UX research case study: Danish National Rail - How we tested a Last Mile solution
And 3 tips on how you can start testing solutions to your costumer's problems as well.
A problem I often meet in organizations, big, small, public or private is the lack of ability to test ideas. Most start building the solution to later find out if it works or not, while the best approach would be to figure out if the idea is also a good idea.
Here is how DSB Digital Lab tested at new service and 3 tips on how to get started testing ideas in your organization.
Who am I?
I’m a freelance UX designer and researcher, I’ve been working for big corporations such as Sony, H&M, Fujitsu, for startups, public organizations and local government. For the past 6 weeks I’ve been working together with HelloGreatWorks and the team at DSB (Danish National Rail) Digital Lab.
The problem
Danish National Rail, DSB, is facing a challenge known as “The last mile” — The longer the distance from the train station to the office, the bigger the likelihood of leaving the train and buying the second car.
Our first idea…which we scrapped
Our first idea was to organize carpooling between employees. Employees arriving by car would pick up colleagues, arriving by train at the nearest station. Although we were very excited about the idea, early indications from talking to employees and companies, disproved it.
We scrapped the idea, but the process of talking potential users gave us valuable findings:
Employees
- It’s inconvenient to bring a bike on the train, due to lack of space in crowded morning trains.
- Keeping a bike on the station brings stress from dealing with maintenance and the risk of theft makes it unreliable.
- Walking or taking the bus from the station takes planning and is time-consuming.
Companies
- Companies are aware of this problem and want to help their employees.
- Companies experience the “Last-mile” problem when recruiting.
- Companies are looking for green alternatives to their full parking lots.
- Some companies buy bicycles for their employees to use, but the process of buying and dealing with maintenance makes it uneasy.
- Some companies are organizing carpooling but willingness from employees is limited and carpooling is potentially preventing people from using the train.
New idea!
With this in mind, we came up with the idea to offer rental bikes and e-scooters to companies, for their employees to use between the station and the office.
Employees would have an e-scooter or a bike at their disposal when arriving at the station in the morning, and in the afternoon from the office to the station. DSB would be responsible for delivering and maintaining the vehicles.
Top two assumptions we wanted to test
We created an assumption map, ranking all assumptions from high to low risk and thereby most important assumptions to test:
- We believe our solution is better than walking, taking the bus or bringing your bike on the train
- We believe a solution like this can make it more attractive to commute
The test
Next, we brainstormed and designed a test in order to validate our top assumptions.
The test involved:
- Recruiting participants
A company experiencing the last-mile problem and employees to participate. - Partnering up with an e-scooter provider
A provider with the capacity and interest in a partnership with DSB. - Running the test-service
Handing out e-scooters to the participants at the station in the morning and in the afternoon at the office. - Gathering feedback
Contacting participants to get their feedback on the concept and experience of riding an e-scooter to work.
Learnings
Employees are interested in a solution like this
The interest was overwhelming and everyone who had participated in the test wanted to continue using the solution. We had to scale the operation from 10 to 20 e-scooters and close the sign-up period before planned.
“It’s way better than walking”
“You guys are here tomorrow, right?”
“Is this something permanent? That would be awesome”
Companies are interested in a solution like this
There was a lot of interest from companies and it was easy to find a company to participate in the test.
Vehicle providers are interested in a solution like this
Vehicle rental companies are struggling with strict regulations from cities, with a partner like DSB new business possibilities arise.
Next steps
Running a test like this always brings new problems and assumptions, these are our next crucial ones to figure out:
That we find a sustainable business model
We learned from employees that there can be no extra cost to their commute for using a “Last mile” solution like this, therefore we have to find a sustainable business model which lets the employees use the service with no extra cost.
That employees can trust the service is there
It’s clear that it’s important for people to feel they can trust that there is a vehicle for them when they arrive.
That we can secure space for the vehicles
Both at the stations and at the offices to keep the e-scooters parked and safe.
3 tips on how you can start testing ideas
Once you have looked at the problem from different angels and developed an idea, you should test it — Use these 3 tips to get started:
1. Map out your assumptions and prioritise
All new ideas involve risky assumptions, it’s crucial to get them validated as fast and as cheap as possible. The assumption map is a tool to identify and prioritise, you can read more on how to use it here.
2. Start small
A test should be something you can execute within a couple of days and with a handful of participants. You don’t need big data sets, you need quality data.
3. Bring value
Asking users if they would use something is OK, but actuallys experience them use it brings so many more learnings. Try to get your test participants to actually use the solution and not just give their opinion on it.
