ZA's last mile
4 of 5
"The best Founders intentionally build their advice networks, making it an unfair advantage for them and their company" – The NFX Team
Organising my interview notes to find any theme or pattern that stood out, I discovered that liability is often an afterthought. Who is responsible if things go wrong?
Drivers cannot leave parcels on the doorstep nor at the gatehouse. Properties cannot take responsibility for any packages because they do not know the value and have no way to insure them. They cannot recover insurance premium charges from anyone in the delivery chain.
The above statement is my point of view. It is derived from steps 1 and 2, empathy and defining. A challenge that will act as a guide to what your potential customers need you to design.
After choosing an idea that best addresses the point of view, developing a prototype doesn't need to be expensive. MVP is the go-to term, minimum viable product. Put something in front of a potential client as cheaply and as fast as possible. At first, it can even be a question: will this be for you if we can do it? Avoid wasting time and money on a presentation, product development, and the perfection trap.
When building a prototype, the goal is to test assumptions about your MVP. For example, are they using it as we expected?
Idea
Before I started the design thinking process, I thought that security guards could deliver parcels to the estate residents seeing as the guards already use Android minicomputers to scan the car licences of visitors upon entry. This is the same device that last-mile drivers use for visibility on parcel movement and to add proof of delivery. The "your parcel is out for delivery" text message is triggered by one of these scans. This initial prototype idea led me back to the "define step" and eventually to the above point of view. Design thinking is not a linear process.
Assumptions and questions that need answering and validation
· How do we design a product or business to help drivers and security guards interact more efficiently without liability transferring to the property without frustrating receivers?
· We can use the existing CCTV infrastructure at the gatehouse to provide liability cover for handling parcels on behalf of delivery companies and residents?
· Will delivery companies save enough money and time by not entering the residential estates and/or having to go back to reattempt deliveries.
· Can delivery companies utilise resources more efficiently if we can provide the liability coverage so that they can drop parcels at the gatehouses?
· Would security guards use an Android app to scan parcels "into" the property gatehouse for tracking purposes?
Assume that you are wrong about everything and use prototyping to validate your solution.
In Zanzibar, we started with a modern building method using insulated wall panels that had never been used in Zanzibar before. Management had a full-scale mock-up built in Prague where investors, the project team, subcontractors, and designers could inspect and potentially identify snags and approve the idea. However, we assumed we could train labourers on-site in Zanzibar to resize and cut conduit channels.
We ended up using bricks.
Keep the prototype as "lean" as possible. If potential customers or partners ask for changes or other features, does it mean they will pay?
Item 7*, taking advice is a skill. Take time to cultivate your advice network. Knowing what business you're in, innovative or conventional, ask people who have done it before.
Realising my MVP for the last mile delivery and access-controlled properties is taking the form of a platform, I researched platforms and looked for advice on how they work.
Five types with some examples:
1. Innovation platforms, app stores
2. Transactional platforms, marketplaces
3. User-generated content platforms, Youtube and Instagram
4. Aggregators, Booking.com
5. Hybrid, a combination of the above, Google and Apple
One of the problems aggregators solve is giving users a central place to compare products and services. They build up the supply and own the relationship between supply and demand. Property platforms aggregate realtors that sometimes advertise the same property. It's become a go-to for realtor advertising even though they are competing.
The chicken-egg problem, which of the two things happened first? Realtors that wouldn't traditionally work together now together give the platform credibility.
Can a platform combining existing infrastructure and resources between delivery companies and properties improve processes on both sides?
5 of 5 how I aim to test the above and the law of diffusion of innovation.
* https://www.nfx.com/post/mental-models-part-one/
Photo by Justin Lim on Unsplash