Product design is a comprehensive look at the problem that a company is trying to solve with its product and finding the most efficient and simple way to solve it from the user’s point of view. Product design assumes that creators understand the psychology of the user. It is also important to see the market perspective and value of the proposals. Moreover, the developed world is moving into a service economy and companies strive to satisfy not only the basic needs of users but also create all the convenience for using the product (Russell & Taylor, 2019). The methodology that makes a business customer-centric, improves customer experience and increases loyalty is called service design. This paper aims to create a product design and a service design within an operations management environment.
A product designer develops a product and makes it as attractive as possible to customers. The specialist works with the project for a long time, improves it, collects user opinions, helps to research the target audience, identifies the problem, and finds an effective solution (Russell & Taylor, 2019). The expert looks at the project through the eyes of people and tries to understand how to build work mechanisms for maximum convenience.
To better understand the elements of product design, the company needs to disassemble all the necessary stages. First, the designer is given a task and needs to find solutions. The specialist checks the suitability of a product for the target audience and creates a trial version (West & Di Nardo, 2016). Then the product goes through several iterations of revision and is prepared for release. At each stage, the product designer must interact with different professionals. Only coordinated and productive work of different departments of the company will help to achieve positive results.
Any project starts with an idea, and it is important to prioritize correctly and not go beyond the original concept. Good implementation helps turn a good idea into a product that can be useful. Collecting data provides valuable information that allows concluding the prospects of the project (West & Di Nardo, 2016). It is necessary to conduct research, even if there is clear confidence in positive results. Many products turn out to be useless for people, and companies lose profit. Analyzing the preferences of the target audience and defining the tasks that people can solve with the help of the product helps to protect against such problems (Stickdorn et al., 2018).
At the analysis stage, the designer needs to collect all the data that affects the use of the product Hypothesis testing is also a necessary element of product design as it helps identify key product characteristics and spot critical issues.
Any product is created for a specific audience, and no one except real users can provide more useful information. Customer groups constantly monitor the criteria for quality and reliability and based on these observations, a constant reassessment is carried out (Stickdorn et al., 2018). For example, talking in the automotive industry, consumers know exactly what set of characteristics they need, for example, the level of reliability, design elements, and tank volume. They strive to purchase a vehicle that has a combination of these specific properties at the lowest possible price and thus maximize their value.
Even when it seems that there is a clear idea of how the product should develop, the company cannot immediately release it to the public without test versions. The users have to test a new product and give their feedback (West & Di Nardo, 2016). The designer is responsible for how the product enters the market. After implementing important steps and working with users at each stage, it is time to release the product to the public (Ceschin & Gaziulusoy, 2016). If in the process of project development the wishes of the target audience have been taken into account, critical points have been corrected, and a feedback collection system has been established, then there should be no problems.
The idea of a client-oriented business is not new, and service design teaches to listen to the customer and build marketing processes so that at every stage of interaction a person is satisfied. The difference in the quality of competing products is becoming less noticeable: most of them fully meet the basic needs of consumers (West & Di Nardo, 2016). More and more companies consider service as their competitive advantage: not only the extent to which their product meets basic needs but also how convenient it is (Russell & Taylor, 2019). The general approach to service design is the same as in product design: the company has to conduct research, identify needs, come up with a solution, make a prototype, and implement the idea.
When speaking about the automotive industry, fuel economy driver interfaces can be an example of an efficient service design solution. It is possible to change the design of the engine to reduce fuel consumption or create a simulator that will allow drivers to change their driving style so that fuel consumption decreases (Ceschin & Gaziulusoy, 2016). Besides, the availability of different color combinations and types of materials provides each customer with the opportunity to personalize the car in full accordance with their preferences. In this case, after the company has set business tasks, studied the customer’s needs in the real world, and come up with new solutions, the service design becomes an effective tool for customer satisfaction.
To sum up, when developing an operational strategy, an important task is to define the criteria for each specific product. The secret to the perfect product is to understand the needs of the target audience and create the tools to implement them. At the same time, it is necessary to understand that any product is a material embodiment of the service provided by the company. Service design is a methodology for constructing relationships between a business and its customers. It is a good input in creating new products, and it should be applied at the moment when the company understands that the client has an issue that has to be resolved.
References
Ceschin, F., & Gaziulusoy, I. (2016). Evolution of design for sustainability: From product design to design for system innovations and transitions. Design Studies, 47, 118-163.
Russell, R. S., & Taylor, B. W. (2019). Operations and supply chain management. John Wiley & Sons.
Stickdorn, M., Hormess, M. E., Lawrence, A., & Schneider, J. (2018). This is service design doing: Applying service design thinking in the real world. O’Reilly Media, Inc.
West, S., & Di Nardo, S. (2016). Creating product-service system opportunities for small and medium-size firms using service design tools. Procedia CIRP, 47, 96-101.