Service Design for N Stuff Music:
Designing a pop-up fundraiser for a local music shop.
N Stuff Music is a local music store located in Pittsburgh. As N Stuff Music is passed down from its founder, Bob Sarra, to his son, Justin Sarra, Justin wants to bring in new services that will not only foster interaction between N Stuff Music and the local community, but also bring in new business opportunities.
Enrolling in the class Service Design, our team was tasked to conduct research to discover design opportunities and propose a service for N Stuff Music that helps them improve their current service.
Project Overview
Challenge
In the class Service Design, we collaborated with N Stuff Music, a local music store in Pittsburgh, to propose an innovation to improve their current service. Our team chose to focus on the opportunities in the Little Lesson House, where N Stuff Music offers music lessons to the local community. After conducting research on the Little Lesson House, we proposed the idea of pop-up fundraisers, which are outdoor events that would allow musical collaboration for N Stuff Music students while expanding their current customer base.
Solution
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Outdoor pop-up fundraisers of little lesson house students
Project Scope
Service Innovation
Role
Lead designer
Tools
Figma, UX Research, Video making
Duration
1.5 Months
Design Process
Analyze -> Define -> Ideate -> Testing -> Propose
Research
Combining primary and secondary research, we wish to explore and identify innovative opportunities to meet clients' needs for the Little Lesson House.
Research Goals
To prepare for our research, we listed down three main goals that will guide my research process.
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Understand the client's goals and needs.
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Identify opportunities for new service innovation or current service improvement.
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Identify the targeted audiences of N Stuff Music and the Little Lesson House.
Research Methods and Primary Findings
In the first stage, we used four research methods to understand N Stuff Music and gained insights into design opportunities from different perspectives. After synthesizing and analyzing the data we collected from these four methods, we concluded one major finding from each of the methods. The complete protocols for each research method can be viewed here.
Here is a summary of the four research methods we conducted and the major findings in the process:
Insights
From our research, we analyzed the findings and identified four main insights that we want to help address in our service design.
Parents want to see their children's progress
Parents would want to see their children's progress and performance in a natural way without creating external pressure on the children.
Opportunities for musical collaboration
N Stuff Music currently only offers one-to-one lessons, meaning there's a lack of music collaboration among students or instructors.
Large potential customer base
N Stuff is located in a school district with many good music programs, meaning many people have a certain level of music background and foundation.
Soft promotion for the music lessons.
N Stuff Music doesn't like to conduct aggressive marketing strategies and promotions.
Target User Personas
Based on the results of our research, we created two persona profiles for the target audience of our service design, which are the current students and the potential students. By creating the persona profiles, we can better understand our stakeholders' goals and needs.
Current Student Persona Profile
Business Owners Persona Profile
Define & Ideate
We defined our clients' values needs, then started ideating services that create value for our stakeholders.
Creative Matrix
With the four opportunities from the research and our identified target stakeholders, we used a creative matrix to ideate different service propositions. By aligining the problem statements(the four main opportunities we identified) and potential enablers, we generate different ideas for potential service design for the Little Lesson House. The complete creative matrix can be viewed here.
Finalizing Service Proposition
After generating many different ideas, we discussed about the feasibility, creativity, and the applicability of all the idea. Also considering our stakeholders needs and the opportunities we discovered in the research, we narrowed down the ideas into one service proposition. Our service design hypothesis is:
An outdoor fundraiser event for the N Stuff Music Store would be beneficial for both N Stuff Music's business and its customers since it allows people to:
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get to know N Stuff Music;
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enjoy music performances;
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and raise money for a good cause.
More Ideation based on the Service Proposition
Based on the basic fundraiser event idea, we ideate variations of details to build on the basic idea to create more values for N Stuff Music. We created four additional ideas to incorporate in the fundraiser event idea.
Different Donation Incentives
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Two free lessons
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Coupons for instrument purchases
Hosting Locations
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Outdoor
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Indoor (Next Door Cafe)
Formality of the Band
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According to age groups
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According to skills
Target Audiences
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Students' parents
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Passengers
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Current Customers
Defining Values
Value Model
After we narrowed down one service proposition, we wanted to define the values of our ideas create and double check that they align with our identified target audience and the opportunities we wanted to focus on based on our research result. Therefore, by building a value model, we visualize how the values would be co-created by the different stakeholders through our design proposition.
To understand how our design would co-create values among our different stakeholders, we created a value model that captures the different and common values that are affecting our stakeholders: N Stuff Music, students, the charitable organization, and the audience.
Prototype & Test
To visualize and refine our service design, we built a protoype to test if our design decisions effectively meet stakeholders' goals.
To make sure that our decision decisions are effectively meeting the audiences' goals, we created storyboards as prototypes and conducted storyboard speed dating for user testings to collect feedbacks on our ideas.
Creating Storyboards
To test out the users' reactions and feelings toward our design decisions, we created 20 storyboards that can be sorted out into variations within different categories. The complete storyboards and all of the categories can be viewed here.
Here are three examples of the categories and the storyboards:
Incentives to Attract Audience
Incentives to Donate
Incentives to Stay Longer
Designing Concept Poster
We first created two versions of the posters. One is centered around the customer journey, and one shows the multiple stakeholders affected by the event. After showing the two posters to 20 other students and receiving their feedbacks, we decided to proceed with the first version since it captures the overall experience of the event. We then added more details to the poster to demonstrate how our fundraiser event brings value to both N Stuff Music and its customers.
