Create with purpose: How Grassfish makes in-store experiences relevant

In his recent interview on the Grassfish Knowledge Hub, our CXO Marco Burkhardtsmayer highlighted the importance of relevance and consistency for a store and its digital touchpoints to be successful. But how is relevance created? And how is consistency achieved? This is where design comes into play.

The fundamental task of design is to create meaning. When we design an in-store experience, it is our responsibility to bring the purpose of a brand to life and allow customers to resonate with it. Achieving this does not require a magic wand, nor is failure a matter of bad luck. It is merely a question of whether one basic principle is considered or ignored – a principle widely known through Simon Sinek’s 2009 TED Talk: “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.”

Loyal customers identify with a brand through the “why” – their shared beliefs. They expect this “why” to be reflected across every means of communication. These expectations are difficult to grasp, because in most cases they cannot be described rationally. The “why” sits deep in our guts and must be constantly validated by “how” something is done and “what” the outcome is. The longing for the “why” is so strong that we read books and watch movies over and over again, even though we know exactly what will happen and how the story unfolds. But we still do it, because we want to understand why characters behave the way they do. When the relationship between why, how and what is clear, consistent and relevant, it becomes meaningful to us – and that brings us back to design.

When we design, we write a story that evolves as it is written. If we already know the ending when we begin, the entire process becomes a massive waste of time (and money). What we do need to start is context: for example the “genre” of the brand or its “characters”. And of course the direction – lead by the guiding “why”. However, this is not a single sentence or a purpose statement written beneath a logo. It is multilayered, just like we are as human beings. It unfolds over time and reveals itself through actions, decisions and experiences.

A powerful place to interact with this multilayered human complexity is the physical store. Customers usually go there intentionally, open all their senses to discover. They want to experience the brand from multiple perspectives, confirm their beliefs or be surprised in a positive way. We owe it to them to deliver a deep and meaningful experience, not technology for technology’s sake. It is the task of a (human) designer to take care of these expectations and deliver something that truly matters. In other words, outstanding digital in-store experiences are not defined by what we do, but by why we do it.

We therefore begin every design process by discovering and understanding the driving beliefs of both the brand and its customers. We dive, experience the brand, visit stores, conduct interviews and observe behaviour. As Marco pointed out: most answers are already visible on the shop floor. At this point we are tempted to decide on specifications and technical details, either because of constraints or because we believe we already know the answer to the question we didn’t ask yet. This not only narrows the space of possibilities and prevents truly outstanding solutions. Even worse, the result may be an answer, but to the wrong question – a perfect fail.

If, instead, we follow the design process without preconceptions, we become adaptable. We can explore new paths and will likely fail at certain points. Those failures allow us to learn, as long as we remain open to change. As long as we know why we do what we do, we can keep moving forward. With a deep understanding of both brand and customer, we can address real needs and identify friction as a source of new ideas. We can develop strategies of “how” to bring those ideas to life and create the “what”, a tangible asset that can be tested and iterated. Every new insight adds another layer to the story – making it more relatable, more consistent and more relevant – until it becomes a bestseller customers want to experience again and again.

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