When people think of innovation, they often think of Design Thinking. And for good reason, it’s a powerful methodology for tackling challenges like customer experience and value proposition design. But in my work, it’s never about just one approach. While Design Thinking can be the foundation, I bring in complementary tools from Jobs to be Done or Lean Startup, and Creativity Hacks to create truly impactful solutions.

Here’s how I helped a financial services client transform their customer experience using this blended approach.

The goal was clear: map the existing customer journey, uncover needs, identify critical touch-points, and redesign the journey to better serve their customers. This project was also the starting point for their long-term CX strategy.

We assembled a multidisciplinary team and set an ambitious timeline: tangible results in 120 days, with team members dedicating 20–50% of their time. My role was twofold: guide the process and transfer know-how to the core team.

We kicked off with a Scoping Workshop to align the project and executive teams on objectives and outcomes. Practical training sessions followed, building a shared understanding of CX principles and how innovation methodologies would drive the process. A Context and Portfolio Analysis helped us understand market positioning, define future opportunities, and build Personas at the heart of the project.

The team then dove into customer discovery, conducting interviews and ethnographic research. This step is often met with resistance, people fear talking to customers or feel they lack the skills. But once they started, they realized customers are eager to share insights and that meaningful conversations don’t require advanced expertise, just genuine curiosity. I helped with the first interviews, but only to show them how it works and that it really works.

With insights in hand, we revisited the project scope, refining it to reflect what we’d learned. Testing and prototyping followed, using minimal resources and budget. After several iterations, we launched the first Customer Journey MVP, which delivered promising results.

For businesses, CX shouldn’t be a one-off project, it should be a core, ongoing practice. By integrating Design Thinking and Lean Startup principles, this client built an agile, responsive CX team equipped to continuously gather insights and improve the customer journey.

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