Even one of the greatest leader companies in Europe could come with its own shortcomings. One of the challenges of Deutsche Bahn was with punctuality and its chaotic causes, as well as its consequences. Our challenge was to metamorphose this moment of worry for the passengers into a useful time that they can take advantage of to do something meaningful.
Challenge
Research was at the heart of our project as we tried to understand the complex dynamics of the organizational structure of our client, as well as the operating processes that could explain this punctuality problem. Here is what we found out:
Who is Deutsche Bahn?
Deutsche Bahn, founded in 1994, is the national railway provider of Germany. It operates a vast network of trains that connect cities and regions domestically, as well as international destinations in neighboring countries making it one of the most important railway operators in Europe.
Deutsche Bahn (DB) strategically positions itself in the market as a leading provider of comprehensive and sustainable transportation solutions.
The Problem
However, the company has a rather negative reputation when it comes to punctuality, as it is a recurrentissue that undermines clients satisfaction. Even The Guardian took part & gave very bad reviews, along with the complaining passengers that keep on sharing their bad experiences on social media. Here are the extensive insights that we collected that explains the punctuality issue within the railway industry:
Insights
A field trip into Deutsches Technikmuseum made us realize that that Deutsche Bahn, under different names through the years, carries Germany’s history. The oldest train was an imperial one, from the early 1900’s. The museum seamlessly transitioned through the Nazi reign, the WW2 and the post-war era, exploring the division of Germany and its eventual reunification. This insight, that seems trivial at first, brought us to understand that the company, because of its history and heavy legacy, operates from an ancient mentality in some aspects of its management. To understand this better, we analyzed the situation through an iceberg model.
Persona
Sophie Müller
40 years oldHighly skilled IT professional and project manager.
Face-to-face interactions are essential to her.
Frequent user of DB services.
Travel Patterns
Sophie’s travels are both essential and well-organized. She plans her trips around important meetings. Sophie doesn’t want to waste time and expects her travels to be hassle-free so she can get the most out of her time on the road.Thoughts & emotions
When her train is delayed, she feels frustrated and exasperated. She has to wait in the cold station, only to ruminate about the fact that her plans are ruined, she can’t fullfill her commitments, and on top of that, she is wasting her time and getting bored.
How might Deutsche Bahn help travelers manage
their distress while waiting for a train that is delayed?
How can we transform moments of stress and worry
into a moment that the traveler can take advantage of,
for experiencing something enriching, meaningful and valuable?
Design tools used
Research
♦ Desk Research♦ Golden Circle
♦ Stakeholder Map
♦ Competitor Analysis
♦ Guerilla Observation
♦ User Journey
♦ Expert Interviews
♦ Brainstorming & mapping
♦ Competitor study
♦ Survey
Synthesis
♦ Data clustering♦ User Journey
♦ Criteria Voting
♦ Empathy Map
♦ Persona
♦ Iceberg Model
♦ Systems Mapping
Ideation
♦ How Might We Questions♦ Mind mapping
♦ Co-creation workshop
♦ Heaven& Hell
♦ Brainwriting (635)
♦ Think Like A Famous Person
♦ Artists curation
Prototyping & testing
♦ User journey♦ Storyboard
♦ UX prototype
♦ Functional Prototype testing
♦ Spacial prototyping
♦ Look and feel prototype
♦ High fidelity prototype & Testing
Implementation
♦ Project Roadmap♦ Business Model
♦ Cost estimations
♦ Metrics for success
AI-based chatroom
This feature of the DB mobile app will pop-up on the phone once the train delay is announced. It aims at supporting emotional regulation by a series of questions and insights based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT).
Community calmtainment
Interactive contemporary art installations that take the traveler to a different universe, where they can learn something new and interact with people in a fun and inspiring way. This initiative promotes culture & emerging local artists.
Facilities
As common courtesy, the people whose train has been delayed will have free access to the facilities: the DB lounge where they can relax, the bathrooms, the lockers, and of course the free access to the art space. It makes the wait easier to handle and brings them more ease.
1. The chatroom
This app serves as a first round of emotional regulation. After feeling anxious and upset because the train is delayed, you can try this therapy-like session with a CBT-trained chatbot. Of course the sessions will be monitored by a psychologist.
2. The art space
An art space will be set within the main stations, in which curated contemporary artists will showcase interactive artworks. The artists and installations will be selected following certain criterias: it has to be family friendly, fun, interactive, and participatory!
Artists curation
This initiative promotes culture and local artists and gives the opportunity for travelers to transform a time of worry into something meaningful provide the travelers with opportunities to have a good time and bond.
Story board
Changing the journey
Ultimately, the goal from this initiative is to intervene within the user experience, and thus, increase user satisfaction and restore a positive brand image.
People’s reactions
If We Could Do Things Differently
This project was intended to be of an organizational nature. But because of a lack of resources, of communication with our stakeholders, and a limited time frame, the project ended up being a deflection from the root causes of DB's punctuality issue. We handled the symptoms but not the root causes of them. And because there are complex root causes (the infrastructure, unforeseen events, meteorological perturbations, obsolescence, and so on), a deeper dive is necessary to optimize the processes and the resources, one thing at a time. We could start by the centralization of data on a standardized platform, for example, that would ensure the connectivity to third parties. That in itself is huge step forward for real-time updates, communication and synchronization between the concerned teams and departments, that will lead, eventually, to an optimized and seamless delay management.