UX in the times of Covid-19
Emerging Experienced out of LockDown
Thanks for your love and heartfelt messages. Keep them coming.
And we are definitely living in exciting times where Google and Apple are being friends and collaborating to tackle the menace of Covid 19. Apple and Google are planning to introduce a pair of iOS and Android APIs in mid-May to enable contact tracing and thus enabling public health authorities’ apps to collect data about individuals who may have been exposed to an infection without risking exposure for a health worker. This is an exemplary instance of creating an extraordinary user experience mediated by technology and which has been propelled by Covid-19.
DTW
During the week, we saluted the spirit of thousands of health care workers who have been working during the pandemic and helping to stave off the crisis. Not to take anything away from the healthcare corona warriors but this also got me thinking about millions of others who have been instrumental in making sure that the wheels of businesses and society are still running.
I have talked about the impact of Covid 19 on business and life. It has been an extraordinary transition for businesses especially retail and we are witnessing changes that no amount of C-Suite vision or regulatory push would have brought about in such a short span of time.
Covid-19 has upended the business model of many companies and also hastened the digital transitions that would have been implemented in a decades time frame. The user experience (UX) interface could be seen as two sided problem. First, the customers and second, employees and partners.
Most of the recent news has been about the digital transformation of the end-user experience i.e. customer experience. Ever since the crisis started , I have been receiving email from companies signed off by no less than the CEOs in many cases talking about their transformation as a digital first company. Some of them have gone over board with out looking at their engagement with me in recent past and just because they have my email or phone number, the CEO’s message has been sent to me. This kind of panic-induced and head less chicken scrambling would not serve a brand well. There are few instances of platforms like Ninjacart pivoting to deal with a different B2B2C strategy of going to retail customers via the Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs). This could be a way forward as it reduces Ninjacart’s dependence on the organised retail and brings them closer to the end-users’ aggregate demand and thus gives better visibility to demand pattern. On the other hand if the intermediary platforms like BigBasket start sharing their online grocery customer data with manufacturers and FMCG companies then it could potentially change the FMCG companies’ approach to the online grocery marketing and merchandising. In fact, Covid-19 related changes can force companies to look at partners on multiples sides and start reimagining their current relationships and user experience going forward.
Other platforms like Uber have initiated newer sides to their platform for existing partners. Uber has added another side to its platform to maintain its relevance in the post Covid-19 world. This side is looking at the opportunities for its driver partner in adjacent industries. And this is another instance of platforms looking to protect themselves and their relationships with key stakeholders. Airbnb has also embarked on a massive exercise to fund some of the losses of their home-owner partners because of cancellation caused by lockdown. They faced an extraordinary situation where the customers demanded refunds for the bookings which couldn’t be honored owing to lockdown but the home owners weren’t willing to book losses. On March 30, Airbnb said it would spend $250 million to help reimburse hosts and launched a $10 million fund to help them pay their mortgages.
Lot of user experience changes have also been at the employees level- be it work from home for majority of corporations or creating safe contactless interfaces for the delivery personnels at major e-commerce companies. Some of these changes in managing employee’s experience could be far reaching. Almost all the major tech companies have taken the entire recruitment process online and this might be the signs of a tectonic shift in the way potential hires might experience a company’s culture. It might also force the companies to think radically about the need for employees and customers to be in endless (and many times futile) meetings at one physical location and lead to further impetus to a healthy work life balance.
“It’s a radical new way of thinking about how the workplace should operate. It shows that there is not an absolute need to have everyone congregated together in one place. With the advancements in technology it’s possible to have large numbers, if not all, employees working remotely.”
Many companies have gone for measures to enable a proactive work from home environment including spending top dollars on computer hardware, desks and for lucky ones even ergonomic chairs. Now the Human Resources department has an additional incentive to let employees work from home to demonstrate a palatable ROI on such investments. Nobody is still sure whether this remote contactless way of conducting business is here to stay or perhaps we would move to something like 6 FEET OFFICE conceptualised by Cushman and Wakefield but for time being the mantra seems to be- stay home, stay safe, and stay engaged.
