DESIGN THINKING AS A TOOL FOR ORGANIZATION DESIGN AT A FOOD

TECH COMPANY

Design thinking for problem solving and creating employee experience is a new approach in
Hhuman rResources mManagement. The approach consists of five stages, namely, Eempathy,
Ddefine, Iideate, and Pprototype and finally test. (Brown, 2008). Empathy is developed
through direct interaction with the users. These interactions build insights and understanding
of those for whom we are designing the solution. Patterns and messages received from these
interactions help define a very user- centric problem as well as guide and direct the ideation
process. Through multiple iterative and not necessary linear processes, a prototype is then
arrived at which is tested for viability in terms of effectiveness. Redundant and non-
meaningful experience and processes are refined or done away with and a co-created solution
that addresses the end user need is arrived at.

In the pursuit to create employee experience, design thinking borrows from the five
principles of service design as mentioned in Figure 1. (Stickdorn & Schneider, 2012)

Figure 1. Five Principles of Service Design thinking.

The case study summarises the use of design thinking principles as a tool to implement an
HR strategy thatwhich brought the firm better brand equity and financial returns.

CASE OF SWIGGY: A FOOD TECH START- UP IN INDIA

The context

Food tech industry is a growing industry in India and is led by players like Zomato, Swiggy,
Food Panda (now in a tTie- up with Ola) and UberEats. The key lever for success in this
industry is technological competence, and responsiveness, and zero-error logistics.

The enablers haveare access to large capital resources, favourable market conditions built
through Iinternet and changing consumer behaviour for online shopping; butand, poor
physical and road infrastructure. This has enabled Ffood tech companies to build an
aggregating platform around the value proposition of convenience of food delivery at home.
Swiggy capitalised on this theme of ‘restaurant in your pocket,’ and created an attractive
service preposition around customers. The firm further enabled the employees to create the
service experience at every touch point.

Using Design Thinking Principles Ffor Arriving Aat Business Ssolution

Lessons drawn from the failures of competing partners operating in the market, and best
practices drawn from allied business were taken as cues to identify the value map. The value
map defines the areas of intervention that would create a definite competitive advantage. It
maps the services against clients’ gains and pains. Repeated iterations, discussions and on-
field surveys led to focus on the following four areas:

 tTechnological advantage with friendly user interfaces (such as order tracking),

 seamless logistics (acquisition of the logistics firm Scootsy) with an empowered and
engaged workforce (particularly delivery boys – as they interacted directly with
customers); ,
 building a technically competent top management team,; and
 mMaintaining direct communication with the end users.
These were sequenced to arrive at a problem statement- “to create customer experience by
fully owned and engaged delivery fleet, enabled through a robust technology”.
In order tTo implement this with solutions, the founder owner interviewed the delivery boys
extensively to understand the pain and gain points. They travelled with the delivery boys
once in a while to experience the emotions that they experience. The summary of this data led
to understanding of the empathy and journey maps thatwhich helped identify the problem
areas or performance derailleurs as:

1. Difficulty in Aattracting, retaining and maintaining the delivery boys. This was due
to the assumption that delivery boys are from a poor income groups alone. Primary
survey led to insights that aspiring college students also deliver part -time to earn the
education. This enabled the design of customised payoffs.

2. Managing right behaviour with the customers and restaurants. Here the Iinsight here
was that a few seconds of exchange during delivery can leave a happy and loyal
customer.

3. Managing timely delivery and therefore managing ready delivery with restaurants.

4. Lack of spaces forwhere the delivery boys tocould rest while they arewere not
serving orders.

5. Difficulty in locating the address, or interruptions indue to order tracking calls from
customers.

6. Lack of future growth in the job.

These were then used to create solutions that would engage the delivery boys.
Several stakeholders like the customers, delivery boys, and senior management team
were co-opted for this purpose.

Solution 1: Pay Ooff sstrategy for Ddelivery Bboys

A flexible work option where the delivery boy could choose to work full- time or part- time
was designed. A fixed and guaranteed income of INR 350–-450 per day for 10 orders was
confirmed. All deliveriesy over and above 10 orders was incentivised by INR 50. If the
delivery boy made all timely deliveries, obtainingy with good customer feedback on a single
dayin the whole day, he was incentivised with an added INR 150. If 5 deliveries were made
simultaneously, then an added INR 450 was paid. Unlike other food tech companies, Swiggy
offered 7 kKm of radius for order delivery. If a delivery boy was making delivery beyond 4
kKm, then, he was paid an additional amount of INR 10 per kmilometre. In this manner, if a
delivery boy made 25–-30 such deliveries, he could make a monthly income of INR 35,000
to 50,000. This was much more than the average wages of an engineer working at an IT firm
as a programmer. Many college aspirants from low- and middle -income class joined Swiggy
as delivery boys to earn money and pursue higher education or choose as an alternative career
for low- aspiration individuals.

The company also included medical insurance, scooter maintenance and purchase support.

Solution 2: Communicating cCare

The next step was to choose a lLearning management software vendor to create bite -sized
learning software. Youth was encouraged to be future oriented toward building their career.

Swiggy leased four parking and resting sheds in areas near the most popular restaurants, so
that when the delivery boys were not servicing an order, they could rest in these sheds.

