The Future of Inflight
JetBlue’s unique culture is rooted in its core value of inspiring humanity. Our flight attendants, known as Inflight Crewmembers, embody this commitment on every flight. They are the face of the airline and ensure we deliver a seamless, award-winning customer experience. As a result, the JetBlue Ventures (JBV) team is always looking for innovative ways to invest in our Inflight Crewmembers, improve the Inflight experience, and empower the Inflight Team to continue being the best in class. We do this by introducing them to emerging technologies and encouraging them to embrace innovation.
The latest innovation sprint
JetBlue Ventures spent the first quarter of 2023 running its 18th innovation sprint, and the topic was improving the Inflight Crewmember Experience. Innovation sprints are strategic deep dives into specific business units, with the goal of discovering innovations that will shape the future.
A 13-person working group led the most recent innovation sprint, representing Inflight Crewmembers, IT, Airports, Finance, and other departments. We started the process at the JetBlue Ventures office in San Francisco with a brainstorming session by soliciting answers to questions like, “If cost was not an issue, what would you want to implement to improve the Inflight experience?”.
We heard new ideas to address age-old challenges. For example, Inflight Crewmembers have to use many tools to do their jobs.
What emerged from the kickoff were three focus areas for this innovation sprint:
- Ways for customers to recognize Inflight Crewmembers and provide feedback
- An Inflight Crewmember rewards program
- Enterprise tools to support Inflight Crewmember operations such as communications
Demo day
JetBlue Ventures sourced nearly 80 startups for the working group to review. The working group assessed the startups based on relevance to the JetBlue use cases. Then, JetBlue Ventures met with the top 12 startups and narrowed them down to five that would pitch on Demo Day.
Demos consisted of 30-minute pitches and Q&A sessions for an audience of about 40 leaders from across JetBlue. All attendees filled out in-depth feedback forms to take back to their divisions, and JetBlue Ventures shared that feedback with those five startups.
Demo Days are not pitch competitions for cash prizes on the spot. Instead, these sprints fuel innovation within JetBlue and lead to continuing conversations. Ideas from Demo Day sometimes lead to improvements with existing partnerships or potential proof of concepts.
JetBlue’s Innovation Sprints are a light lift for startups in that they do not have to apply, and the startups benefit from the exposure to and direct feedback from JetBlue leaders. I am eager to see what innovative solutions come from this sprint focused on the future of Inflight Experience at JetBlue.
Startups interested in future innovation sprints can subscribe to the JetBlue Ventures newsletter.
If you want to see more of the JetBlue Inflight Experience, follow JetBlue’s VP of Inflight Experience, Don Uselmann on Instagram and Twitter.
