Sample Project - Using MSDS - Part 1

Dear Learners
Kindly note that this is a Sample Project for a bicycle sharing S.PSS and
aims at just demonstrating the use of the MSDS tools. This answer does not
represent the “only way” to solve the problem.

Process Sub-process Result Tools

Project promoter Defining scope of Document
analysis and design specifying scope
definition of intervention of intervention
intervention and design brief
context Project promoter Summary of Preparatory
analysis project promoter company
analysis: questionnaire
- Mission miniDOC
- Main expertise SWOT matrix
- SWOT System Map
- Value chain
(actors,
structure, etc.)

Initial Design Brief from the Project Promoter

Note: I am assuming this brief for my work to begin with. You can take any
brief to start with. This is a hypothetical brief that I am starting with and in no
way IITG admin or anyone for that matter has offered me this brief. Also
some of the system maps are simplified maps and don’t represent the exact
flow in reality. This has been done to reduce the complexity and time required
in creating a very detailed map.

Brief: IITG has about 10,000 in-campus residents. A majority of these are
students, about 6,000 and live-in the campus. Others are faculty members,
staff and their families who also mostly live in the campus itself. There are
others like staff, faculty members, service providers like maids, gardeners
and so on and visitors who commute daily to the campus for various
engagements. The campus residents mostly own their own means of
transport. Students own bicycles mostly, faculty members and staff own
bicycles, cars, scooters and motorbikes. The campus is well connected with
the city by Uber, Ola and other local taxi/ auto rickshaw service providers. For
ease of within campus movement for people without a means of personal
transport, an e-rickshaw service has been also launched. 5 e-rickshaws plight
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around the campus from 8 AM to 7 PM on working days and their services

can be availed by calling them. Usually it takes 15-20 min to get one of these
vehicles and during peak hours, one might not even get one.

Each year some of the graduating students sell their bicycles to local cycle
shops/ security guards/ maids or anyone who might approach them for the
same. Others just leave their cycles in campus. These ownerless cycles stay
in campus and eventually start degrading. These can’t be discarded since
none knows whether the owner discarded it or still wants it. Hence the admin
wants to create a cycle-sharing system in the campus using such bicycles
which will also ease the current difficulties of people who don’t own any
means of transport within the campus.

Preparatory company questionnaire

1. What are the current problems of the company?

• Every year hundreds of cycles are dumped by the graduating students in
the campus. These degrade under the forces of nature and the institute
can’t discard the cycles so easily since there is no way to know if the cycles
are abandoned or still owned by someone.
• The distances between point A to B in the campus is quite large. At times
these might be in 2-5 Km range as well. Not much public transport facility
exist in campus and people have to walk.

2. What motives for innovation does the company have?

• Being a premier institute, IITG wants to be in the fore front of innovation in
every walk of life.
• In the light of the Swatch Bharat Abhiyan, having the campus free of
unwanted junk is important.
• Providing a good quality of life for campus residents and visitors is of
utmost importance in order to be amongst the top tier institutes.
• IITG has a lush green campus with a beautiful flora and fauna co-inhabiting
its campus. Keeping the campus green and pollution free is one of the key
drivers which motivates all.
• Being an exemplary institute in terms of green initiatives, quality of life
provided and beauty.

3. Do changes in the company, market or society ask for innovation and a

new strategy?
• The Govt. of India has launched a program on Swachch Bharat Abhiyan
and this has been whole-heartedly accepted by institutions across the
country for implementation in various capacities.
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• The growing awareness for Sustainability issues has led educational

institutes into creating a difference through example.
• An initiative by MHRD, ‘SWACHHTA’ Ranking - 2017 of Higher Educational
Institutions which awarded institutes on the basis of “Save water &
electricity, promote cleanliness and manage waste for Smart Campus”. IITG
has won a place in the list of awarded institutes.

4. What stage of PSS-innovation or service transformation is the company

in?
A lot of activities in the campus are done using a PSS model. For example,
some of the offerings provided by the campus like the cleaning service,
gardening, security, hostel mess, canteens, restaurants etc. follow a PSS
model. Appropriate official mechanisms to outsource activities using the PSS
model present in the institute.

5. What need for information and knowledge on sustainable PSS-innovation

and service transformation does the company have?
IITG has a Green Office and many faculty members and students work in this
area and can be roped in to design and/ or maintain a Sustainable PSS-
innovation.

SWOT Matrix

1. Strengths
1.1.Campus already has a huge inventory of unused cycles which can be
used to design a S.PSS solution.
1.2.Most of the campus is flat land and hence cycling is easy.
1.3.Majority of the campus residents know cycling and is also socially and
culturally fine to commute using cycle.
1.4.The weather is moderate for most part of the year and hence cycling is
a feasible option.
1.5.Point A to B distances can range between 1 - 6 Km, which is a cyclable
distance.
1.6.Ample number of cycle repair shops are present both inside and just
outside the campus.
1.7.Alternate means of public transport within campus, except the 5 e-
rickshaws, are absent in the campus.
1.8.The campus has good security arrangements and hence ensuring
security of the cycles is not much of a challenge.

