As a Seattleite, I’ve supported my “local coffee company” when visiting New York, Tokyo, London, and Madrid (and yes, I support independent coffee shops as well). Starbucks receives universal acclaim for its excellent customer experience, whether you take advantage of the mobile ordering system, gamified loyalty program, convenient drive-throughs, or just walk up to the counter at any store around the world.
For example, I recently noticed that the partners (as the company calls its staff) had stopped asking for my name when I paid using the mobile app. Observing them in action, I saw that each station, from the espresso machine to baked goods, now printed the order stickers that had previously only appeared on mobile orders. With no more handwritten misspellings of customer names on coffee cups, late night comedians will have to find new material!
But it’s not just a well-integrated customer experience that can provide lessons for Product Management and User Experience professionals in the technology industry. One of the two Starbucks stores on my commute to work (yes, they’re across the street from each other) has been under renovation for a few weeks, and yesterday the store opened for business, even though construction was not yet complete.
Every product development team defines differently what a “minimally viable product” (MVP) looks like for them, ranging from what other companies might consider a mere Beta release to a full v1.0 product that supports a broad range of customer and user needs. Debates about MVP scope can often get rancorous between business and engineering stakeholders as scope and schedule come into conflict, even in an iterative model like Scrum.
There’s a very simple lesson in how Starbucks chose to open this particular store. Even though all of the CX details — the comfortable seating area, trendy music, or reliable WiFi — are part of the full customer experience, and even as Starbucks continues to extend that experience with its high-end Roastery stores, the fundamental “MVP” for a Starbucks store isn’t all that, it’s the coffee. So when the espresso machine and register were ready, Starbucks promptly opened the store. The next day, parts of the store still remained cordoned off, and by the look of things construction may continue for some time. (I’ve even seen Starbucks counters in shipping crates while the store next door got rebuilt from the ground up.)
Some project manager at Starbucks headquarters in the industrial district of south Seattle (SoDo) is probably getting impatiant, and for all I know this phased reopening of the store was not according to plan, but from a product development standpoint, this was exactly how a new product or service launch should take place. A smart leader understood that the core experience — the true minimally viable product — is about meeting the caffeine and muffin or bagel needs of the store’s customer base, and that the core business goal is to begin generating revenue again from this location.
So, the next time you’re debating how to define your product’s MVP, consider this Starbucks store rather than the well-worn skateboard analogy (can you really even build a car on top of a skateboard anyway?) — consider what the core customer experience needs to be, and how you can begin generating business value sooner.
As a final note on customer experience, I can’t help but share the adorable cartoon that a barista in Tokyo drew on my Starbucks cup, putting a huge grin on my jetlagged face. Starbucks in Japan takes an amazing customer experience to new heights. I’m not sure what this character is, but it’s wearing a bowtie and that makes it awesome. “Have a nice day!” indeed.
This blogpost was written by Akvelon’s Director of Product Management, Andrew Becraft. Check out the original article here.
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