Amanda Klassen: in Vancouver, BC

ELEVATING A GRASSROOTS BUSINESS AFTER TYPHOON HAIYAN (Philippines) Working in an impacted area of Super Typhoon Yolanda, our program focused on inclusive sustainable economic growth, to financially (and creatively) empower rural women weavers in the Philippines. I coached the women on some of the basics of running a business, and assisted with some product development needs, such as sourcing sustainable dyes to improve the supply chain-based on our customer's greatest demands. Through design research, market research, workshops, coaching, and co-creation, we opened new distribution channels and paved the way for the international debut of their grassroots business.

LAUNCHING SELF-PAY AT RESTAURANTS (Canada) As a consultant, I guided the team from beta to launch by reducing roadblocks for the implementation of a brand new experience-self-pay at restaurants and BC Place Stadium. This role worked through all phases of research, strategy, design and implementation. I led customer facing sprints and testing, design research, and connected the team to suppliers and manufacturers of their physical POS.

Project Example: IMPLEMENTING SERVICE BLUEPRINTS (Canada) After deep diving into the company’s three main product verticals, Service Blueprints were implemented to improve team alignment and improve product integration for improved end-to-end customer experiences in retail. Blueprinting identified service breakdowns, areas of duplication in staff workflows, improved communication for cross-functional teams, helped onboard new staff, and helped designers to better communicate the value of proposals, leading to more approvals.

We speculated the future and brought new product categories to life, ranging from digital to analog outcomes. We led initial research, built product strategy, and shipped product. In total, I worked with the lab 3 times over the course of 5 years. Project Example: MODELLING FUTURE CUSTOMER SCENARIOS At Deutsche Telekom Innovation Labs I executed a modular way of storytelling the future of the company’s 5 key tech trends. We used the resulting videos as a primer for our workshops, to help collaborate across industries and instil creative thinking as well as inspire the business unit’s roadmap. The team rolled out B2B collaborations, such as with Volkswagen, and executives who had little insight into the work of the lab.

Project Example: AMAZON ELEMENTS BEVERAGE PACKAGING (US) Starting with Amazon's core tenets, the team identified the most important benchmarks in the product category of single-serve beverages. The deliverable of the project was a sketchbook filled with wild ideas and storyboards of product experiences. Then, two entirely different concepts were selected and refined into photo-realistic renderings.