Platforms which rely on being together IRL are facing existential crisis. WeWork which was already in doldrums has simply collapsed because co-working is suddenly unsafe and no more cool ! Same fate awaits co-living spaces who have been forced to rethink their customer retention in short term and business model in long term. Even Health and wellness start-up Cure.fit was forced to shut down over 270 Cult.fit workout centres and has pivoted to Cult.live offering live fitness classes for everyone.
Both UberPool and OlaShare have been suspended till further notice and the rides across the ride-sharing platforms have plummeted. Work from Home and #Lockdown orders have practically killed the demand for Shuttl and other shared office commute platforms. The impact has been devastating for some of the new age micro-mobility start-ups including Bounce, Yulu and Rapido which have shut operations in many cities. CNN IBN news website reported a social utility for Bounce bikes during the lockdown when the government authorities used them as road barricades. :)
But all is not lost for the mobility platforms as few of them have moved on to become delivery partners for many struggling e-commerce and even traditional retail players.
One important changes that we have witnessed in last few weeks is that all e-commerce platforms have a grocery play now. In fact, if you do not have a grocery play , you may not even be allowed to operate as only the “essential” commerce is allowed by government. So , we have Amazon and Flipkart dusting out their grocery/pantry apps and Dominos delivering daily essentials like Atta through its vast delivery network. This leaves me wondering about Myntra future because as of now it looks uncertain unless you see them as a major content player !
They have created customer engagement through MasterClass through Celebrity Stylists and Do-It-Yourself (DIY) videos but is that what we would remember Myntra for after the crisis blows over.
We have had some interesting rebranding exercises during this crisis and new identities seems to bring out the we-are-in-this-together-as-a-community vibe.
Though LoveLocal team led by Akanksha Hazari may have working on this for couple of months but the timing could not have been better as the need for this change and messaging is more important and significant than ever. We have always had a special relation ship with the local shopkeepers and any platform helping us create a technologically superior user experience and thus enhance that special relationship with our local shops definitely has tremendous potential. Future is local !
And perhaps now is the time to look at the user experience with things and beings which are closest to us. May be refresh our relationships with our family, food and homes. Or to reimagine happiness. After all , what is happiness but needs ÷ wants so manage the denominator and you are all set. More on that in subsequent newsletters !
OTW
Over the weekend, I reconnected with an old acquaintance Abhinav who is Founder of Farmer Abhinav Consulting and Training (FACT) and Co-Founder of 0to5.in as well as a fellow PBEL City resident. He has been practicing for about a decade the new age retail entrepreneur’s new found love for the Farm2Fork concept during Covid 19 . And guess what, we might all move to this sustainable and slower pace of life which is in harmony with nature and fellow living beings. The true warriors would be the ones who would help us not only survive the current crisis but show us the new path in the post Covid-19 world. They may be ones with an emotional and heartfelt interface with the nature and human.
Gardening or farming as a therapy is one of the insights that I recollect from an interesting book titled “in praise of SLOW” by Carl Honore. He speaks about the great Eastern philosophies including Hinduism which talk about time being cyclical and a quick search reveals Nāsadīya Sūkta also known as the Hymn of Creation, of the Rigveda providing extraordinary insights about the nature of time itself. Slowing down means getting more time to contemplate and letting the mind go quiet. This enables us to pause or reflect and thus get more productive. Carl writes in his book-
Spending more time with friends and family costs nothing. Nor does walking, cooking, meditating, making love, reading or eating dinner at the table instead of in front of the television. Simply resisting the urge to hurry is free
Life during Covid-19 might actually turn us into better human beings. So, to paraphrase Bill Clinton- There is nothing wrong with us that can not be cured by what is right in us !
Wash your Hands, Stay at Home and Stay Safe.
I Love You
Shailendra
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Thank you sir for sharing your insights regarding the transformation of business because of the current situation. However, I could see that all the changes made by the businesses are only going to cater the needs of middle and upper middle class segments. What about the BOP and lower middle class? Will they be part of this transformation?
Rightly said sir!
Covid-19 has transformed business models for many companies and for us as well - during earlier days parents were reluctant to doorstep vaccination services but now we started getting lot of enquiries for doorstep vaccination services. This situation helped us to increase our presence on social medias. Our marketing spending has shifted towards FB & Google ads which we never explored.