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1.9.Cycling offers flexibility of choice to the rider which is not provided by

the e-rickshaw service (one has to wait 15 - 30 min at times and has
route restrictions).
2. Weaknesses
2.1.About 80% of the student population, which forms the major bulk of
campus residents, already owns a cycle. Hence the chances that they
will opt for the shared services is uncertain.
2.2.Almost all staff and faculty members own personal vehicles. Hence the
chances that they will opt for the shared services is uncertain.
2.3.During daytime, most cycles will get concentrated around the
academic section. Considering the 15 hostels and their distances from
one-another, one might not be able to find a cycle at the hour of need.
So in case the cycle density is not properly calculated, this PSS might
be seen by students as unreliable for its availability.
2.4.When a cycle breaks down, whose responsibility will be to fix it? In
case the institute takes the responsibility, people might engage in
misuse of the facility. In case, the students are made responsible, the
chances that they will take it for repairs is questionable.
3. Opportunities
3.1.Presence of large number of unused cycles and the need for public
transport in campus.
3.2.Most people in campus are tech savvy.
3.3.Most people in campus know riding a cycle.
3.4.IITG has a Green Office which takes initiatives in creating a green
office environment at the campus.
4. Threats
4.1.If the supply of cycles stops in the system, in case everyone adopts the
sharing system, IITG will have to find ways to fund the purchase of
new cycles.
4.2.In case the e-rickshaw service expands further, the bicycle sharing
service might suffer.
4.3.About 80% of the students and most staff and faculty members who
own their personal means of mobility might not join the system and
thus the system might not take-off.
4.4.Spotting broken cycles can be a herculean task which can eventually
breakdown the whole system.

Current System Map of In-Campus Commute

Assumption: We will details out in-general the in-campus commute system

because in order to create a successful bicycle sharing system, we will need
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to understand the entire commute scenario. Each alternate commute solution,

like car, bike, walking and so on, will compete with this bicycle sharing
service.

In the current system, every year at the beginning of the new session in July,
IITG hosts a mini-market for couple of days at the Manas Community hall
wherein the new students can buy cycles, bedding, buckets and other such
utility items that they need to settle down in the campus. This market is visited
by some vendors who sell these products. IITG has a cycle repair shop in the
campus in the Academic area. This shop area has been lease to a particular
vendor by IITG. There are many cycle repair shops just outside one of the
campus gates, the Faculty gate, which is close to the hostel area. Some of
the hostels also have a facility to pump air into cycles (air compressor based
machines). Designated cycle parking zones exist in all locations of the
campus. Some of these are shaded parking zones whereas others are open
to air. Some of the roads in campus are restricted for use to only pedestrians
and cyclists. Students are not allowed to have motorised vehicles in campus.
Every students’ cycle is color coded and numbered on the basis of their
hostel and room number.

At the end of each academic year and just after convocation, May - June, the
graduating batches of students either sell their cycles to the outside cycle
repair shops, security guards, maids and so on or just discard the same in the
campus.

Faculty and staff members, who own a cycle, have bought it wither from the
above-mentioned mini-market, city or online. Some of these cycles are very
expensive. They also buy cycles for their kids and other family members.
Some of them use it for daily commute to work or other within campus
activities while rest use motorised vehicles. Some of them also walk for these
purposes. All their vehicles are registered with the campus and have a sticker
on the front windshield for ease of identification at the gates. The in-campus
quarters have one shaded parking space per quarter.

The e-rickshaw service is available from 8 AM - 7 PM on working days in the

campus. These vehicles (5 in number) are charged in the campus. Each trip
costs Rs. 5 per head. Its a shared service and available on call. One has to
meet at a designated spot and might have to go through couple of such spots
before reaching destination. One might have to wait for 15 - 30 min before the
vehicle arrives. During peak hours it is difficult to get one.

During working days, the campus also has hourly bus service, running from
one hostel to another and then finally to the academic complex. These are
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usually very crowded. The service runs as per time schedule set by the
institute. The service is outsourced to a vendor by IITG.

The list of providers in the current system are:

!
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The list of customers in the current system are:

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The system map of the current scenario is as follows:

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At this stage of the strategic analysis, we feel that bringing in some aspects of
stakeholder analysis as elaborated in multi-stakeholder system might be
useful in the design process. Hence we will conduct the rest of the processes
picking up methods from the Week 7 module.

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 Sample Project - Using MSDS - Part 2

Dear Learners
Kindly note that this is a Sample Project for a bicycle sharing S.PSS and
aims at just demonstrating the use of the MSDS tools. This answer does not
represent the “only way” to solve the problem.

