Much is said about saving time. Tips on how to best organize your schedule are easy to find on the internet.
However, have you ever imagined being able to buy time? Although this question may seem unusual, it has in fact been occupying the minds of some major business people.
As we know, a product or service arises from a need. And the need in question affects all of us. Considering this, an experiment was created to simulate the Design Thinking (DT) process using a metaphor called “The Time Vendor.” Using this innovative methodology, which favors users’ perceptions, the subject of time could be addressed in a number of different ways.
The first way involved investigating the set of people interested in acquiring this good. After all, what is time? It was important to find out its definition and relevance for each participant in the activity. This first stage is immersion. Getting close to the target audience is essential to generating insights. Take a look at this question and answer, which exemplify this moment:
Are you often late?
“Yes, a lot. I sometimes set my watch five minutes fast, to make me think I’m running late so that I hurry.”
Insight:
And what if the sale of time were linked to the watch a person uses to guide himself or herself throughout the day?
In order for people to be able to experience the second phase of the DT process, ideation, the points raised by them were worked on. Here, as the name itself suggests, it’s the ideas that count. Due to the insight of the previous stage, the concept of a watch with rechargeable time was arrived at. Thus, the sale of time would be related to a watch that, being set fast or consulted repeatedly in a short space of time, would activate a text message offering the mobile purchase
of more time. In the last moment of the DT process, prototyping, the feasibility of the device would then be tested. In creating a prototype of the watch, one would assess how many users in the group selected for the test would in fact buy it. After the test, the group of participants would be interviewed to obtain more feedback. By making ideas tangible in an agile manner and with low investment, prototyping aids the validation of the ideas generated. This happens repeatedly,
until one designs the most assertive version of the prototype for the challenge. Despite being presented as one of the last phases in the Design Thinking process, prototyping may occur throughout the project, alongside immersion and ideation.
------
Please, share your thoughts! :smile:
