In collaboration with Tangity-NTT Data
Managing energy consumption In Italy
May 2023
Frameworks Used
Expert Interviews, Desk Research, Competitor Analysis, How Might We, Responsibility Diamond, Brainwriting, Prototyping, Design Validation, Bias Buster, Business Model Canvas
Role
Service Designer | Brand Designer | Video Editor | UI Designer
Team Members
Sofia Bidoglio, Alessandro Ceppi, Kotchakorn Kraitat, Sumaiya Rahman
Context
In a team of 5 people at a 2 week workshop under Tangity, our brief was to create a service to increase the adoption of a home energy management system to monitor energy consumption in Italian residences by keeping in mind two different perspectives: the energy providers and the consumers.
Solution
WattWise is product service system that provides monitoring and personalized advice on users' household electricity consumption, in partnership with energy providers. WattWise does this by managing energy consumption on an individual and community level with assistance from experts.
But first, how does it work?
Discovery
The Challenge: Two Stakeholders, One Solution
One of our main challenges was to bridge energy providers and users’ pain points together with a solution that would benefit both parties.
Users, specifically within Italy have the desire to be sustainable, but don’t know how, lack the resources to take action, don’t understand their energy bills and lack confidence investing in smart devices.
Energy providers, on the other hand, have grid overloads, and struggle to predict and communicate to users when these overloads happen.
Communicating this information is important so that energy can distributed to all neighbourhoods throughout all times of the day and one of the ways to do so is using smart technology.
How might we then encourage users to adopt smart technology to reduce energy consumption?
Key Insights
74%
of Italian residents know about ways to reduce energy loss, but would like to know more
54%
Low to medium income population in Italy
61.2
Energy Consumer Confidence Index Score for Italy (lower than the global average)
Approach: Desk Research & Experts
Our team did a desk research about Italy from its current legislation, potential competitors, adoption levels of smart technology, who the current users/customers are in terms of their socio-economic background. Additionally, with the assistance of Tangity, we had expert interviews to help provide us a foundation of how renewable resources work, what are the current smart technologies readily available, and what are the overall industry challenges.
After building our research foundation, we explored opportunities through “How Might We” statements, and focused on two areas: Creating Awareness and Opportunities to build smart/consumption conscious communities and Tapping into People’s Desire to Be Sustainable.
Define
Opportunity Statement
Tapping into people's desire to be sustainable by reducing systemic barriers.
For aware users know about sustainability but don’t know how/when to act.
Systemic barriers include:
Lack of actionable information
Getting overwhelmed
Lack of confidence
Potential financial means
Ideation: How do we create a viable service?
Through Brain Writing, our team explored various ideas that could be implemented with the potential stakeholders who would be involved. We then advocated our best ideas to each other, and uncovered what kind of users we were tackling in the process. We made efforts then to combine our ideas together to come up with an effective solution.
Looking back on our research, competitors and ideas, we moved forward with the idea of being a third party product provider to create monitoring devices for houses. We would encourage users to create an ecosystem of smart products that they can use to monitor their energy consumption.
But how will users adopt this service when users feel uncertain using smart devices?
Brain writing to uncover potential ideas and solutions
As a team, we advocated our "best" idea and took a vote based on which idea hit all the stakholder pain points
We put our ideas through a responsibility diagram as well to ensure that our ideas were viable.
By having a closer look at the types of users that we were targeting, we could understand their needs and their journey better.
Ideation Challenges: Been There, Done That, And For Whom Again?
As we started to develop our idea and flesh out the service, our team fell into some pitfalls:
How would we motivate users to actually adopt the service when there is so much distrust around using smart devices?
How can we involve energy providers?
How can we differentiate from existing competitors who are already providing similar services?
Our solution to all of these challenges was to go back to our research to uncover existing legislations, and frameworks already built which would help then incentivise the adoption process. It was also about analysing our competitors and offer services that complimented what already existed in the market.
It was not about the service itself; it’s about creating a change in behaviour through multiple layers socially, politically and individually.
Develop
Product - Service Strategy
Device to monitor energy consumption (similar to Sense)
App to monitor your usage, share predictive analytics and personalized tips and insights
Smart plugs for appliances to turn them into smart devices, which can then be controlled via the app
The app is integral as it helps provide access to the community, to electricians, and to users’ and community real time consumption of energy.
Product
Monitoring from one box
A device that attaches to your energy panel
This device reads the energy signatures from all your devices
The device connects itself to the app, which shows real-time data of energy consumption
Service
Individual
Data on building consumption
Providing energy saving plans within the community by connecting building managers and residents
Ability to get in touch with other residents via app
Community
Individual energy consumption (aggregate & by appliance)
Real time data and predictions around energy consumption
Insights about how much can be saved financially and energy-wise
Custom alerts about energy consumption
Ability to manage your smart devices remotely (after smart plug implementation)
Access to community experts, electricians and technicians for assistance
Expert
Access to electricians/technicians to install & maintain the device
Chatbot to support you with setting up the device
Contact center device support
Individual Dashboard
Real-Time Data & Insights for both individuals and from around the community
Forums and discussions to reach out to other users in the neighbourhood
Find electricians and get necessary support
Deliver
Service Adoption & Revenue Stream
WattWise ties up with existing Italian policy and regulations within buildings to help speed up adoption. As more people begin to adopt, this creates an element of social proofing.
We work closely with condominium admins so that we can implement at scale
Working together with Enel lends us credibility
Our network of electricians and technicians helps boost WattWise through word of mouth
For the revenue, Wattwise’s stream comes from 3 sources. The first source is from the selling and leasing of the product that will be used to monitor the energy consumption.
The second source of revenue comes from personalised insights and tips on how to save energy and users’ money.
The third additional source of revenue will be coming from selling of smart plugs to turn on devices remotely or through the app.
Evaluation
Testing, Testing, 123…with some iterations
WattWise could have been evaluated further by testing how many people would adopt an IoT device and use it to compare themselves to their community. However, due to time constraints, this could not be put into the scope of service plan.
Additionally, our team could have considered other deployment strategies to carry out this service besides piggy-backing on the existing policies that Italy has.
Lastly, the team could go more into details on the device itself in terms of how much research and investment would cost going into that to differentiate from other competitors from the market.
Key Learnings
Understanding Layers of Service Adoption
This was my first foray into service design. And, I quite loved handling so many different aspects of deploying a service. From the social aspect, to the public policies available to help carry out the service, it was enlightening how we had to consider multiple layers of penetration. More than enlightening, it’s crucial to understand how to get people to adopt your service or application otherwise it feels like creating a service and throwing it into the void.
I also learned how to use a wide range of tools to uncover pain points of stakeholders, brainstorm ideas, work as a team, implement the business model canvas in a practical and realistic scenario and how to apply service design concepts and principles into a real case study, with real-world implications.