PEOPLE REVOLUTION
Place:
Soulsight
Client:
IKEA
Role:
Design Researcher & Strategist
Timeline:
4 weeks
Research
- Employee interviews
- Manager interviews
- Historical analysis (peaceful revolutions)
- In-Context Observation
Business Problem
IKEA employees have many ideas to change and improve the environment around them but the traditionally hierarchical culture of Spain and the bureaucratic nature of IKEA stores keeps them from acting on these insights.
Key Insights
From our research, we understood that employees of IKEA understood their areas of work better than upper management. They knew what difficulties customers faced and had ideas on how to improve their experience. In some stores, (Muricia), proactive employees had created solutions to these problems – for example, a book of textiles and colors that customers could use to select materials. In these stores, employees were given more liberty to make changes specific to their departments.
Starting the Revolution
In order to create a cultural shift for the hundreds of IKEA employees, an internal revolution had to happen. We worked with cultural revolution leaders (such as Pablo Iglesias) to understand the steps and figures needed to create this revolution. We designed the user experience for an event for leaders and employees, the changemakers of IKEA, to design and begin implementing their revolution.
*I had to return to the United States before this project was completed
