fabricio astúastrategy | design | research

april 2010

Fabricio Astua de MoraesMSc. Strategic Product Design

I am a strategic designer holding a dual BSc. degree in Industrial Design and Graphic Design (2002) from ESDI 1- State University of Rio de Janeiro - in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I recently graduated from the Master of Science Strategic Product Design Program (2008-2010) at the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at TU Delft/Netherlands 2 , presenting a master thesis on ‘The integration of sustainability within the front end of innovation within the context of SMEs’.

Before attending graduate school, I have been interning and working as graphic designer since 1999, within design studios, advertising and marketing agencies. In 2005, I joined Brazilian Strategic Design Consultancy NCS Design, where I helped research, develop and implement sustainable design actions and corporate social responsibility projects for clients such as brazilian bank Caixa Economica Federal and the Rio de Janeiro State Government.

In 2008, motivated to pursue a different track in design career, I moved to the Netherlands to undertake the Master of Science in Strategic Product Design at TU Delft. Simultaneously, I have worked as a freelance Strategic Design Consultant providing strategic advice to YES!Delft Start Up ICY Solutions and a retail business venture, in addition to conducting research at the faculty.

As a Strategic Designer, I am trained to help companies define a strategic direction when developing new products, by applying design thinking and relevant research methodologies. With strong skills in research and strategic planning, I am an looking forward to expand my expertise in a challenging work environment. Always curious and knowledge avid, I am interested in a broad variety of themes ranging from design thinking, design methodology, sustainability, innovation & sustainable innovation, product and service strategy and concept development.

1. Latin America first design school, featured by BusinessWeek within the Top 60 Design Programs in the world in 2007

2. Featured by BusinessWeek within the Top 30 World’s Best Design Schools in 2009

ROOTS seriesDesign Strategy for a Start Up in the Bioplastic industry in the Netherlands

Responsibilities: Design Strategy; Project Management and Product Marketing Plan

January – July 2009

issues process

Imperial Ventures is young start-up looking to engage in a new product development process for a biopolymer-based commercial offering.

The project briefing was broad in scope, offering a wide range of investigation and possible market entries. The new product was to be developed from an as-yet unspecified biopolymer, in an unspecified market, for an unspecified application. At the beginning of the commission, the sole requirement was to attempt a Cradle 2 Cradle (C2C) approach to the product development

Solutions needed to emerge from a holistic and strategic approach, in order to fully explore existing contexts and consequent potential paths to a fully optimal outcome for Imperial Ventures. The broad nature of the assignment (combined with the explicit “fuzziness” of the problem definition the team was to deal with) called for a strategic approach capable of providing a comprehensive “bigger picture” of the situation and possible desired market and product solutions. The chosen methodology to approach was the ‘Technology Front End/Technology Window’ (see figure below).

The method determines valuable product-market combinations and addresses technology push versus market pull factors. It is based on the concept of Technology Windows, where a technology window determines the strength of a technology vs. its constraints and current technology trends.

1. The core: Stakeholder’s analyses;Company’s internal and external analyses;C2C requirements and implications

2. Identifying Opportunities: Technology research into bio-polymers and oil based plastic; Bio-based plastics properties; market applications; consumer perception; future; Market development; Potential; C2C viability

3. The Technology window: Biopolymers form a material basis that is both biodegradable & compostable. It distinguishes them from regular oil based plastics, and both its strength and weakness reside in these properties. From this simple conclusion, the application domains for the technology were synthesized in the statement: no impact short life cycle products

4. Application domains definition, research, assessment and choice

5. Final brief definition

solutions 1. multipod

Imperial Ventures is a new company, with few current commercial offerings, therefore they have great flexibility in being able to choose at which level they should enter the market. The model behind the brief aimed at providing Imperial Ventures with three products, over the range of commercial offerings between business-to-business and business-to-consumer. This is to allow them to initially tackle the market at all levels, and determine which entry point is most suitable for their future products.

