Design Thinking for Business Innovation

DIVIDEND- Shared Wardrobe

Applying Design Thinking methodologies to make the process of sharing clothes easier and might I say, better?

-PROBLEM STATEMENT-

Every one of us at some time or another has stood in front of a full closet and cried out exasperatingly, “I don’t have anything to wear”.

When we are living in a world that has grown to judge people with what clothes they wear, it is easy to feel the pressure to always dress up to the nines. This, in turn, bleeds out the limited resources we have as students or young professionals trying to avoid a wasteful lifestyle. In hostels, it is quite common to borrow clothes from your friends but it could be a tricky affair (due to differences in size and thought).

However, with an improved system to share clothes in place, we could have access to a larger repository of clothes for every occasion and event without having to splurge on a bigger closet that still feels scarce.

-PERSONAS-
In the following section, we’d get introduced to all the people who would be interacting in this system design.

• BORROWER (Kritika)

“Hello! My name is Kritika. I’ve recently gotten admitted to the college I always dreamt of getting into and my heart couldn’t be happier. There was a bit of cultural shock, of course. Coming from a place of education where deviating even slightly from the strict dress code was frowned upon to now this place filled with extraordinarily creative people, walking through corridors is akin to scrolling on a Pinterest board.

However, I’m not oblivious to how my wardrobe hasn’t been keeping up.

The first few months, I’d tried buying clothes as and when I need but I soon realized why this practice isn’t sustainable. I’m still dependent on the allowances from my parents which is plenty but apparently still not enough for the ever-changing trends.

My roommates and I sometimes borrow clothes off each other but it is a hassle as the clothes hardly ever fit nicely. Moreover, the process requires really clear communication, which has been awkward at times.”

• LENDER (Naina)

“Hey! I’m Naina and I’m one of Kritika’s roommates. Coming to college is everything you dream about and more. I think even the bollywood movies couldn’t have prepared me enough. My mother and I had shopped for two whole months before I was to come to Mumbai. I always had a decent sense of style and loved dressing up and curating new looks. As you can expect, the almirah provided by the hostel was a tad bit too small for me and sometimes the clothes were strewn all over the place but my roommates have been sweet about it.

We have recently started sharing clothes. While this practice started out of the blue one day, it has become a regular practice in our dorms. But it is a tricky affair, even when you do everything right, sharing clothes can still go awry. With every piece that leaves my wardrobe to temporarily slot into theirs, there are some expectations of keeping it clean and returning it timely. They try to keep up with their end of the bargain but I still feel taken advantage of sometimes. There have been times you could feel the slight bubbling resentment if I say no to lend stuff I’m attached with. I don’t want to lose the friends I have over some petty fight about clothes but fixing a system in place with my friends has been draining.”

• RETAILERS (After the hypothetical implementation)

“Namaste, my name is Rakulpreet and I’m the owner of a retail shop chain catering to young students and professionals near NIFT, in Navi Mumbai. I’ve always prided myself in keeping up with and stocking up all the trendy fashion pieces. But you know, as people change, our business model does too. My father used to say, the only constant in business in change and after heading my chain of retail stores for 35 years, I can attest to it.

When “Dividend” was first launched here, we noticed a slight decrease in our sales but it wasn’t concerning. However, now that it has been in action for almost an year, we are seriously considering how we might cater differently to our customers.

Survival of the fittest, am i right?

We have come up with a plan of setting aside a few pieces of every style and putting it in rotation with the help of Dividend. The best part, we are getting credit points now for the same clothes that would have been sitting on the racks for weeks.”

-5 WHY ANALYSIS-

Statement- People don’t like sharing their clothes

➤ WHY wouldn’t they like sharing their clothes?- They might think that others wouldn’t take good care of it.

➤ WHY would people not care about borrowed clothes?- People who borrowed it for once don’t have a sense of value and its preservation attached to it

➤ WHY isn’t any perceived value attached to the clothing for its borrowers?- The borrowers don’t lose anything if they soil the clothes accidentally.

➤ WHY aren’t the borrowers losing anything?- They aren’t expected to pay back for the damages as the lender fears this trifling affair might cause strains in their relationship.

➤ WHY aren’t they expected to compensate for the damages? The lender and borrowers haven’t discussed this situation beforehand and came to an agreement about recompensation.

Insights Gained- Lenders are wary of lending clothes to their friends because they fear if in case the clothing gets damaged, they won't be able to hold the borrower liable as it could result in increased frictions in their social circle.

Statement- People often prefer buying rather than having to borrow.

➤ WHY don’t they prefer borrowing even though it would be easier on their pockets?- Because they feel awkward asking people for their clothes.

➤ WHY do they feel awkward trying to borrow clothes? It could develop a feeling of inferiority in the borrower.

➤ WHY is this feeling of inferiority such a hindrance? Because people would only be comfortable with borrowing if they are sure they can pay back the favor one day. The feeling of being dependent on others’ resources weighs heavy on their conscience.

➤ WHY is it so? They would want to do away with this indignation of not being self-sufficient

➤ WHY is being self-sufficient important if some pieces of clothing aren’t a good investment?

