Human ingenuity and tech can work hand in hand - Michelle Hawkins

Amid the challenges of the past 12 months, there’s also been an array of inspirational stories. Human ingenuity in the face of crisis note-0 has sparked a wave of innovation.

We are spending more time online

In the UK, 50 per cet more businesses were created in June 2020 compared with the same month in 2019. From the cyclist who set up his own pop-up bike repair business or the sous chef launching a home-made meals delivery service, creative ‘workarounds’ from home – and using no more than home technology – have been turned into new careers.

Add to this, the artists who have built up new audiences on TikTok, Instagrammers who have teamed up with brands to launch their own products and any number of small business who have reached out to more potential customers, and a pattern emerges of people bending or adapting technology to suit their own needs and changing circumstances. Technology is now far less ‘a solution’ and far more a ‘co-creator’ for human invention.

This trend, called DIY Innovation, signals a shift from devices to people and is one of seven identified in Accenture Interactive’s Fjord Trends 2021. The report analyses the changing customer expectations and shifting consumer behaviour amplified by the pandemic that are now profoundly driving new thinking in our approach to technology and design.

Michelle Hawkins, Managing Director, Accenture, Scotland

For Scotland, as it seeks to create new high quality tech jobs interwoven with Scottish creativity, Fjord Trends highlights the potential for businesses and their technology designers to unlock new value by taking a far greater human-centred approach to product and service development.

Another trend identified within the report, Liquid Infrastructure, is about how we access goods and services. It is about a re-evaluation of physical assets, new value propositions and new opportunities in a business-to-business sharing economy to make the best use of what we have.

If we can no longer derive pleasure from strolling around a physical store, where can brands create excitement for their customers? And if the incidental or spontaneous purchase while browsing the aisles is no longer a reality, where else can a brand add value and important revenue streams?

Collaboration is one answer. This has been a key feature of the hospitality sector’s response to the pandemic, where “dark kitchens” are allowing a number of delivery-only restaurants to share one kitchen space and different producers are combining products and services.

It’ll be interesting to see how the expected rise in such business-to-business collaborations can offset the loss of brand experience previously delivered at point of sale in the physical world by creating new points of delight on the evolving customer journey and at home. Already, we are seeing organisations creating new product bundles based on data insights to sell online. As home deliveries proliferate, we also now understand that the customer experience has to be perfect right up to the point at which products reach their front door, which means a different working relationship with supply chain partners.

Another major trend highlighted in the report, Interaction Wanderlust, also opens huge potential for business development. It invites greater human-centred technology and innovation because it focuses on our time online. Many of us have been spending many more hours looking at screens to interact with the world. Consequently, people are bored by the sameness caused by templated design in digital, coupled with increasing screen-fatigue. It is time to reconsider design, content, audience and the interaction between all three to inject greater excitement, joy and serendipity into screen experiences.

There is a balance to be had between being as immersive as possible and offering broader stimulation. We all want to be inspired or challenged by what we see on screen. In many ways, the on-screen experience needs to be as compelling as a real-world experience and it is interesting to see how live performances, socialising and digital platformers are already blending.

Taking both a greater human-centred approach to innovation and building new strategic partnerships will tap into the trends we are seeing as the effects of the pandemic play out. Moreover, as we move forward there is huge opportunity for human ingenuity and technology to broaden and extend customer engagement and create the platforms for future growth.

Michelle Hawkins, Managing Director, Accenture, Scotland