Pivot to The New Normal

By: James Rock - Managing Partner, DesignThinkers (UK)

July 28, 2020

Part 1 in a series of articles on understanding 'The 6C Framework - Pivot to The New Normal'.

This is the first of a series of articles in partnership with Aplomb Cloud. We will cover trends in Business Design that link with IT infrastructure, IT consultancy, and IT support for small business. These are IT solutions and services that Aplomb Cloud can provide, and where DesignThinkers can work with them to help clients develop and implement future business and change management strategies.

For many the Coronavirus crisis has been the shock that stirred them into realisation that things can, and must change. Social distancing and lockdown regimes imposed new practices in their daily lives, both socially and at work. Most changes were temporary, simple work-arounds that allowed life to continue. Re-thinking their current life to continue operating. A mission-critical necessity for business continuity. At this time individuals, families, and businesses were suddenly reflecting and questioning themselves and adapting to the new, temporary, but uncertain future. But for some lifestyle changes will become more permanent. The name for this significant trend has become ‘The New Normal’.

During this period DesignThinkers Group decided to use this time as an opportunity to undertake a Global Human Research project focused on world-wide human response to the pandemic. Human Centered Design is our specialty, so we wanted to understand the impact of Coronavirus on people and societies across the world. These people are the customers and users for our corporate clients - they are your customers and users too. Our global reach with 35 researchers in 22 countries allowed us to interview, observe, and document families, men and women, adults and young people, unemployed and self-employed, situated in urban and rural ecosystems. We asked these people how they had adapted, and how they plan to change their future lives after the pandemic. Through this qualitative research we built a delicate human map that weaves a rich fabric of changed behaviours, and of key insights defining opportunity areas for the future. Most importantly it provided us with brain food to fuel our curiosity and consider ‘The New Normal’.

The data we generated allowed us to group findings into 25 key insight areas that can be used to help advise our clients - see Figure 1 below. Each of these insights are explained in more detail in our summary report which can be downloaded free of charge by emailing: consulting@aplombcloud.co.uk.

Figure 1

The old normal has suddenly become the new normal. Of course, humans being humans, some will want to return to their past lives because it feels safer, re-assuring, and more comfortable. But others will have awakened new realisations that now is an opportunity to move forward, to improve their lives. To change for the better.

Businesses will act like this too. Some will want to get back to normal as quickly as possible. But some will see the post-pandemic landscape as an opportunity to design new business offerings and embrace new ways of operating that better satisfy changes in end-customer needs. Others will be more ambitious. They will want to do more than re-think, re-imagine, or re-invent their business. Some will want to explore disruptive strategies. Whichever direction you choose Aplomb Cloud can help with solutions that embrace available technologies, that create more sustainable, flexible business operations, that lower costs and improve growth and profitability. Whether its redesigning IT infrastructure, implementing cyber security, deploying Office 365 suite, or implementing other employee collaboration tools, then Aplomb Cloud and DesignThinkers can help with the right expertise. We always operate within a triangle of design goals. Desirability is what makes people and users / customers want to use/buy services; Feasibility is where new technologies can be introduced to improve operational capabilities; Viability is how we can justify investment to deliver better financial returns in future.

How are you predicting the future? How have you engaged with users and customers to understand their vision of the new normal? How will you address the Desirable/Feasible/Viable design triangle? Are you hopeful that things won’t change too much or exploring exciting new opportunities? Will you be surviving or planning to thrive? Whichever it is why not contact us for an informal chat to bounce around your ideas and use us as a sounding board. Subscribe to our newsletter or drop us a line: consulting@aplombcloud.co.uk. We look forward to hearing from you…