The Multipod is an injection moulded product that encases several flower bulbs in breakaway sections for individual planting. Designed for high visual impact, novel product use and seductive brand placement, it draws from bio-inspired design and is engineered for a pleasant, surprising use. Fully degradable upon burying and made from 100% vegetal waste, it merges pleasure with eco-responsibility.

2. breathe 3. snap

Deceivingly simple in design, the tear-off pot carries elegant innovation in use. This injection moulded product is engineered to last as long as it is needed and to degrade when its role is fulfilled. When the time comes to transfer a potted plant into the ground, the previously messy task becomes simpler. As the pot will degrade if buried, removing the plant from it becomes unnecessary. Also, the tear-off sections, after removal, allow for increase the water and nutrient flow, ensuring that the planted pot is not a hindrance for the plant’s development.Engineered for efficiency and designed for exclusivity, the tear-off pot is an easily achievable step forward for Imperial Ventures

The pot-tray is a vacuum formed product, made from a single sheet of plastic. It focuses on the issue of pot trays that have no other use than temporarily transport individual pots. These trays, although reusable, are only useful when part of a dynamic logistic system. Due to logistic complications, it happens that some of these trays are only used once and then abandoned. The current concept hinges on this and merges the pot and the tray into one product. It is a tray when you need it – to transport to selling point – and it becomes a pot when you buy it.

ICY SolutionsBrand Strategy for a techno startup company in Ice Bath Therapy

Responsibilities: Competitor Analysis, Generative Sessions & Brand Strategy

December 2008 – April 2009

ICY solutions, a TU Delft techno start-up was about to enter the market at full speed. As a technology startup, ICY Solutions was born from the vision that there was a void in the market for high quality athlete cooling equipment. Because of the novelty of its offering and the existence of potential threats, ICY Solutions needed to strongly position and differentiate itself, in order to establish awareness and gain recognition and advantages over its competitors. With a great potential to deliver, based on a competitive technological innovation, ICY needed more to establish a grounded entry into the market.

I was approached by ICY Solutions to help the company understand its customers and stakeholders. Ultimately ICY needed to define what was its brand, its values and aspirations.

In order to gather a holistic view of the environment and market ICY Solutions was about to enter, the competition needed to be analyzed and stakeholders involved and understood. A competition analysis was then developed to see at what stage competitors were. Most importantly potential customers and stakeholders were involved in a user centered design research in order to gain insight into the context. This enabled the development of a brand strategy based on what stakeholders were expecting from the brand.

Athletes, coaches and doctors were invited to participate into generative sessions to gather into their views of what is therapy in sports practice. Before the session, each participant received sensitizing probes and a booklet to prepare them to the sessions.

Each session was recorded and analyzed together with the booklets. The rich data collected from this analysis enabled to build a comprehensive branding platform that would guided ICY Solutions following branding efforts.

issues process

ICY’s identity

The brand essence is the core of the brand. It explicits the characteristics and traits that describe ICY, driving all touch points consistently to trigger a quality relationship

In ICY’s case, this essence is about three essential characteristics needed to reach stakeholders and communicate what is the personality of the brand. Such characteristics are above any market ICY is inserted in, therefore applicable to any. They ultimately transmit what ICY is about and why it connects to stakeholders. ICY’s brand essence is about trust, care and innovation.

Around this core are the brand’s values. These are divided into the the brand’s drivers and the aspects that will shape its relationship with stakeholders. Together, the core and the value define the identity of the brand which turn shapes the brand’s touchpoints and influences the image the company projects.

Complete reports on process and results are also available.

Please contact me.

solutions

Ideas for a fruit juice momentRetail Concept for a fresh juice store

Responsibilities: Concept & Experience Development

June - August 2008

The idea behind this project was to develop a concept for a fresh juice retail store. An entrepreneur was looking for investors to start this business venture. The main idea was to develop a retail concept to offer freshly squeezed juice, made from local and regional ingredients, from responsible and sustainable sources. The resulting concept was used to prospect potential investors.

