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Rapid innovation can sometimes seem like running across a tightrope. Is it really safe to move quickly when you’re exploring new ideas that could cause significant upheaval within an enterprise? At Telstra Purple, we know that a quality design process is the key to sprinting across that rope with confidence.
Telstra Purple is all about bringing purpose and people together. The largest Australian-owned technology services provider, we bring Telstra-powered solutions to businesses and institutions across the country underpinned by a deep understanding of research, strategy and design methodologies. Once we engage with a business, we become partners invested in finding the ideal solution.
One of our favourite examples of extreme innovation is working with Airspeeder. The ‘F1 of flying cars’ is being developed right here in Australia, these stunning electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) ‘speeders’ will soon be racing on augmented reality tracks in the skies of South Australia. First remote-piloted as drones and later with pilots in the cockpit.
Something so new requires more than just incredible flying vehicles to underpin an exciting and safe competition. It needs infrastructure. It needs communications platforms. And that’s where we are working to support Airspeeder’s vision for the future of racing.
We started working together on collision avoidance systems, but through our co-design process we uncovered deeper demands for wireless connectivity. From developing the portable mobile network infrastructure needed to deliver high-bandwidth, low-latency communications, to creating telemetry dashboards that teams can engage with in real-time.
It’s important to appreciate the concept of co-design here. Where some technology service providers may design and develop for a client, Telstra Purple always works to design side-by-side with the customer’s leadership and its employees. This creates an opportunity to interrogate the challenge and find the heart of the problem before ever starting work on building a solution.
Every good agency will follow a strong double diamond design methodology to uncover a solution for the client. But we bring a unique Purple Lab approach to our design sprints where we work hand-in-hand with client teams to fully involve them in the process.
This approach brings stakeholders together in a workshop setting to guide a deep consideration for the problem through the eyes of leadership, employees and their customers. An expansive look at the challenge must come before we define the final design brief. Through this lens we can explore new ideas, and by understanding which have the greatest likelihood of success, we can see which options to leave behind.
Anyone can design a product or solution based on an existing recipe. But to design exceptional products takes applied experience and expertise through a clear and clinical design process. What’s more, through our Purple Lab approach, we not only work closely with our customers to gain a deep understanding of the challenge, but we also help them to grow the design maturity of their organisation to support them now and into the future.
As we continue through the design process, we continue a close partnership all the way through development and delivery. Co-design is about constant connection, and even as we prototype solutions, we return to the customer multiple times each week to rapidly iterate toward an ideal outcome. This too is where risk remains at a minimum. Through a design-led methodology, constant communication, and rapid iteration, the project never has a chance to veer off course.
This design-led innovation process is not only for cutting edge technologies like Airspeeder. We use exactly the same process when working with local governments, not-for-profits, and businesses of every scale.
Innovation is an inherent part of change. But change is only innovation when it improves a business for the future. This means understanding risks and ensuring that the solution you build has considered all impacts and opportunities for the business. A robust co-design process, under expert guidance as we navigate a best practice technology roadmap together, is key to achieving inspiring outcomes.