Version 1
Centered on customer journey
Version 2
Show multiple stakeholders
Final Version
Overall customer journey
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Details on the value flow
User Testing
After i completed my prototypes, I started to plan out how a usability testing would be conducted. I then recruited 5 participants and conducted usability testing with think-aloud protocol to see how users interact with my design and identify where improvements to the design can be made.
Test Objectives
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Observe how the audience reacts to the variations of ideas and what ideas appeal to them.
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Evaluate the feasibility of our design variations based on the users' comments and reactions.
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Revise our design decisions based on the users' feedback.
Testing Method: Speed Dating
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Quickly showing 20 storyboards with different variations of the events to the participant.
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After 20 seconds of silent reading, we briefly step in and explain the context while the participants start reading a section of storyboard concepts.
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Participants rate each storyboard on a 7-point Likert scale.
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Participants are prompted to provide feedback for the ideas.
Likert scale we used
Summary
We then observed and reocord the participants' thoughts and reactions with the prototypes when they're completing the tasks.
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Method: Storyboard speed dating
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Participants:
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Justin(N Stuff Music owner) at the N Stuff Music Store
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A customer we met picking up her ordered instruments in the N Stuff Music Store
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Potential customers/attendees of the fundraiser event
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Two Carnegie Mellon University students that have musical background
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Age: 20-50
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Average time: 10 min
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Task Complete Rate: 100%
Data Analysis & Synthesis
Data Analysis
With the information and feedback we gathered from our storyboard testing, we scanned the storyboards that are annotated with the users' feedback and uploaded them on Mirro. We then attached sticky notes with our observations next to each storyboard so that participants' opinions are visualized. The completed annotation of all the storyboards can be viewed here.
Examples of Annotated Storyboards
Synthesis
To better understand and analyze the observations from testing, we used an affinity diagram to synthesize the information and draw high-level insights that would be applicable to our design revisions.
Affinity Diagram
Insights
What surprised us:
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Both the N Stuff Music's owner and the consumers were unclear on who the target audience is for the event.
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The discount culture in N Stuff Music is different from the traditional market:
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Current customers always bargain with the seller and mostly receive a 10% discount, making it difficult for N Stuff Music to provide extra discounts.
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There are different pieces of gear and various profit ranges, so it is difficult to offer a fixed amount of discount percentage.
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The business owner prefers to host small events with high mobility.
What went as we expected:
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People are intrigued by an outdoor fundraiser event.
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The "Music truck" idea where performers perform on a mobile truck draws many people's attention, but are not feasible in reality.
Refining Service Proposition
From the insights we gained from the storyboard speed dating, we refined our service proposition and narrowed our services down to four main concepts. We then created a service blueprint to understand the users' journey of our service design.
Final Service Proposition
An N Stuff Music-produced fundraiser event that has:
Student Performers of Different Ages
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To demonstrate that the opportunity to learn music is for people of all ages.
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Demonstrate the close-community value the N Stuff Music focuses on.
Outdoor Locations
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To expose N Stuff Music to more audiences and expand the current consumer base.
High Mobility
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In a reproducible package.
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Easy, low effort.
Goodwill
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Build a good reputation and generate goodwill for N Stuff Music for donating for a good cause
Final Service Blueprint
After we narrow it down to four main concepts, we want to fill in the details of how we're going to achieve them in our design and have a thorough understanding of the users' journey of experiencing the fundraiser event. Therefore, we created a service blueprint that visualizes relationships between the stakeholders(students, N Stuff Music, the audience, and customers), processes, and physical and digital touchpoints.
Designing Concept Poster
As we finished our blueprint with a thorough understanding of the users' journey with our design, we wanted to design a poster that captures the main values of the design. The posters would be used by N Stuff Music to promote the fundraiser event. We first created two versions of the posters. One is centered around the customer journey, and one shows the multiple stakeholders affected by the event. After showing the two posters to 20 other students and receiving their feedback, we decided to proceed with the first version since it captures the overall experience of the event. We then added more details to the poster to demonstrate how our fundraiser event brings value to both N Stuff Music and its customers.
Version 1
Centered on customer journey
Version 2
Show multiple stakeholders
Final Version
Overall customer journey
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Details on the value flow
Video Prototype
To visualize our service and present it to N Stuff Music, we created a video prototype to capture the four main concepts and what our service would look like in real life.
Reflection & Next Steps
Reflection
Since this project required a lot of research and testing, it teaches me the critical role of conducting research before making any design decisions. Through the process, I learned a lot from experimenting with using different methods to gain information that would be useful for our ideation process. Through testing out experimental research, guerilla interviews, storyboard speed dating, and a variety of different research methods, I learned to identify the advantages and disadvantages of these methods. Furthermore, I am able to choose the most appropriate method to obtain useful information after I set my objectives. Lastly, I learned to draw useful insights by synthesizing and analyzing the scattered pieces of information that we obtained throughout our research process.
Next Steps
Future Implementation
I would want to develop a more detailed service system of how N Stuff Music would organize and implement the pop-up fundraiser event. With a more thorough implementation plan, N Stuff Music will be able to host their first test-run of the fundraiser event.
Improvement After Launch
After the first test run of the fundraiser event, I would like to collect feedback from the performers, the audience, and the instructors from the Little Lesson House to understand their experience. With more research, we can make improvements to the standard process of the fundraiser event.
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