Swiggy online ordering Aapp provided real- time status of customers’ orders, so that the
delivery boys could focus on driving and timely delivery. The app was enabled at both the
customer’s ands well as the delivery boy’s end to report any complaints. Similarly, if the
delivery boys get repeatedly ‘order not ready’ complaints about a restaurant were received
from delivery boys, the restaurant was banned. Swiggy partnered only with select restaurants
only and delivery boys’ feedback on restaurants and customers was valued. This empowered
the boys and gave them a sense of respect. Their job title was also changed to “Hhunger
Ssaviour,” adding task significance and identity in the job.

The app enabled suggestions and feedback for the CEO. The CEO personally responded to
these suggestions. This allowed the CEO to continuously clean the processes and be in touch
with the reality of the delivery boys. High performers (HIPOs) got a chance to spend time in
a restaurant of their choice and can share the feedback face to face with the CEO every
month.

These mechanisms co-created solutions. Techonology- enabled and face- to- face feedback
systems were used to reduce redundant processes and introduce new processes wherever
necessary. This ensured a holistic experience for the delivery boys.

Solution 3: HR strategy for managerial positions

The final step was to build a leadership team of professionally qualified engineers and
management professionals to manage the technology, innovation and design. Graduates in
similar line of business, who had demonstrated history of alignment with sSwiggy values,
and graduates from Ttop B schools and engineering colleges were hired. Values were defined
and articulated through dialogues, stories, and narrations. Employees were asked to narrate
occasions when the values were either exhibited or violated. The values identified from these
stories were clustered and employees were asked to rank them in order of values that they
exhibited, not what they desired, giving . This gave a list of eight core values of Swiggy.
These were announced with a branding campaign on the anniversary meeting at the corporate
office. The values identified were - entrepreneurship, consumer centricity, humility, curiosity,
laugh and learn, honesty, Sstrive for excellence, bias for action, and disagree but commit.

These values were then cascaded to the employees by creating moments of truth where they
were integrated into action at work. A detailed induction program around values was
organised. Swiggy team believed that if the hiring was right and induction was rigorous,
values of the firm would be ensured through all cities. Swiggy hired For executive staff,
Swiggy hired from Indian Institute of Management and Indian Institute of Technology. Some
lateral hires were made from competing companies where people had established their
competence. Thus, the values were also held sacrosanct in the process of hiring and
performance management. In the Pperformance management form, special weightage was
given for exhibiting values in action.

An internal communication magazine called Pulse was launched where stories of exhibition
of values and leadership by example were included.

Conclusion

With a combined effect of HR strategy that created a human-ic based service design and
influx of capital,; Swiggy emerged as a clear market leader that delivered more than 14
million orders across 17 cities by partnering with 35,000 restaurants. It is quite clear that
controlling attrition with the existing talent pool will remain difficult. However, with the
design thinking solutions, the employer and consumer brand of Swiggy haves improved
tremendously.

The company has recently raised INR 200 million INR from venture funding and is all set to
revolutionise the food industry. Some feel that discounts, increased salary of delivery boys
and such a large fleet fully owned by the company may not lead the company to a sustainable
growth. However, at the moment, design thinking and its applications to the problem solving
seems to have worked well for the company.

References
 Akansha Ahuja & Anirban Sen (2018). “Swiggy, Zomato Hike delivery boys salary as
competition raises,” available at
https://www.livemint.com/Companies/cYbdfsYk93HFhMuC0XgaNN/Swiggy-Zomato-hike-
delivery-boy-salaries-as-competition-gro.html (accessed on 11th October 2018)
Bhattacharya Richa (2018). Ecommerce Companies plan to double or triple their fleet of
delivery agent. Available on
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/services/retail/ecommerce-companies-plan-to-
double-or-triple-fleet-of-delivery-agents/articleshow/63651675.cms (Accessed on 10.10
2018)
Brown T. (2008). Design Thinking, Harvard Business Review, June 2008.
Stickdorn M. & Schneider J. (2012). This is Service Design Thinking: Basics, Tools Cases,
BIS Publishers, Amsterdam

Empathy developed Identified and co-opted users

through primary
Part time and full time Delivery boys
research
join the fully owned fleet

Other middle and lower income group

youth

Customer Pain Points:
Need for on time home
delivery of food by courteous
staff
Sequencing Pain Points Delivery boys Pain Points:
and gain points
Food not ready in time
Lack of Parking sheds

Poor infrastructure of Indian Lack of Future growth

cities make it difficult to drive
to restaurant
Online shopping on increase
Problem statement: Create
customer experience through fully Lack of Transparency in payment,
routine work and disengagement
owned and engaged fleet of
delivery boys

Solution for Delivery Boys Solution for

managing growth
Hygiene motivational tools in terms of fuel, maintenance, parking sheds
Focus on values, keep
Motivation through dynamic Payoffs in a manner that most can earn more
the process of defining
than a software engineer, makes the job attractive for college goers and
value participative
lower and middle income youth, byte sized videos in conjunction with
MOOC provider for upgradation, out placement for individuals who develop a value based
qualify, feedback on restaurant and other wise improvement sought, recruitment and
HIPOs have a CEO time performance
management system
Figure 3: Complete Model of design thinking application at SWIGGY