The Joy of Work

Editor's Notes

1. Today Today I’d like to explore how the insights and principles we’ve gained in retail can be used to provide a new perspective on designing for work and to bring joy & happiness to it.   This is the idea that drives us:   Retail will change more in the next 5 years than in the last 50
2. Changing expectations We’re already seeing those changes: Technology has changed our expectations, enabling us to move seamlessly between online and offline, giving us almost endless choices about how and where we shop. Retailers are having to clearly find a point of difference that connects with customers beyond simply having products to buy.
3. 3 Areas We’ve distilled these changes down into three key areas: One: There’s a behavioral change that’s spanning generations Two. The world is becoming more experiential Three. How we can help people achieve in this new world
4. Experience matters Let’s look at this behavioral change. Our lives are defined by the experiences we can and will have. That’s particularly true for Millennials. A study by Harris Group found that 78% of Millennials prefer to spend their money on experiences than they do on buying products. 
5. Introducing Gen Picky However beyond this we’ve observed that whether you are a Baby Boomer, Gen X, Millennial or Gen Zed, we are all part of what we’ve started to call Generation Picky. Let’s look a bit more at what it means to be Generation Picky. 
6. Generation Picky is - Generation Picky is non-linear. We work across different channels, we multi-task. - We’re restless and impatient. - We’ve become used to the constant updates the digital world provides. - If something needs doing, we expect it to be done in the same way in the physical world. - We expect brands to deliver seamless, connected experiences. - We’ve all been taught to expect fantastic experiences, and that we should expect reward and that things will become easier.   
7. Uber Let me give you an example: In the past you could stand by the side of the road, in the rain, waving your arm in the air, hoping that a taxi with a yellow light would go by. You’d get in, try to explain to the driver where you wanted to go, hope she’d want to take you there, and know where it is. And then later you’d be fumbling for your change in your pocket, and avoiding losing your receipt. And now Uber and such like have come along, and it’s so much easier - it meets all the needs of Generation Picky. Except, we then ask ourselves why did the driver go that way, not the other? Yet despite the ease it creates, we still give it a hard time. We’re Picky! 
8. Generation Picky Summary And this applies to work a well. After all, that’s where Generation Picky spends most of it’s time. Now we’ve seen that Generation Picky spans generations and has high expectations. But they also have the ability to be disappointed, and those disappointments damage their perception of what they experience. 
9. Ways to design for Generation Picky The question is how can we design for Generation Picky? Let me show you! There are 3 ways we can do this: - One: The Peak End Rule - a principle that helps us focus where experiences can have the biggest impact - Two: The mind states of Generation Picky that enable us to design experiences from their point of view - Three: Being in a Constant State of Beta that lets us continuously try, test and tweak
10. Introducing Peak End Rule Peak End Rule is a psychological theory developed by Daniel Kahneman and Barbara Fredrickson. Peak end rule proposes that we all judge our experiences based on our feelings at the peak (the most emotionally intense point) and the end, rather than as a sum of every moment. We use this to decide where to focus effort when designing for maximum impact. It means that we know where best to impress Generation Picky and helps us minimize disappointment. And so this is the ideal place to inject joy. 
11. Peak end rule in retail In retail we define a journey. A store purchase journey might follow : plan, go to store, explore products, locate what you want and then buy it. Peak End Rule helps us focus where in the journey we can have the most impact with the emotions we want to create, and then follow up at the end to create a satisfying experience. 
12. Peak example Asian Paints We found that the peak needed to be at the beginning – so we created a way for visitors to play with colour at a room scale. It’s interactive, it’s joyful and it creates a sense of exploration and playfulness that made them more receptive to the rest of the store. It’s the peak emotion that people took The result was that it got people buying new colours that they had previously been unsure how to use.
13. End example Lets not forget the end of the experience, where efficiency is needed to reduce any negative impressions a person may have developed. Alibaba recently launched a ‘Smile to Pay’ service in KFC in Hangzhou. Their system uses facial recognition to make a payment. The trick is that it’s triggered by a smile. What a way to end the experience! It also gives the store a challenge - if you want sales, your customers need to smile! 
