ideaboard® Series: Product Development Story #14_Partners ｜ Concent Inc.
In December 2019, NKC Nakanishi Metal Works Co., Ltd. (NKC) launched their new whiteboard, “ideaboard®.” Revealed by the project members, this series records the story of how the ideaboard was brought to life, into ours.
Following the past eight articles covering our interview with Riku Nagasaki, developer of ideaboard and head of “KAIMEN” (the business design team reporting directly to the president at NKC), we now move on to the external partners with whom KAIMEN collaborated during ideaboard’s product development.
Here, we sat down with Shinya Kohashi, service designer at Concent Inc.
1. The job of a service designer: designing total customer experiences
ーFirst, could you please tell us about your daily work?
Concent Inc. was originally a design agency based on editorial/website design. In 2012, we newly launched a team specialized in service design. Since then, I’ve been working on assisting companies with their business and service development.
Service design is quite an inclusive concept—generally defined as “designing total customer experiences.”
In contrast to designing specific designs such as website/graphic designs, our job varies from verifying and improving services, up to developing new ones. For example, one of our projects included testing public administration’s application services from the perspective of the customers and their experiences. I believe a service designer’s professional ability lies in how well one can “produce a place of co-creation”— conduct research with clients, verify through prototyping ideas, etc.
ーWhat kind of tools or methods are used where people co-create ideas?
We use an enormous amount of 900×1800mm sized foam core boards and post-its.
We especially use them for our program, “Concent Service Design Sprint (hereinafter referred to as “Sprint”).” Sprint is a program during which we conduct all steps from research to prototyping, all within 6 weeks. This means that a new service’s concept will instantly be developed from a zero basis.
The program’s effectiveness lies in the members’ ability to communicate with each other and deepen discussions. Therefore, during this period, members will generally work exclusively from their project booths, and keep track of their projects’ development process through holding meetings with clients every morning. They will work by physically outputting research results and examinations onto the foam core boards set inside the booths—creating lighter deliverables rather than documentation of every step.
Since we rearrange the used, written boards to blank, new ones on a daily basis, we became accustomed to using the light foam core boards in contrast to the ones with legs attached.
2. Establishing a “war room”: satellite office, “SPRINT GARAGE”
ー”SPRINT GARAGE”—a satellite office made exclusively for project booths—was established in December 2019. Could you please fill us in on how it all started?
※SPRINT GARAGE: An office set up for Concent’s short-period design projects such as “Design Sprint,” with an emphasis on building and verifying user experiences through design thinking. (Closed May 2021.)
photo by 金 祜廷（Concent, Inc.）
Similar to what we brainstormed with Ohashi-san and Mikayama-san from the OpenA, we initially thought it would be interesting to build something like a pop-up war room. During concentrated projects, we occasionally set up a ”project war room” and thought we could build a temporary one, in consideration of Sprint being a short, 6-week program.
Nagasaki-san later came to join one of these meetings, and this was when I happened to come across the concept of ideaboard. At the time, I considered it as a nice alternative to the foam core boards we so often used.
Later, when I was working as a manager of the service design group, I was asked to become in charge of building a new office. It instantly hit me that I would be able to realize the idea that I had with the members from OpenA, and took the offer under the sole condition that I would partner up with OpenA.
ーWhy did you choose to combine ideaboards instead of using whiteboards with legs or build walls with whiteboards?
First of all, during Sprint, we generally don’t erase anything we write. We build on each output so examinations pile up. In addition, we constantly replace boards with new, blank ones to write on. It isn’t rare for us to pause a meeting and go fetch a board from the past, in order to refresh our memory or gain some insight.
That’s why we worked well using something like the ideaboard which could be easily moved/stocked, rather than a whiteboard fixed to a wall.
At SPRINT GARAGE, we used ideaboard as a table, and soon realized the great benefits of being able to write on one. When one writes on a wall, the other participants surrounding are basically left only to watch. However, when the space changes to a table, everyone can simultaneously join in from all directions—making the output somewhat more casual. Write whatever comes to mind, and show it to others when necessary. One time, a client who used to take meeting notes on his notebook even started writing the notes on the table.
Also, when a person writes on a wall during a meeting, they tend to stand up, which leads to making him the center of the discussion. In contrast, when everyone is sitting down, it becomes easier for one to make a remark and start writing down their ideas. It was interesting how the atmosphere switched from “meeting mode ” to “collaboration mode.”
photo by 金 祜廷（Concent, Inc.）
3. Building “fluent” relationships: breaking free of professional affiliation, and blending professional fields
ーDid you experience any changes in your business relationships or how you worked due to the outbreak of the pandemic?
Personally speaking, I belong to Concent, while also working as a member of NKC’s Business Design Center (hereinafter referred to as BDC). I also work together with members gathered from outside for other projects. That said, I do think the sense of belonging to one company has gradually faded away.
Until now, I believe we would have generally gathered in Osaka if we were to work with the team in Osaka, and it would have been quite difficult to continue having online meetings with people we’ve never met face to face. Consequently, these things would not have been possible if it weren’t for the pandemic. I find these kinds of changes to be positive.
Also in the case of BDC, the borders of affiliation to companies are loosened, and outside partners like myself are regarded as team members. I believe this era to be a time where we can challenge ourselves to get on board. The distance is just enough— I wouldn’t go overboard to develop a sense of belonging to NKC because I know that I can observe more when looking from a decent distance. I hope I can contribute by making use of this perspective.
ーFinally, please tell us your thoughts about this project.
Most importantly, it was a great collaboration between us, who created activities such as Design Sprint, Nagasaki-san’s team who created the tool needed for such activities, and Ohashi-san from OpenA who designed the space. I think we were able to go beyond creating just a “cool” space, to harmonizing all aspects (including the activities and tools). All elements fit together as one, so it was a lot of fun.
To be continued in “ideaboard Series: Product Development Story #15"
(Interview by Mone Nishihama, translation by Kyoko Yukioka, NINI Co., Ltd.)
▼Click below to see the original Japanese version / 原文はこちら