27 Apr Social Impact Project: A continuation with Aiudo

Written by Dimitris Spyrou, student of the Master in Customer Experience and Innovation at IE School of Human Sciences and Technology. 

This is the second article of the series, a continuation from our term project with Aiudo. The work is based on the design thinking model and follows the double diamond design framework. This article focuses on the second diamond in the process. 

Working for Aiudo has been a wonderful experience for the team and pushed us out of our comfort zone – allowing us to engage with unique service industry. Indeed, Aiudo has two main clients: the patients and the caregivers. We had to approach these two segments in different ways in order to identify opportunities to improve the customer experience of both.

Following our primary research and subsequent findings, we knew we wanted our solutions to stem from the following principles:

• Establishing trust
• Proactiveness
• Ready to act

We also identified that one of the most important areas for potential improvement included Aiudo building a culture of trust with their clients – as well as improving trust between the clients themselves. Furthermore, a third stakeholder was revealed to be of major importance in Aiudo’s ecosystem and a potential source of improvement: the patient’s responsible relative. This group is a crucial touchpoint as they are heavily involved in the patient’s life and influence the caregiver decision process.

Ideation & Prototyping 

Creativity and diverse experimentation formed the base of our solutions. Accounting for a limited budget, we created prototypes of different investment sizes and timeframes, as well as solutions with different attributes. 

Our final prototypes considered the insights we have gathered and constructed through our research. Our interview process included approaching caregivers, patients and the responsible relative of the patients. Encompassing all the findings and the insights, we came to create 6 different prototypes. Thankfully, we managed to test the potential solutions just before the ‘lock-down’. After testing them with both Aiudo users and other individuals that are considered to be in the company’s target market, we decided to continue with the 4 most impactful ones. 

The testing of the prototypes proved to be one of the hardest parts of the process, particularly when we began trying to stop bypassers on the street to get their opinion. Firstly, when we were approaching people, they often believed that we wanted money from them – either for a charity or to sell something. Secondly, the seniors we interviewed could get offended if they thought we stereotyped them as people in need of help. Indeed, we found that a public approach requires specific social skills that can be developed through experience. What is more, while getting feedback on our prototypes, we could be asked about specific features or scenarios that we did not think of before – presenting us with valuable feedback that allowed us to improve our prototypes even more.

All of the solutions stemmed from our most guiding principle: made for trust. The solutions incorporated transparency and consistency, as well as empowering Aiudo’s customers. We conducted thorough market research and developed differentiators that Aiudo could exploit by implementing our solutions in their processes. Furthermore, we created a confidence board illustrating how strong each solution is – accounting for desirability, impact as well as ease of implementation. Last but not least, we created an execution timeline with a chronological framework for each of the solutions and an ideal plan for the company – adjusted to the current lock-down circumstances.  

About the Author:

Dimitris Spyrou is currently completing his master’s in Customer Experience and Innovation at IE School of Human Sciences and Technology. He is fluent in Greek, English and Italian and has a basic knowledge of Spanish and French. An independent, adaptable individual that has lived in four countries and enjoys travelling, new food and a good laugh.

Right after High School, he completed his two-year military commitment as a Sergeant for the National Guard of Cyprus. He completed his bachelor’s degree with honours in Business Studies at Cass Business School in London, with his second degree completed at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia.

Several internships he completed during his studies included positions as a Content Creator for an Educational Consultancy based in Melbourne and a Market Researcher for a PropTech company in Newbury, UK. After completing his bachelor’s degree, he worked as a Data Analyst in a Database Management company.