Finnair is Finland's flag carrier airline with over 95 years of aviation experience and the shortest route between Europe and Asia. They have an in-house product development team of over 40 developers, 12 designers, and 8 product owners, as well as external collaborators. The team works to understand their various customer groups including loyal Finnish customers, European and Asian business travelers, and Asian leisure travelers through organic feedback, user testing, surveys, analytics, and other methods. They share this customer knowledge across teams and ensure it is easily accessible to inform decision-making.
4. Finland’s flag carrier
95+ years of aviation
Shortest route between Europe & Asia
In-house development done by
40+ developers
12 designers
8 product owners
+ external developers & designers
4
Who are we?
9. 9
Gathering
Feedback on pain points & successes
Allies to share material with
Packaging
To easily digestable snippets
Easy access to feedback & data inside organisation
10. 10
Gathering
Feedback on pain points & successes
Allies to share material with
Packaging
To easily digestable snippets
Easy access to feedback & data inside organisation
Distributing
Every possible opportunity
Offering channels to learn more on their own
12. So, what’s your super power?
Professor X
That’s not really going to help us…
Professor X
Yes, I see that now.
Captain Hindsight
Hindsight
Captain Hindsight
Loyal Finns - bombarded by feedback
European & Asian business travellers - occasional feedback
Asian one-time leisure passengers - always new, but puskaradio, e.g. Japanese customers have been challenging to get unfiltered feedback before going live - but getting a lot of feedback on issues that are live if given “anonymous” channel
(Segments)
Internal customers - careful, but passionate
Reactive rather than proactive due to old ways of working
Flight Crew / Ground crew / Kitchen / Maintenance
Nara in audience
Organic feedback:
Guerrilla, friends & family (for Finns)
Centralised general & Touch point specific & direct
Yammer chat for internal
What is said vs. what is done
Note – Work culture in Finland is not as hierarchical as in Centrail Europe, States or Asia – for example…
One of most powerful method so far:
Taking along to airport testing
Taking along to validations – also for designers from other teams so they see other sides of the journey
Running through concepts/designs to be tested with the teams
Customer feedback duties to solve issues in teams with direct feedback channel (not official customer care ”rotation”)
Success stories (well-validated project with end results)
Warning examples… try to avoid, although they might be needed as last resort
Feedback channels everywhere – how to centralise & quantify that?
Twitter test – trending words in relation to Finnair hashtag – but how to use that for feedback that goes for long time period…
Customer voice needs champions inside the company – sometimes feels to be more of a curiosity or add-on later
Feedback channels everywhere – how to centralise & quantify that?
Twitter test – trending words in relation to Finnair hashtag – but how to use that for feedback that goes for long time period…
Customer voice needs champions inside the company – sometimes feels to be more of a curiosity or add-on later
Feedback channels everywhere – how to centralise & quantify that?
Twitter test – trending words in relation to Finnair hashtag – but how to use that for feedback that goes for long time period…
Customer voice needs champions inside the company – sometimes feels to be more of a curiosity or add-on later
Why getting and spreading the customer voice is important?
I’ve had the pleasure to having been a part of projects where
By really listening to the customer voice would’ve saved the product…
Interpretations of feedback, biases to hear what you want to hear…
Acknowledging biases / Shining lights to biases
HIPPO bias “My friend said…”
I’m super biased as well, even when I train not to be
Who’s the person or persons in the team who have not done their job, if they play the role of Captain Hindsight
Designer – collecting and summarising, taking part in ”customer care”, sharing, validating & revisiting older ideas
Developer – reserving time to familiarise with feedback, taking part in ”customer care”
PO/PM – reserving time resources in everyday work, sharing the voice, de-siloing, backlog able to react on changing expectations & needs
Top MGMT – reserving resources and investing in the structure of handling feedbacks etc., de-siloing
Build base for fast recruitment
At the moment feels like everytime I go to the airport I see a passenger or a crew member who’s been in our interviews – and the recognition goes both ways
Note – goes for B2C as well as B2B…
… B2C – the relationship is looser, but more upfront
… B2B – closer relationship, but not as open or straightforward (not knowing what can be shared, or knowing the real needs or pain points) – customer vs. customers of the customers, might be that even the business doesn’t even know
This is where I personally lack, but another designer in my team has this covered – so it doesn’t need to be only you…
I make a point of reading feedback at least every other week (although I get exposure usually everyday)
Take part in validations, testings and panels – as silent stand-byer if nothing else, if run by external partner, join in as well!
Start doing testing & validation with your actual customers if you don’t already – light testing and building up from there
Tie it to personal/team goals
Fast-paced development vs. Customer voice nuances
Currently doing a project where we’re building something new – demanding the time & money was relatively easy given the investment, but still wasn’t by any means an automatic thing – I needed to demand it
For existing services and products it seems to be sometimes more difficult to get the same – since it would mean change in ways of working at the same time
Top mgmt’s responsibility – find your allies to drive it forward
