
- Shell: New Services for Service Stations?
THE CHALLENGE:
Shell had a lot of questions about what to do with its service stations, but no answers. It turned to Synecticsworld, asking us to look not only at those questions but to examine the broader aspects of traveling services, including fuel, and mobility.
THE PROCESS:
The multi-national Synecticsworld team designed a five-step approach in which we:
1. Held a Planning Meeting in Amsterdam with a Shell multi-national team to establish the project’s broad objectives and define the specifics.
2. Assembled eight Shell managers, eight consumers, and a representative from Shell’s design agency for three, two-day workshops. The goal of the workshops, which were held in France, Germany, and Italy, was to establish ideas and themes for new opportunities, then select and develop the most promising ones to the first level of detail.
3. Debriefed the design team and finalized the brief for the next stage after the design team had constructed concept boards from the outcomes of the consumer workshops. The Shell and the design team also reviewed and redeveloped the plan in more detail.
4. Worked with consumers and Shell managers in three, two-day sessions, which were held in each of the three counties. The sessions brought the consumers and managers together so that the design team could present the consumers with several ‘idea mood boards’. The whole group then worked together to reshape and modify the initial concepts to a stage where the Shell development team could begin enhancing their feasibility.
5. Reviewed the work during a wrap-up meeting and developed a plan for taking the concepts forward within Shell.
THE RESULTS:
By the end of the project, Shell not only had their answers but they had five detailed new product concepts that they expected to take into the market.