From usability test to co-design: how Pampers creates better customer experiences

This story about our collaboration with Fater, a multinational corporation whose products are present in homes across the Italian peninsula, is representative of the typical journey that many clients embark on when they meet us and understand the importance of “with”, our sixth W. An extraordinary experience of reconnection, in this case between “planet Pampers” and “planet mums”, which begins with a usability test (but is actually much more) and ends with the awareness of knowing that things can no longer be done differently. But let’s proceed in order.

A usability test to improve customer experience

Years ago we talked to Fater about who we are and our mission: to help those who do things to do them better, by listening to people with the aim of creating well-being through quality experiences. It is by sharing this approach that, after some time, they returned to us to solve some problems related to the use of their “CoccolePampers” app.

Improving the app’s user experience while also identifying new ways of engaging users was their request. How? We could call it a usability test, but this activity is actually much more as it provides us with a wealth of information, a transfer of precious value that people donate by sharing their time with us. An important moment of listening and reconnection between company and customers, mediated by us, which allows not only to understand what problems an application (or any other environment, digital or physical) has, but to go much deeper and give Fater, in this specific case, insights to reflect on that had never been considered before, bringing the company itself closer to its customers.

“Experience donors”: mothers and future mothers in our laboratories

Today, evolution for us is, paradoxically, looking back: going back to doing things like the craftsmen of the past, directly involving the end customer. On the other hand, people also love to contribute to the design of a product or the improvement of a service, especially if it is inherent to their own sphere of interest. We have called them “experience donors”, people, and in the specific case of Fater mothers or future mothers, with the characteristics and desire to join us in a shared project aimed at creating quality experiences.

In the days of usability testing for Pampers, we observed and listened to women with beautiful bellies as they shared valuable insights into App functionalities. In the welcoming atmosphere of our laboratory spaces, we also collected brand perceptions as these multi-tasking mothers nursed their new-borns completed the tasks at hand. We will say it time and again, these are much more than usability tests. They are an extraordinary happening in which experiences are collected, organized, and studied through our scientific skill-set. All of which translates into truly powerful and concrete actions that are capable of impacting the quality of experiences and the well-being of those who will live them.

Reconnecting Fater with its customers: from usability test to co-design

If we have “experience donors” on one hand, we need people within companies that are ready to listen to them on the other, and us in the middle as interpreters and translators of this “reconnection”.

By choosing us as a partner, Fater was able to witness, in real time, the experience of customers as they used and commented on the App (and the brand), rediscovering the ancient and innovative concept of listening to your customer. An incredible moment – which we have created together several times now – that opens our eyes to information and suggestions that are of immense value for organizations.

Once companies discover the power of this reconnection it becomes hard to do without. This collaboration that started with a usability test confirmed what we have been saying at TSW for years: involving people in the earliest stages of product or service development makes the difference (in the quality of the user experience, but also in the time that companies spend re-designing and correcting errors that could have been avoided). Thus, from wanting to improve a user experience, Fater has now moved on to involving the user in the entire design cycle of new services through periodic co-design activities in which the company, customers and us at TSW work together at the same table to design a better tomorrow for everyone.