1. Opportunity
When we create a POP display or in-store merchandising solution for you, the project is made up of phases during which specific milestones are met.
These activities result in display solutions that capture the nuances, demands and internal needs of the modern retailer.
2. Understanding
The understanding phase establishes the initial approach, risks, costs, schedules, and financial impact of the opportunity. It assesses project potential in terms of appropriateness for the marketplace and accomplishment of business goals, and culminates in a decision to proceed. A project team is established along with the project schedule. The salesperson needs to become a key member of the project team and the schedules need to be consistent and integrated within the overall project plan.
The team collects requirements and documents the requirements. This identifies user groups, goals, and success criteria. It also identifies competitor strengths and weaknesses, sets objectives and validation metrics.
Based on the requirements, the team creates the design direction for the desired results and marketing message. Both the requirements and design direction need to be validated with the client.
At the end of this phase, the requirements are finalized and articulated. All measures and targets should be set and integrated into the project model that optimizes value to the customer.
3. Design
The purpose of this phase is to create a conceptual design that reflects all aspects of the needed criteria. The conceptual design is reflected in rough sketches, renderings and conceptual solutions which are evaluated by the team and customer for objective success. Design changes are driven by user feedback to satisfy established goals.
The conceptual design must address each aspect of the merchandising requirement. The design team should also consider customer expectations and budget. These concepts must be evaluated by the client before proceeding to the next phase.
In order to achieve a design that addresses the goal requirements, it is necessary for the project team to collaborate closely, striving for a complimentary relationship across all aspects of the offering. The entire team should attend design walk-throughs as well as evaluation sessions.
4. Development
The development phase is to validate the final design with the client and proceed with implementation. The key is to transform the conceptual design into a 3-D prototype that communicates every detail. Design Engineering, manufacturing processes, assembly of the display and final costing are thoroughly worked out during this phase.
While the design team leads these activities, the entire project team participates in decisions that lead to a final design solution on the project. Throughout implementation the team assesses solutions, provides clarification, and directs modifications needed. During formal testing, the design team helps keep the project on target. All members of the team participate, at least as observers, in validation of the design. Key members of the project team should confirm the design meets the required criteria.
This phase concludes with the successful completion of all tests against both business and functional goals.
5. Deployment
The deployment phase includes all activities required to successfully announce, deploy, and support the new offering. This includes the production, packing, roll out, logistics and customer support programs.
Customer and user feedback procedures should be fully functional, so that the service and support organizations can be responsive to early input. Assessments of arrival of the program in the field, review of customer satisfaction and final user support should be in place for gathering early user experience, and this feedback should be acted upon quickly, with prioritization of issues that need to be addressed immediately versus those that might be handled in a subsequent delivery.
Marketing should seek strong testimonials that can be included in their promotional activities. It is appropriate to do an assessment of the project and highlight achievements. Depending on the competitive landscape, a competitive benchmark assessment may be appropriate.
6. Life Cycle
The Life Cycle phase is aligned with actual usage of the final product. Here the total user experience will be put to the ultimate test, through orders, installations and real usage. The user will be the final arbiter. The product should increase market share.
Assuming that a simple and accessible user feedback mechanism has been provided, in addition to data from service and support, valuable information should start flowing from the community of users. This information is of great value and needs to be given due attention. Customer complaints may need immediate response to maintain customer satisfaction. All should be used to increase market understanding, which will aid future developments.
Although all design is complete and the team will have moved on to new projects, they may well be called upon to review any significant user experience issues. Thus they need to assist Service and Support where their specialist skills would be invaluable. This involvement benefits the customer, as well as ensures that real world experience is fed back into future designs.