myshare. - a Design Thinking project to make Austria's first step into the future of a circular economy

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

myshare. is a Viennese start-up founded by Marion Oberenzer in 2023. The company's vision is to develop a system in Austria that makes it easier to share ownership of objects. A topic that is highly relevant not only for sustainability reasons, but also due to economic and social developments.

Goal

The aim of this project is to use Design Thinking to gain better insights into the needs and pain points of people in Austria when it comes to consumption and sharing possessions. Moreover, myshare. is very much concerned with understanding what a possible product should look like that could help make this process easier and more pleasant. At the end of the project, the accumulated knowledge is implemented into a fully clickable prototype as an inspiration for the actual product.

Methodology

The methodology used within this project is Design Thinking. Design Thinking is intended to allow extreme freedom in the development of new ideas and products. Due to a very strong focus on the needs and problems of potential customers, the result is always very user-focused, which ensures a higher probability of successful implementation and a good product-market fit. The five phases are divided into Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test, and are understood as iterative steps of the process, which can therefore be repeated and redone multiple times with new findings and developments.

Results

Many insights into the current situation on the market were gained during the Empathize phase. It was particularly important to approach the project with an unbiased mindset and to develop a clear problem definition: “At the moment, there is no way for people to satisfy their consumption needs in a truly sustainable and affordable way.”

The needs and problems of potential consumers were then identified by conducting over 70 interviews. The interviewees were students from a total of 6 different Austrian faculties. These interviews were then analyzed, quantified and certain behavior and response patterns were worked out, which formed the basis for future work on the project. The Define phase resulted in 4 Personas and 10 Key Insights, i.e. the most important, condensed findings from the interviews conducted. 4 key insights, which, based on various considerations, offered the highest relevance for the project, were elected. The most important one was, that money is the most important incentive, not sustainability. Also, a basis of trust has to be gained, and the usage of the product has to make consumption easier and more affordable. Therefore, the product itself has to be simple to use.

In the Ideate phase we then developed 75 ideas and selected, according to their relevance and potential to solve the problems addressed, the best 10 ideas. Together with the project partner, we agreed on three areas that should be incorporated into a digital prototype in the next phases. The result was: A clear and educating onboarding, a logical and intuitive home page with known control options, and a cohesive check out when renting a product, that provides a good overview of different insurance possibilities, renting length, and shipping options.

With a total of three rounds of prototyping on Figma – each of which was concluded by a testing round with 6-8 test users – a prototype was created that can both satisfy the needs of customers and provide a basis for the development of a profitable online platform for the project partner.

Cooperation Partner

• myshare.
   

Contact Person

• Marion Oberenzer
  marion.oberenzer@gmail.com

Student Team

• Philine Clermont

• Luca Joekel

• Ioanna Müller

• Lilli Weinrich

Project Manager

• Erik Kommol, M.Sc.

• Florian Nemetz, M.Sc. M.SSc.