It could be so because this act of borrowing is not well-portrayed in the media, painting it as an annoyance to the lender (not vilifying their experience in some cases).

With the decreasing cost of fast fashion, it isn’t a popular practice anymore. People prefer buying their own clothes.

Insights Gained- In the case of borrowers, however, there is a social stigma around borrowing because of how media portrays it as a source of vexation to the lenders which is only true in certain cases. The borrowers might also feel indignant in asking for sharing the clothes due to easy access to fast fashion which only costs “pennies”.

2. DEFINE

-HOW MIGHT WE-

HMW provide a wider choice of clothes for young students and professionals to(in order to) increase the affordability and accessibility of fashion?

Enter Dividend!

-MIND MAPPING-

3. IDEATE

-HOW MIGHT WE-
HMW tool can also be quite handy in prompting the ideation process-

• HMW incorporate sharing and reusing across (for) communities in order to make fashion sustainable and circular?
• HMW decrease the feeling of shame for the borrowers in order to make the act of borrowing desirable?
• HMW make the process easier for lenders in order to increase the influx of clothes in the system?
• HMW assimilate the wishes to exchange the clothes for people looking for a wardrobe reshape in order to increase the useability and profits of the system?
• HMW ensure hygiene and care for all the clothes being lent in order to increase the company trust?
• HMW make the app suitable for people with distinct styles in order to make it aware of preferences and serve the customers better?
• HMW extend the system for retailers in order for them as well to profit from the system?
• HMW make the system inclusive for people with different body types/cultural or ethnic backgrounds in order to create safe fashion precincts?
• HMW ensure different benefits for active members of the community in order to increase consumer retention?

-5W-1H-

• Who is it for and why do they need it?- young professionals or students with limited resources that they can invest in a wardrobe, people who are aware of the environmental cost of fast fashion and are looking for ways to reduce their buys without compromising on their style quotient.
• What is it?- a system in place where they can simply sign themselves up, share the clothes that they own but never get to wear and get credits in exchange for them. These credits can then be bartered as “rent” for borrowing clothes from the system, the more you donate, the more you can borrow. More credit points can of course be bought.
• When could it be most helpful?- For each and any occasion for which our consumer base finds repeating clothes not practicable. It could be weddings, parties, festivals, and even casual days.
• Where could it be situated?- It has to be in a geographically accessible location to assure easy and fast transportation of clothes.
• How could it work? — — — (developed and defined in later stages) — — —

-BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS-

The assumption of 600 people in a locality using our services could not be considered a tall one on the reasoning that each sq km in India has 454.94 inhabitants out of which roughly around 40% lie in our targeted consumer range(young adults).

If such a system is in place, it would be possible for it to cater to around 10 km of the area easily. (By quick math, that would be a population of 1820 young individuals). It can be assumed thus, that our service could have a user base of 600 people in ideal situations.

A lot of this ideation was prompted by HMW brainstorming and Mindmapping with due attention to insights gathered from 5Why analysis.

-AT A GLANCE (DIVIDEND)-

• FASHION FLEX- Flexibility in the sizes we wear, the price we pay, and the styles we wear.
• FORGET THE PRICE TAG- With Dividend we can wear everything we want without having to purchase them all. All the money that is saved could be put towards something more practical and rewarding.
• SUSTAINABLE FOOTPRINT- Most clothes we buy end up in the back of our closets or landfills. Through Dividend, we can be a part of the sharing economy and contribute in our own ways to sustaining our environment.

-HOW IT WORKS-

-DEFINING DETAILS-

Concerns and Pitfalls- Fine Tuning the prototype

• There could be a heightened influx of cheap(inferior quality) clothes in the system over time as people would like to save good clothes for themselves.

>>The credits provided to the lenders should be dependent on the retail price of the garment. The value system could be divided into multiple categories of credit transfer. It would ensure fair treatment of all users.

• Repository Management- It would be really difficult for users to sieve through the whole collection and select the clothes they might want to rent as the userbase increases and the repository broadens.

>>Garments would be categorized and clustered on the basis of events and sizes, both manually and with the use of AI. Inherent

• The Social Stigma of borrowing might be limiting to the use of Dividend.

>> Marketing campaigns would be launched underlining the importance of repeating and borrowing clothes as it could substantially reduce fast fashion buys and hence, its impact on the environment. The use of referral codes could also be helpful as people would see the acceptance of such a system among their friends and might be inspired to sign up.

While there are a few models internationally that take on the “Sharing” approach, most business models tread the conventional path of fashion designers and brands being the lenders.

In India, it is all the same with not one such service. With the conventional system comes higher costs as they focus just on designer and high-end products and have been focusing on making a lot of profit off of it.

One quite distinct benefit of the Dividend business model comes from its user-centric approach of making the lending and borrowing process hassle-free for the regular person as it scratches the itch of owning something new for wearing with or without an occasion without claiming precious space in our closet or drilling new holes in our pockets.

This was a student project done by me at NIFT Mumbai for the subject- “Design Methods for Innovation”.

Click to view original documentation on Canva

Reach out to me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/prashasti-ojha

In the guidance of our Faculty and Design Thinking Coach Francis Xavier