The new age of beverage knowledge

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The InnoLab course fosters entrepreneurship and innovation, encouraging students to innovate with responsibility. The "Bibit" group, comprising diverse backgrounds, collaborated on a project to create an online marketplace for coffee, beer and wine. Partnering with Daniel Wolff and Adrian Reiter, the goal was to conduct a comprehensive verification of their idea using the Design Thinking Method. This method aligns with the partners' strategic interests, aiming to deliver a tailored solution by understanding actual customer needs and minimizing the risk of lacking demand.

Goal

The project's overarching goal is to transform everyday customers into informed buyers through the creation of an online marketplace. Addressing challenges such as defining a target demographic, identifying purchasing conflicts, understanding customer needs, and analysing factors influencing purchasing decisions, the team employed the Design Thinking Method. By implementing the different stages of the Design Thinking Approach, the team was able to solve all possible challenges and provide the project partner with a good basis for its future success.

Methodology

The Design Thinking Method guided the project through five stages: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test/Evaluate. In the Empathize phase, the team gained deep insights into customer needs through exploratory interviews and secondary research. The Define phase involved creating customer personas and formulating ten key insights based on interview findings. Ideation produced ten ideas, from which three favourable concepts—AI-Chat, Website, and Mystery Box—emerged. The Prototype phase involved iterative development using the build-measure-learn cycle, resulting in three distinct prototypes. Testing and evaluation included 48 interviews to gather feedback and refine the products, emphasizing the importance of customer perspectives in mitigating risks and ensuring future success.

Results

Employing the Design Thinking Method, the team identified and addressed challenges in the beverage industry, presenting three distinct prototypes: an educational mystery box concept, an AI-Chat, and an interactive website. These prototypes, shared with project partners Daniel Wolff and Adrian Reiter, not only reflected the team's creative abilities but also provided strategic recommendations for further development. The iterative processes of the Design Thinking Approach played a crucial role in delivering customer-centric solutions, ensuring the project partners are well-positioned for future success in the dynamic online marketplace for coffee and alcoholic beverages.

Cooperation Partner

• Bibit
  Daniel Wolff and Adrian Reiter

Contact Person

• Daniel Wolff
  daniel.wolff.office@gmail.com

Student Team

• Irem Baybas

• Elena Hametner

• Michael Gnannt  

• Gabor Pinter

Project Manager

• Erik Kommol

• Florian Peter Nemetz