Note from the CEO

With another year of tumultuous change behind us and the pandemic losing steam in the latest variant, the overall industry confidence seems high. India did well in terms of numbers in 2021 and is set to retain the tag of the fastest-growing large economy in 2022 too leaving China behind.

From scurrying to save jobs, to taking time to reflect jumping jobs on the fly, the job market has undergone tremendous changes with ‘great resignation’ rewriting the HR script all over again. It is not a doubt, unsettling the enterprises but there is a silver lining to it. Here is my take on the silver lining ahead.

Design Thinking by all means is as mainstream as the word ‘design’ is. Last few months, we have seen more nuanced requirements of Design Thinking training needed in the organizations, to bring about more collaboration in remote teams, bring about marketing innovations, and make the legacy businesses more agile. We have also seen a tremendous interest in our megatrends and strategic foresight services to map the future (5 years ahead) opportunities amongst a few unicorn startups in the past few months. With the uncertainty in the air, a longer look at the future is but natural. We are continuing our journey blending design thinking and futures thinking methods into a new construct for robust innovation.

Manoj Kothari

TV dinners are back with a twist!

There was a time (two decades back) when TV used to be the center of every household. A rather costly gadget to acquire back then, combined with limited available content, made it almost a must-have part of any family chore. From our user research in India, those years we know how the poorest of the poor aspired for buying a TV for the family as one of the top aspirations. As the cable revolution caught on, there were multiple TVs in every household.

Then came the internet+smartphone revolution. ‘Distributed screens’ and on-demand content became a norm in the millennials and then Gen Z. TV dinners vanished. And slowly even TV started taking a backseat as people enjoyed video content on the go on their mobiles. This decentralized manner of consumption went hand in hand with the growing trend of personalization when it came to digital content.

Who imagined that we would pass through a situation when people would be forced to be at home at once and the TV’s position as the center point of the house was reinstated. Brands democratizing hardware tech, the multiplicity of streaming content, an abundance of data, and the availability of finance, made it possible which proved handy when it came to WFH scenarios. Functionally, the TV was repurposed as a second-screen by one & all. Existentially, TV became the hub of family activity whilst retaining the ability to maintain their individual digital identities. As the smart-home movement catches on, smart TV would become the next home hub of visual entertainment and information. At Turian Labs we recently assessed the ever-increasing Smart TV portfolio and were able to map the extended functionalities to new product ideas for a leading OEM.

Digital payment revolution accelerates ahead

India is already a global leader in digital payment transactions, with 43.71 billion transactions in 2021 alone (compared to China with 25.4 billion). SMBs contribute to over 60%(by volume) of all digital payments in India.

India’s introduction of the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) in 2016 was instrumental in India leading the way toward a cashless economy. Large shifts in behaviour often start small and grow incrementally towards the Great Consumer Shift. Transaction data analysis shows that 50 percent of transactions through UPI were under Rs. 200. This is indicative of the trend of using digital payments methods for even small purchases. Small vendors, eateries, homepreneurs and many other smaller businesses are going cashless thereby encouraging and popularizing digital payment methods among the masses. These masses form the bulk of the Next Billion Users (NBUs) in India.

Over the last few years, Turian Labs has worked on several projects in this area for a leading global fintech brand with an increasingly large share in the digital payments space in India. We have gained insights into the shifting consumer and user mindset with over 300 in depth-interviews with NBU users of this product in 2021 alone. However, now we are keenly waiting for the introduction of the recently announced Account Aggregator (AA) platform by the government of India.

The next big thing in the Indian Fintech space - The rise of the Account Aggregator(AA)

This system is expected to radically change the way financial data is shared.

An Account Aggregator brings together multiple bank accounts of an individual or an MSME, their loans/debts, FDs, other investments, and related documents onto a single platform where the user can track their financial status and creditworthiness.

An Account Aggregator (AA) is a paradigm shift from physical collateral to information collateral. This system enables lenders to ascertain the creditworthiness of prospective borrowers with ease. The AA is a step towards bridging the 380B$ credit gap for MSMEs. It makes it feasible for MSMEs to borrow short-term loans from lenders based on their business’ past and projected cash flow (indicative of revenue and profits). It also works well for MSMEs without physical collateral for loans.

If pandemic had a color palette!

From the beginning of 2020, people have been spending much of their time confined to their homes. At the start, most houses didn't cater to people to inhabit them all day long (while still working from home). In space crunched cities, homes didn't allow for much. But through the duration of the pandemic, people have adapted their homes to suit them. Home improvement is now booming more than ever.

Touch, look & feel, and spatial design are the major components that transform a space into an experience. Colour, material, and finish(CMF) are the tools that embody these experiences. Pantone declared the color Veri-Peri as color for the year 2022. The team at Turian Labs recently worked on a CMF project connected to interior products at home. There are some exciting interior tips for you if you working on home improvements:

As lifestyle incorporated WHF needs, spaces are preferred to be decluttered, but they still tend to retain the 'Indianness'. Minimalism in Indian homes still does not equate to clinical or bare white spaces.