14. Peak End Rule at work Practically speaking, Peak End Rule means you don’t need to spread your budget across everything. It’s about choosing the place to focus to make the best impact and following that up at the end. What if we could make people joyful such that it becomes the key emotion they takeaway with them.
15. Mind states How do we best approach designing for Generation Picky? If we explore the world through their life lens, we can make use of their mind states to create experiences that work for them
16. DELA We’ve identified four universal mind states in retail that drive the behavior of Generation Picky. These are Dreaming, Exploring, Locating and Achieving. We move between these mind states fluidly. Let me take you through them. 
17. Dreaming Dreaming: This is your ambitions, goals, dreams and what inspires you. In retail it’s the dream that starts you on a journey to purchase e.g. I want to get fit.
18. Exploring Exploring: This is all about being engaged and gaining understanding In retail its how do I get fit, all the way to ‘what trainers should I pick for running’
19. Locating Locating: Support me, I’m looking for something and I need to complete this action. In retail, this is when you want to make a purchase – how do you find the product? E.g. Where are the trainers located in the store.
20. Achieving Achieving is a relatively new mind-set in retail, It’s an approach we’re finding Generation Picky to be adopting, and one that smart retailers are adopting as well. It’s a shift we’ve seen from What can I buy from you to What can I achieve with you. It’s fundamental to Generation Picky’s approach to life and desire for experience. It’s this attitude they’ll be bringing to the workplace as well. What differentiates it from dreaming is the expectation that they bring it to the retailer, that they bring it to the work place – it’s an integral part of their approach, and that retail and work reciprocate.
21. Mind states summary By planning for mind states we can create experiences from retail to the workplace that connect directly with how Generation Picky think. But the questions is, how well do these mind states map onto work? After all Generation Picky are working too
22. An example of work Perhaps this example can demonstrate how one of these mind states might be reflected in work: Lets look at dreaming: A study by Bentley University demonstrated that: - 67% of Millennials would like to set up their own business - That’s their dream. - The advertising agency Wieden + Kennedy set up their own successful internal incubator to retain and empower staff. It led to successful startups as well as fostering a more start-up like culture in their offices.
23. PHD We then can look at how experiences for mind state can be delivered. We filter this through what we call PHD. It stands for Physical, Human, Digital. - Physical: Immersive, tactile - Digital: Connected and interactive - Human: And at the centre of it is human part which is ensuring we’re putting human needs and emotions such as joy that make it all come together 
24. Designing for Generation Picky Constant State of Beta
25. Constant state of beta We’ve seen how we have a new generation to adapt to, and explored the mechanisms to reach them, covering Peak End Rule and their mind states. But a key principle from this is that this generation is changing as technology, society and culture changes. The old model of defining an experience that will last for 4 to 5 years as a fixed defined space is no longer effective. 
26. Unfinished stores Now we don’t design finished stores. Instead we design for what we call a Constant State of Beta. We create the big overarching idea then define the peak of the experience within it. Then we create variations of the idea to be the actual experience. We then launch try, test, tweak, try, test, tweak and repeat and repeat. The store becomes an ongoing discussion between design, retailers and shoppers. And that’s what makes it fit so well with \Generation Picky. Suddenly spaces become adaptable, responsive, joyful and considerate. 
27. WeWork Business who understand that are doing it well. An example is WeWork. They’re really a data company. Everything is geared around collecting and acting on data - from a corporate level all the way to the level of their team members. They can manage, plan and adjust their spaces based on data. For example they’ll know how much space is needed per person based on what they do at any time of day and where they need it. 
28. Beta Summary Being in a Constant State of Beta is about planning to change and being able to capture data and respond, just as Generation Picky expects.
29. 3 Take away There are three things I’d like you to take away from today’s discussion: Peak End Rule – where to focus for experiences that matter to Generation Picky Mind States – viewing the world through Generation Picky’s eyes And a Constant State of Beta – where you try test, tweak, repeat And how these principles provide a new perspective of looking at the world of work. Thank you