innovation

Creating an Innovation Centre for G4S in just 6 Weeks

The Challenge

G4S's security offerings are expansive and complex, and senior sales staff sometimes had difficulty in communicating both the enormous scope of the offering and the precise selling points of their data-driven approach to security.

As such, we were asked to collaborate on a new experience centre, located in an old bank vault in Westminster, to act as a media-rich sales tool that would help diagnose the needs of high-value prospects across a range of industry sectors and scenarios.

The catch was that we had to deliver it in just six weeks. 

Approach

Understanding the product

My first task was to embark on a series of interviews and research to understand the philosophy behind the client's approach to security, while simultaneously trying to ascertain the needs and concerns of high-value clients. At the same time, we needed to liaise with the architects to ensure that whatever we were going to propose would comfortably fit within the confines of the space. 

Sketching and Ideation

I quickly ascertained that the centrepiece of the innovation suite would be a diagnostics tool, to demonstrate a number of security scenarios in various physical locations in order to prompt discussion as to precisely what their security concerns were. The default settings of the tools were based on further workshops with G4S's security experts, from which I sketched and iterated a number of interface designs. 

Prototyping and Orchestration

After deciding on a final approach that would work within the timeframe, we moved quickly from prototype to development, and I liaised with third party developers, 3d designers, the architects and our own in-house design team to ensure everything ran on schedule. We had successfully designed a four-stage system that moved the prospect from high level concepts to concrete security proposals in the form of a PDF generated at the end of the process. 

Outcome

The client feedback from the Bunker has been extremely positive. While the precise details are confidential, we are told the Bunker has played a role in securing for G4S a number of high value contracts. They are now planning to expand the functionality of the system and they are looking to launch more of them in other cities in Europe and around the world. 

GSMA Mobile Connect - a little button that hides vast complexity

The Challenge

Mobile Connect is a small button that hides a lot of complexity. A challenger to "Login with Facebook" with future ambitions to allow electronic voting, the idea emerged from within the GSMA (which represents more that 800 mobile operators worldwide) and needed a way to communicate not just the user experience, but the more fundamental technological challenges that it posed if it were ever to be a success. 

Approach

Mapping Complexity

The first month of the project was an investigation into the technical complexities of what would happen behind the scenes when a user tapped "log in". We first mapped out all the different devices that would work on; and as it was a global project it had to work in markets that still dominated by feature-phones as well as the most modern devices. We mapped out technical scenarios (was this to post a comment or make a transaction etc) and flow diagrams to illustrate the logic. Soon, we realised the limitations of traditional methods. 

Creating New Tools

We were in a race against time to get a working prototype for the 2014 GSMA World Mobile Congress, and mapping the logic for each of the 155 chosen scenarios using flow diagrams in order to build a working prototype was not an option. I therefore created a new method, a card game that I played with the key stakeholders to rapidly map out each scenario in a fraction of the time. Once they got the knack of how it worked, I created worksheets they could fill in in place of the cards.

Prototyping

As each "card" corresponded to a screen template within Axure, I could now apply the logic to a frontend interface so that engineers could simply enter a few options to see how the login experience should look and function across a huge number of technical scenarios. 

Outcome

We successfully demonstrated the proposed product at the World Mobile Congress and a pilot project was then quickly proposed in Sri Lanka. If anything, the mobile operators were taken aback by the level of detail. "I think we were a little ahead of our time with it at first but once the Operators [were] ready to see that level of detail it is really well received." said product manager Jo Gilbert. Today, Mobile Connect is available to over 2 billion customers. 

Marketing Programme Director was also happy with the project; "I worked with Jamie on a complex, innovative and far reaching Telecommunications project. His input on the streamlining of the user experience and journey was invaluable. His proposals were well considered, practical and forthcoming, Always the professional, Jamie is organised and approachable, making him very easy to work with. I have no hesitation in recommending Jamie and would be delighted to collaborate with him again."