To define the concept for the retail experience, an extensive research was made, It addressed competitors, other retail experiences, juices, colors and elements that could contribute to the final concept. Additionally, focus groups were interviewed with target customers. The resulting material was then synthezed into guiding keywords that helped shape the retail concept.

issues

process

keywords defining the experiecnce

Based on the findings of the research, two concepts were developed:

THE DJ’UICE CONCEPT

This concept elevates the role of the juice maker into one of a artist (in this case as a DJ in a night club). He orchestrates his craft as afront man on a stage, but the juice-making process is still visible and close to the customer.The juice-maker is central and a attraction on its own • The juice making location is central to the space, maybe on a higher level, but he still has to be accessible • There are different contact points, with varied interaction levels • It is a sophisticated ambient, but colorful and relaxed • Supporting staff helps to make the store run on maximum performance

solutions

dj’uice [di( )-joos]noun

1. The essence of the ultimate sensorial experience2. A place where samples of fruits are takento make the most amazing mixes3. “The place where I often see myself going to!”

Integrating Sustainabilty in the fuzzy front end of innovationWithin the context of Small & Medium Enterprises

Graduation Thesis to obtain the M.Sc. Degree

November 2009 - April 2010

PROBLEM DEFINITION

The integration of sustainability issues in the Fuzzy Front End of Innovation (FFE) is an ill-addressed area in scientific literature.

To tackle the problem, the research builds on the framework proposed by Hassi et al (2009) articulated in the following way(see figure 1):

• At the origin of a sustainable innovation process, there are the strategic reasons that drive a business to innovate sustainably, i.e. Why sustainable innovation is pursued (organizational commitment)

• In the later stages, there are design and business tools that enable the embodiment and the optimization of products and services, i.e. How to enable sustainable innovation (realization)

• Between these two steps, there is a crucial question addressed, namely what is the best translation of strategy into products and services, i.e. the goal-finding phase or What to

do. Within each organization there are players responsible for articulating these choices, i.e. Who is enabling sustainable innovation.

It is at the ‘What’ phase that sustainability issues are integrated in the FFE of Innovation. The focus of this assignment is to begin providing answers to these questions. This thesis looks specifically at the context of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), an important area of focus. It is crucial that sustainable innovation practices within SMEs are mapped and understood.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

This area still being ill-addressed, initial research has to objectively understand how these issues are currently being managed and understood by management and businesses within SMEs. More specifically, it looks to address the following research questions:

1. How (when and by whom) is sustainability integrated in the FFE of Innovation?2. In what way and how does the company’s view and strategy on sustainability influence their innovation process?

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

Due to the theory-building characteristic of the research combined with its exploratory nature, the chosen research strategy was to conduct a multiple case study among innovative SMEs. Selected companies were divided into two groups of three SMEs and paired across industries/sectors:

FINDINGS

• The owner/general manager appears to yield great influence on the outcome of FFE phases.• The innovation process and the FFE are very informal and are consistent only within each SME. • Time invested in FFE phases is very small.• When integrated in FFE phases, sustainability issues are tackled either under one specific product requirement or as a more general guiding principle to the innovation process.

Implications

• SMEs seem to need to have stronger FFE activities. However, for this to happen, owners/general managers need to be included and addressed. Therefore, prior to the development of any tool to integrate sustainability in FFE activities, the FFE needs to be strengthened with relevant and appropriate approaches within the context of SMEs. These activities are to be directed to these key players in

these organizations if any progress in better integrating sustainability in their early phases of the innovation process is to be done.

• Within the context of SMEs, the ‘What’ and ‘Who’ aspects are closely linked and seemingly inseparable. The proposed framework by Hassi et al. (2009) would therefore need to be adapted when used in the present context.

fabricio astúastrategy | design | research

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