People are moving to lower alcohol drinks, so how do we change how a craft beer innovation team works?
Introducing design thinking to a pioneering craft brewery
“Drinking and socialising habits are changing. But we’re using conventional consumer product innovation. How might we introduce design thinking skills to the business, to stretch a leading craft beer brand into new low alcohol products and hospitality experiences?”
As the UK craft beer market boomed over the last decade, a huge number of breweries entered the market, as customers sought out more adventurous flavours and better quality products. That craft movement began with eclectic brewer experimentation with new drinks, and needed to avoid the slow and stale product innovation of some traditional consumer goods new product development processes.
To retain their edge, the client wanted to explore product innovation in lower alcohol alternatives, and to extend brand love amongst hospitality sector staff. They had ideas, but they needed an approach to get closer to customer behaviour and needs, to test and learn with experiments and prototypes, and to scale up innovations.
They wanted to build skills in design thinking and lean innovation - where they could test and learn more quickly, based on customer research and experiment evidence.
Working with the Manager Director and Marketing Director, we put together a team with diverse backgrounds from sales, marketing, innovation, technical production, trade, hospitality and commercial roles.
Rich designed a project with a series of 2 week sprints to research customer needs, generate ideas and create experimental concepts. He created a suite of bespoke micro learning modules on design thinking, lean and agile innovation - introducing the tools as part of the live project work, in a dedicated team work space we created at the brewery. And he joined the team 4 days a week for 6 months, embedding new capabilities while they took ownership.
Rich focused on helping the team to uncover the behaviours and motivations behind customers buying or considering lower alcohol products. Then using design thinking tools to generate new creative product and experience ideas, and defining experiments to test out the concepts.
By simulating real physical and digital products and experiences, we were able to test demand, before rushing ahead to product development investment.
A team now empowered to create new products, services and experiences with new confidence - a team who hadn’t been in innovation roles previously. They now have new tools and techniques, a training in design thinking and lean innovation, plus a range of new product and experience concepts tested with customers. The projects have meant 2 of the team have moved into permanent roles, so that they can use their new skills to fully develop and launch new product and service concepts.
delivered
Lean innovation skills training to team of 8 during live project work
Suite of micro learning modules to introduce design thinking, product/service/experience/proposition design, flexible research interviews and co-creation, prototyping and growth path
Hospitality sector staff personas created, from a series of interviews with partner venues - eg young staff ‘passing through, experience hospitality managers and professionals
New hospitality experience and event concepts, with prototype experiences designed and testing underway
Low alcohol target customer personas created, based on changing behaviours
New low alcohol product concepts created and shortlisted
food + drink innovation
introducing design thinking
lean + agile design sprint capabilities