Persona
During the first class session of the “Define” phase, we came up with three possible personas: the professional business traveler, family traveler, and bargain traveler. We created a persona for the business and family traveler. Using your template on Google docs was a great way to brainstorm and collaborate about the different components of our personas. This was a new tool that I enjoyed using and see myself using in the future. I preferred having specific elements you thought were valuable because it broadened our thought process. We expanded our thinking, which led to more discussion and valuable insights than if we were to have just used Xtensia’s structure.
It was challenging to choose one persona to focus on because Marriott caters to all three personas through various brands. Brainstorming about each persona allowed us to expand our thought process and talk about where we individually saw potential for innovation in the industry. We were thinking about targeting the business professional before we began the define process, but after completing the personas we noticed that there is a lot of opportunity in the family traveler segment due to it being the largest segment within Marriott’s portfolio. Our secondary research showed that any sustainability practices Marriott has are in their upscale hotels. Marriott has such a small amount of sustainability practices so we have the opportunity to innovate in any segment.
LP Focus
I was surprised to see that our team had the same focus when we were asked to choose which LP segments we wanted to focus on. Without discussion, we had picked the exact same ones! One could argue that being in the same mindset may limit our potential, but I believe this will allow us focus on specifics and produce a great product/service we are passionate about.
How Might We
Reading “The Secret Phrase Top Innovators Use” prior to class, gave me an understanding of what we were expected to do with the How Might We Statements. It was enlightening to read the article because I hadn’t thought about the importance and purpose of each word. “How” creates confidence because it acknowledges a problem and facilitates conversation with the group. “Might” creates a sense of security. Some people are afraid to communicate their thoughts because they do not want to be wrong. Might implies that the statement may or may not be of use and takes some stress of an individual and encourages them to bring forth their idea. “We” emphasizes and reminds the individual that this is a team component.
It is a personal challenge to think of problems to solve because I am used to being given a problem and asked to find solutions. The “How Might We” exercise proved to be very important for our team. At the beginning I tried to fit the how might we problem statements to ideas I had already had in my head. As the activity continued, I stopped thinking about what was in my head and focused on what we learned through our LP analysis to solely think about ways to improve our 4 chosen LP segments within Marriott. These questions were helpful because I began to think of things that can be improved upon instead of “forcing” an idea into the equation. Most of our HMW statements fell into the “Behavior” LP segment. There is an incredible amount of potential for Marriott to change the behavior of their customers to more sustainable practices and I am excited to see where we go as a team!