One major change the pandemic has brought in material selection is the rise of easily cleanable surfaces. People have moved away from intricate textures, patterns and grooved edges. Glossy surfaces with round edges gain more popularity than ever before right from smartphones to kitchen countertops.
While all this is happening, we certainly need a pop of color to bring life to the home. This can be achieved through smaller objects (art pieces, eclectic cushion covers, toasters) that are colorful and fashionable and act as accent pieces. They bring just the right amount of oomph to a space while being dispensable enough to be replaced without a second thought.

Mixed Methods in UX research

UX research companies are adopting Mixed Method Research(MMR) as a preferred method of research lately. Several large companies like Facebook, Google, Amazon, Etsy, eBay, Ford have promoted the use of mixed-method in UX research. MMR combines qualitative research techniques with quantitative research methods. It also has a multifold impact on the quality of insights because it allows us to view both quantitative and qualitative data in tandem.

Mixed Methods Research(MMR) at Turian Labs

Our 2021 started on a fantastic note as we took on a massive project spanning two months for a global tech giant! Our role included handling research operations, recruitment, and the actual study with 700 participants from across India who spoke several different languages.

A research study this large comes with its challenges. The task of identification, verification, and retention of 700 participants for 8 weeks was massive. However, it was made feasible through our in-house research operations team, meticulous planning, and our choice of methods within MMR.

Now listen to (&read) the research reports!

Whenever user-research studies are commissioned, there are multiple stakeholders within the client organization. But ultimately, it can make a difference only if the decision-makers can absorb the result of these studies and therefore gauge its impact.

Depending on the expanse of the study, the final report often runs into 10s or 100s of pages. What use is a report if the decision-makers have no time for it?

We have been deliberating on this issue for a while. To address this, the Turian Labs team has evolved new report formats. In addition to the conventional detailed reports, we also include audio summaries and short video clips from the study to ensure easy digestion of content by the busy stakeholders in the client organizations. And so far, we have had great feedback on it.

Workshops & events updates

1. Design Research ‘STS’ workshop for practicing designers of a global brand in consumer electronics

We recently conducted a 4-day training workshop on Design Thinking & the Research Process (STS- Sharpen the Saw) for the design team of a leading global consumer electronics brand. Each designer and design researcher in the corporate R&D teams must periodically update and refresh their industry skills. We got overwhelmingly positive feedback and demand for more such workshops. One of our realizations has been that convincing senior and the broader stakeholders in the corporate value chain is the BIGGEST task for a researcher. Bringing evidential elements and documentation methods in the design research or user-research (UXR) is a singular, crucial skill that needs attention.

2. Design Thinking training for the academic leaders in collaboration with IIM Calcutta

Last quarter Turian Labs team had an opportunity to interact with and train a group of educational leaders across the country in Design Thinking, under a program called eDLEAP (Education Leaders’ Programme). IIM Kolkata conducts this six-month-long professional course for Educators and Academic Professionals to build and enhance leadership capacity and management know-how. Many participants (included principals of several marquee schools in the country) were aware of the essential concepts of empathy and ideation (Feel. Imagine. Do. Share etc.) but this was limited to ‘how to teach better’ context. Design Thinking is a broader paradigm. Every education institution is also a business entity and a social entity, where strategic decisions need to be taken. Can Design Thinking help there too? This session helped expand the participants’ Design Thinking horizon through developing confidence for proposing creative solutions for organisational progress.

3. Kicking-off the startup revolution in Punjab
Turian Labs recently facilitated a two-day long session with Punjab-based startups in association with Innovation Mission Punjab. This was to mentor emerging startups from Punjab and help them prepare for their grand pitch in this pioneering initiative. Punjab is known to be a land of intrepid global entrepreneurs and ace agriculturists, but it has been somewhat lagging behind in the startup tsunami sweeping the country. However, now there is a ray of hope. In the session, we came across many startup ideas focused on agriculture and allied services, apart from the ones in healthcare, supply chain management and engineering products. Punjab's leap into the digital economy has some bright future ahead for sure.

The news you can use

UX research tips

Here is a consolidated good list of UX research tools for 2022, including those for Research Ops.
A great list of resources for getting to know the essentials of UX research

India strategy essentials

India would be the world’s fastest-growing economy in 2022 despite a revision in annual GDP growth projection from 9.5 to 9% by IMF.
With 61,400 registered startups and 83 unicorns, India stands at third largest startup ecosystem in the world.
By Oct 2021 India has 1.18 billion mobile connections, 700 million Internet users, and 600 million smartphones, increasing 25 million per quarter. And this is changing the contours of health in India further with the government focusing on digital health platform in 2022 budget announcement.

A peek into the future
As the new year started, it rained trend reports. Here are the chosen few to take a look at how the future is shaping up. Move over Metaverse and WFH driven narratives, take a look at refugee commerce, charitable NFTs, subscription restaurants, shoppable hotel rooms, digital seniors, rural urbanites and a lots more, here:

1. Accenture-Fjord Trends Report 2022
2. Trend Hunter 2022 report (Sign-up needed)
3. Euromonitor 2022 Consumer Trends

Turian Tales Feb 2022