Very Troubled Child

Finding the Hong Kong consumer for Very Troubled Child, a luxury leather goods startup.

“Very Troubled Child’s mission is to create unique travel bags and other personalized leather accessories that you cannot buy anywhere else.”

— Very Troubled Child

The challenge: Very Troubled Child (VTC) is a Hong Kong-based brand without a large Hong Kong customer base or presence. We sought to find the root of the cause and create a plan of action.

The solution: a traveling pop-up space for Very Troubled Child which increases brand awareness and showcases product quality.

My role: leading the service design process from research to solutions.

BRIEF SUMMARY

I was surprised to learn in our initial research just how important it is to Hong Kong consumers for brands to have a brick-and-mortar location. It builds trust and allows Hong Kongers to test the quality of the items before purchasing them.

The Solution: The Very Troubled Tram

Description: a travel-based pop-up shop that tells the story of Very Troubled Child and allows Hong Kongers to test the quality of the goods and make purchases with QR codes and a new interface for in-store tablets.

Render of the bottom floor of the VTC Pop-up Tram. Courtesy of Wang Interiors.

Perspective render of the first floor. Courtesy of Wang Interiors.

Render of the top floor of VTC Pop-up Tram. Courtesy of Wang Interiors.

Low-fidelity design of the product page from the in-store tablet interface.

Low-fidelity design of the main page from the in-store tablet interface.

Concept: Wes Anderson train travel is the inspiration for this space, just like the Savanna Collection, which we chose to display. Materials include unique wallpaper, wood or aluminum paneling, and leather furniture. The first floor is a space for the discovery of Very Troubled Child. The second floor brings consumers into the story of Very Troubled Child. Hong Kongers can meet with the founders and designers to have that personalized shopping experience they crave.

Benefits.

Satisfies the Hong Kong consumer’s need for a physical space
Builds trust
Hong Konger’s can test the quality of the goods
Consumer’s become part of the story
Personalized shopping experience

THE PROCESS

DISCOVER

Goals: understand the market, analyze competitors and their offerings and learn about customer expectations and needs.

MARKET RESEARCH

Market research was conducted to get a better idea of market trends and learn from the existing demographics. While we also considered the greater China region, it is most important to understand the Hong Kong market, which is unique in itself.

INTERVIEWS

Overview:

We interviewed 12 participants between the ages of 24 and 45, both male and female. We asked them open-ended questions about their experience with Very Tricky, both online and offline. We also had them talk about other luxury luggage shopping experiences to understand better some of their needs and goals.

Key findings:

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS

A Competitive Analysis was conducted to examine strengths, weaknesses, and strategies when it comes to branding, physical presence, and an online presence. While all the luxury brands had a strong physical online presence, they lack the fresh, new, and discovery qualities that Hong Kong consumers crave.

DEFINE

Goal: To define the user’s goals, needs, frustrations, and motivations through research synthesis

Empathy Map

We synthesized our research into sticky notes which we organized in a large empathy map. We organized first by feeling, seeing, doing, saying, and hearing.

User Persona:

The empathy map had enough patterns to develop a user persona, Crystal, which represents the “archetype” of a Very Troubled Child customer. For the continuation of the project, we referred to our users goals, needs, motivations, and frustrations, when designing.

POV Statements and HMW Questions:

Once the research had been synthesized and we had an understanding of our users needs and goals, we needed to continue to define the design challenge. We created a set of POV statements based on the needs and insights. From there, we created How Might We questions that would help us brainstorm how to solve the design challenge.

DEVELOP

Goals: To brainstorm ways to solve the user’s goals and needs

Brainstorming session:

Once we had our How Might We questions, we posted them on the wall. Then we did two rounds of a two minute brainstorming session where we came up with as many solutions as possible on sticky notes. It was challenging to come up with original, yet realistic, ideas to solve the challenges.

Location Analysis:

With our limited budget (Hong Kong is the most expensive city in the world to live in, after all), we research different locations that satisfied the theme of travel and luxury. We settled on tramways because it satisfies both while fitting within the budget. The trams run by luxury stores in Central like Louis Vuitton, Saint Laurent, and Tiffany. See below for the usage, circulation, and heatmap of the tram we chose.

DELIVER

Goals: Create a prototype of Very Troubled Child’s physical space, present to stakeholders, and have an after-action review.

Based on our solutions we came up with a bird’s eye view, perspective render, and low fidelity prototypes to present to stakeholders. You may see examples at the beginning of this presentation!

After-Action Review.

The best part of this project was understanding the unique Hong Kong and Greater China consumers, working with entrepreneurs who had their own vision and were still open to ideas and coming up with a great experience that fits within technical considerations.
I was expecting us to focus more on the digital presence, rather than in-person. I was pleasantly surprised to learn how important brick-and-mortar stores are to Hong Kongers.
What I learned is how to communicate with people who have a different background than me and how to make complex information make sense.

There’s much more to it! To speak with me about this experience and my process please email hannahpatience@gmail.com.

Service Designer