Desktop walkthroughs demonstrated by Nigel in Top Secret
In this is classic absurd comedy, a group of anti-nazi resistance fighters want to rescue their friend from a fortress. For this they use the obvious technique: disguise themselves as a cow. There is of course much more to the plan. And the leader of the fighters, Nigel, explains it through some simple props, in the middle of a field.
Let's analyse the accuracy of the scene
Products can be prototyped relatively easily. But service have many elements, which makes them are harder to roughly sketch up. This is where desktop walkthroughs come in. In this technique you condense the building blocks of a service on an area roughly the size of an office desk, and literally walk through it from a perspective of a customer, for your team to observe. You can do this with pre-fabricated props, but also legos, or simple objects.
Nigel is not demonstrating a service, but he is telling the story of a multi-stage event. He tells the end-to-end story, linking the different stages and actors together into a cohesive arc. Well done.
The event he describes spans multiple locations, just like services. But while this event unfolds continously, there might be delays between each stage or location in the case of a service. It is important to show not just the actions where things are happening, but also the times when nothing is happening. This time and space between the touchpoints is often invisible for service providers, but can be a deal-breaker for customers.
Services consist of people, processes, and physical evidence, and these should all be shown in a desktop walkthrough. Nigel does a good job at showing the physical elements (cows, fence, gate, building), and the story forms a good process. But he fails to include people in his walkthrough. This is important, because only this way will you be able to discuss important details of the personnel in a service. e.g. How many people are involved? Is it the same person in different touchpoints? How do they behave? What are their freedomes and their limits? etc.
Obviously, Nigel goes overboard in details of the walkthrough. He starts low-fidelity, with stick and stones and dirt. You can do the same, using juts pens, postit blocks, books, or whatever you have lying on your desk. But Nigel built up an entire high-fidelity set, including a working train. The fidelity of your desktop walkthough should fit its purpose, to allow people to focus on what's really important - the service prototype.
Finally, Nigel just presents, without a debate or discussion. Desktop walkthroughs are meant to unearth shortcomings and gaps in a service, to allow quick iterations and improvements. Just showing is not enough. You need to gather feedback, even specifically ask for counter-opinions, if needed.
Other aspects of service design shown in the clip:
We already demonstrated prototypes. It's worth refreshing your memory about service prototyping, and how they can be misunderstood.
Before coming up with his plan remarkably fast, Nigel does research. Specifically, he does some observation of the situation they are dealing with. This is important to avoid surprises, and to plan for reality.
Do you have additional ideas or thoughts? Let us know!
