In the end, Edenred
will be able to enlarge the users market addressing the same offer also for private users and
at the same time it will be able to start delivering consultancy services thanks to the big data
managed that comes from the digital ecosystem.
Wireframes
EMPLOYEES’ NEW APP
For the first segment, we decided to revise
the app in order to integrate the different
services already offered by Edenred inside
one comprehensive solution that could be
used easily on a smartphone.
After the registration, where every user
will set his own preferences to generate
the first suggestions, he will be able to
start using the app. While using it, the
algorithm behind will start to learn from the
usage to understand not only the explicit
preferences but also the latent ones. In
this way notifications will be tailored as
well as the offer that will be received. After
each experience, it will be asked to review
it, in this way the learning process will be
facilitated. The catalogue will be included
inside the app, as well as the map of all the
merchants. Users will have the possibility to
share additional info allowing the interface
with other apps inside the smartphone.
Finally, there will be the wallet in which
they can monitor all the tickets.
5. ANNEXES 5. ANNEXES

21. 40 41
NEW SOFTWARE FOR COMPANIES
Firms will receive the license to use the new software in cloud. They will have the possibility
to monitor the expenditure (only in case of work travel) of employees. Then, they will be able
to understand the “% of matching” of two or more workers while they’re forming new working
teams. In the end, they will have a dedicated catalogue to choose team working activities close
to the firm culture that they want to spread. Indeed, it will be possible to select the desired
culture to have in order to create also certain suggestions inside the app of their employees.
MERCHANTS’ DIGITAL TOOL
For merchants, a new app will be created with all the modules needed to increase their efficacy,
but very user-friendly. To increase their decision making, they will find weekly reports about
their activities with all the choice of their customers and about historical and competitor
benchmarks, in addition they will find real time insight about the neighbourhood. Then, they
will find a module to manage the booking and another one to generate specific last minute or
special offers. Finally, they will be able to manage the online page of their activities to read and
answer to the reviews of users or to post new photos/price lists.
MVP
The main hypothesis on which all the first change of meaning is based on is: better knowledge
of employee allows Edenred to give them customised suggestions and tips that could increase
their welfare. To test it, we designed an MVP that will allow to confirm or not it at basically
zero costs. We should only ask to 30+ employees to give us information about their agenda,
localization and preferences during a travel trip and to 10+ merchants to let us give an overview
on their booking system. Practically, after employees fill a qualitative questionnaire, we will
follow them during their business trip to a selected city (e.g. Rome) and giving them timely and
personalized suggestions through WhatsApp. At the same time, merchants will communicate
with us through WhatsApp, too. At the end of the trip a phone interview will be conducted to
check their perceptions to validate or not our assumption.
5. ANNEXES 5. ANNEXES

22. 42 43
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23. 44