Gig Board
A service innovation that can serve as a networking platform and help musicians find other musicians and gigs.
We presented this research-backed service proposition to our client, NStuff Music (a family-owned music store business in Pittsburgh, PA) to serve as an addition to their existing product-service system.
Overview
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Summary
Conducted exploratory, generative, and evaluative research in an 8-week sprint in order to understand a music store business’s existing product-service system, stakeholders involved and their relationships, and company culture.
We also wanted to understand unmet customer needs and how a new service innovation could fit into their existing service ecosystem and culture.
After ideating several service innovation concepts and prioritizing one, we conducted evaluative research using methods such as speed-dating and interviews to understand what our Gig Boards networking service could look like for NStuff Music if implemented.
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My Role
Lead UX Researcher
Created and administered a research plan and protocols for a team of 3.
Led contextual inquiry and intercept interviews at the NStuff Music store in Pittsburgh.
Recruited participants for and conducted speed dating sessions.
Created models and artifacts such as value-flows and service blueprints to help team communicate service design concepts.
Led client relations with NStuff Music business owners.
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Core Methods
Experiential Research
Secondary Desk Research
Competitive Analysis
Contextual Inquiry
Intercept Interviews
Storyboarding & Speed Dating
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The Team
The Challenge
Research, ideate, and present a service innovation for NStuff Music, a family-owned business in Pittsburgh, PA.
The challenge here was to conceive and conceptualize a new service innovation that would fit well into NStuff’s pre-existing service ecosystem and culture. Through talking with people at the store and observing NStuff employee and customer interactions, we found that NStuff values their lifelong customers, employees, and local or family-owned feel no matter how much their business expands. Given that the owners and employees are all musicians and have great knowledge and a true passion for music, their highest priority is to help people from any walk of life with their music journeys.
Our Research Approach
experience & gain context ➡️ synthesize ➡️ ideate ➡️ generate & evaluate ➡️ revise ➡️ pitch
Methods
Exploratory Research
In order to immerse ourselves in the music space and gain context, we first conducted digital and physical experiential research and also performed a contextual inquiry and intercept interviews at the NStuff Music store.
Experiential Research
What we learned / Key Takeaways:
The lesson registration forms are quite long and it takes a lot of time to fill them out.
There is no single view of the schedule of the lessons.
Online chat options allow customers to get answers from an actual person (employee).
NStuff relies on social media and word of mouth to acquire customers and retain them.
Anyone in the US can order products online and get them shipped or pick up from the local store.
What we did:
Attended live music performances including a concert and a jazz street performance and observed things such as ambiance, lighting, noise level, and our awareness of the people around us.
Interacted with NStuff employees just like a customer would and asked them questions.
Explored the digital product services offered by NStuff to their customers via different digital channels.
One example of this was exploring their customer service text feature.
Contextual Inquiry & Intercept Interviews
Quotes:
“If we can shave off a $100 off a guitar so a customer can afford it and we have space in our budget, then sure, yeah! All we care about is spreading the gift of music to the world.” - NStuff Employee
“95% of customers know what they want before they buy it online. They do their research.” - Salesman
“So he found out he had a tumor in his colon…” - Customer-employee conversation at the front desk showed us that some customer-employee relationships might be at a personal level.
What we learned:
There is great attention to detail in the physical store, from the way in which the decor is set up to the temperature of the various
rooms.
The employees are customer-obsessed, music-obsessed, and genuinely passionate about helping people with their music journeys.
Online buying experience doesn’t reflect their true values, culture and brand while the in-store buying experience is very personalized
and experiential.
What we did:
Talked to employees and analyzed their work stations and tools.
Observed customer browsing and purchasing journeys and their interactions with the store elements and employees.
Walked around to immerse ourselves and gain spatial context of where each department lives and the overall look and feel.
Synthesis & Ideation
We synthesized our findings from our exploratory research phase and used our insights to ideate several service innovation concepts that could potentially fit into NStuff’s PSS. After several peer and faculty critiques, we narrowed it down to one service innovation and presented it to our client to receive feedback.
Affinity Diagramming
Helped us cluster, make sense of, and find common themes from our findings.
Worst Possible Ideas
Helped us conduct a brain dump that led to more practical ideas, served as a good warm up for later ideation.
Abstraction Laddering
Helped us stretch our thinking beyond the initial level of questioning we did.
Visualizing Several Service Innovation Concepts
Our team parallel-prototyped several possible service innovation concepts using models, images, and other similar designs to convey the concept and get feedback rapidly.
Prioritized Idea based on Feedback
We decided that the service proposition we would move forward with is a gig-matching service where NStuff acts as a middleman between musicians and venues offering gig opportunities.
Generative & Evaluative Research
Storyboarding & Speed Dating
After applying changes based on critique and feedback on our prioritized idea, we further evaluated our idea by creating storyboards and conducting speed dating sessions with participants in the music industry.
Noteworthy Quotes from Speed-Dating Interview Participants:
“Performing live and playing with other musicians is a better way to learn, there is no other way to get better than to work with other musicians.”
“Musicians are always looking for other musicians, always looking to fill a slot in a band. What they do now: go on craigslist, or go to the store and staple a piece of paper to the board”
Through valuable findings from our storyboards and speed-dating sessions, we found that our final service offering may evolve into:
Networking tool or platform for gig matching: Nstuff could facilitate network sessions or event between promising music students and Bands/Gig partners, where they can match the two sides for the upcoming gigs from NStuff network of musicians.
Play with a band: Nstuff can help bands find their next member through NStuff Music school. NStuff instructure can prepare students to prepare and excel at Band auditions.
An app for musician to jam together: An app or online services where aspiring musicians can connect with other musicians and practice together.
Results
We used our evaluative research findings to create a final service proposition that consisted of conceptual and value flow models, a service blueprint, a concept movie and poster, and finally - a pitch to the client.
Final Thoughts
I learned a lot from this project, I especially enjoyed the guerilla research activities such as conducting experiential research and intercept interviews during our in-store visit. Another major learning from this project was that it is important to take into account client values, even if they go against objective business value. A client may value customer relationships more than monetary gain. In the case of this project, the biggest value to NStuff was providing practical experience, spreading the joy of music, gaining life-long customers, and expanding their network through this gig-matching service.