Prototyping Postnord
CLIENT – POSTNORD GROUP
From logistics giant to start-up mentality
During the spring of 2020 Another Tomorrow took on the role of spearheading the organisational transition to a Prototyping Mindset within PostNord’s IT organisation.
From time-consuming, linear development processes taking place far from the end-user → the goal was to achieve a culture of iterative development, increased speed and usability, and data-informed decision making. An education, organisational change, and business development project in one.
Getting to new solutions
The short term goal of this transition was for all internal, legacy-heavy applications and solutions to be as attractive to use as if they were external commercial applications. For the longer term, the intended effect was for the IT organisation to apply Experience Driven Development as a natural behaviour when designing any new solutions. This meant focusing on core functions, early prototyping, and involving users in a cross-functional, multidisciplinary and collaborative way.
Engaging a multitude of stakeholders
The first step towards achieving these ambitious goals was to involve a core team of ambassadors from within PostNord IT. This first stage built on a learning by doing approach, where we jointly with their new prototyping unit worked through a full development cycle – from needs to finished product, educating in methodology along the way.
Key stakeholders from PostNord’s production unit were involved. We conducted interviews, ran design sprints, and tested prototypes, going from visual concepts to clickable applications.
This procedure was looped until we could prove the value of the concept, and the prototype was sophisticated enough to function as a blueprint. Our developers could then take over and give the application life.
The new digital solution went live and was made available to 3 pilot units less than 2 months after the initial start-up.
Result that can be measured
Last Mile Dashboard
Rather than follow up results after the fact using excel reports, this new digital solution allows PostNord to track their delivery progress in real-time. This means they can proactively distribute resources to avoid delays and missed deliveries as they are at risk of occurring, rather than have to apologise afterwards.
Making PostNord IT future-fit
A dedicated PostNord User Experience Team was established and trained. They participated in several Design Sprints, were provided with tangible educational material on prototyping and modern development. An internal communication platform was also established with video material and progress from the project being made available to a larger group, functioning as a base for the internal team to spread the learnings and new ways of working.
“Together we’ve managed to decrease the number of undelivered parcels by one million.”