The project taken up by us does not fit the definition of Socio-economic

Context but some of the tools elaborated in this lecture series can be very
useful to adapt for our project. For example, in order to define the intervention
context, we decided to use the Step 2: Defining the intervention context
(Clarifying design goals). Since Model 5 porter forces was not a very apt tool
for conducting competitor analysis in the context chosen by us (its a closed
campus with full discretion of the institute to decide what to allow and what
not), we decided to conduct the competitor analysis following the Step 2:
Defining the intervention context (Competitor analysis).

Process Sub-process Result Tools

2. Defining Clarifying design S.PSS problem Co-design using
intervention goals statement, design “Clarify Your
context brief, unit of Goal” section of
satisfaction Frog Collective
Action Toolkit
Competitor Competition Competitor
analysis space knowledge analysis on form,
category, generic,
budget level
Porter 5 forces
analysis if
applicable

The following video illustrates a sample way of conducting the co-design

session. This session was conducted with 1st year Bdes and Mdes students
and the course instructor is the moderator. The questionnaire used to conduct
the co-design session is presented in table below.

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 Sample Project - Using MSDS - Part 2

Brief given IITG has about 10,000 in-campus residents. A majority of

to the these are students, about 6,000 and live-in the campus.
participants Others are faculty members, staff and their families who also
mostly live in the campus itself. There are others like staff,
(2 min) faculty members, service providers like maids, gardeners and
so on and visitors who commute daily to the campus for
various engagements. The campus residents mostly own their
own means of transport. Students own bicycles mostly, faculty
members and staff own bicycles, cars, scooters and
motorbikes. The campus is well connected with the city by
Uber, Ola and other local taxi/ auto rickshaw service
providers. For ease of within campus movement for people
without a means of personal transport, an e-rickshaw service
has been also launched. 5 e-rickshaws plight around the
campus from 8 AM to 7 PM on working days and their
services can be availed by calling them. Usually it takes 15-20
min to get one of these vehicles and during peak hours, one
might not even get one.

Each year some of the graduating students sell their bicycles

to local cycle shops/ security guards/ maids or anyone who
might approach them for the same. Others just leave their
cycles in campus. These ownerless cycles stay in campus
and eventually start degrading. These can’t be discarded
since none knows whether the owner discarded it or still
wants it. Hence the admin wants to create a cycle-sharing
system in the campus using such bicycles which will also
ease the current difficulties of people who don’t own any
means of transport within the campus.

In this context we want to conduct a co-design session today

where-in we will together define what should the bicycle
sharing system for IITG look like.

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Build Your The group in this study has been built with first year
Group undergraduate and post graduate students who have been
inducted into the campus just 2 months back so as to gain
their perspective to the within campus commute.
(15 min)
Each group member will introduce themselves and talk about
the daily commute they do, the challenges they face and if
they have ever thought about anything to solve the issue.

Can you think of an ideal metaphor for in-campus commute?

Why this metaphor.
Seek New List down all the places that you travel and the weekly
Understand frequency of the same.
ing
With whom and how do you travel to these places.

(15 min) List down the challenges, if any, you find to travel to each of
these places.

List down challenges that some of your friends find to travel to

these places.

Cluster the challenges.

Are you aware of shared transportation services? What are

they if you know about them?
Imagine Lets imagine you came into IITG. On day 1, you are told about
More Ideas this fabulous bicycle sharing service that the campus has.
Now each one of you imagine that you are one of the Deans
responsible for operationalising this offering and give an
(30 min) introductory speech to everyone else (who are students/
parents) in the group. Once a person has finished the speech,
others assume that you are a student/ parent and ask
question to the Dean for further clarification/ you can give
feedback.
Clarify Your Summary by the moderator
Goal (5
min)

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 Sample Project - Using MSDS - Part 2

The YouTube link to the sample co-design session is: https://youtu.be/

q5w8vB5DQPM

From the above session, we can conclude that the S.PSS design brief is:

S.PSS problem statement - The current in-campus commute for students is

mostly between hostel to academic complex and students’ activity centre and
to the Faculty Gate. Commute may be solo or in groups, using cycle or
walking. Keeping their cycles in fit and running condition, protecting them
from the weather and theft are some of the concerns. The students will like to
have a sharing system, either paid or free, if the service is reliable and cost
effective.

Design Brief - To design a S.PSS for bicycle sharing for the campus of IITG,
targeting the students, wherein the students will pay a small subscription fee
and be responsible for identification of broken cycles.

Unit of satisfaction - Stress free within campus commute: anytime, any place.

Thus our Market Definition can be summarised as shown below. The market
definition has been derived from the co-design session.

!
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Market Definition - We will develop a bicycle sharing service for IITG campus
which will be subscription fee based and open to all within the campus. Also
the system will be managed by the Student Gymkhana of IITG and the entire
IITG community will take the responsibility of ensuring smooth running of the
service. The said service will be a smart service and appropriate app
development and monitoring device design and development will be
undertaken. The servicing of the cycles will be outsourced to vendors on a
contract basis. Also the initial and running cost of the service will be partly
borne by the subscription fees and rest by the revenue generated by Ads that
can be put on the cycles. To make the scheme more attractive and to create a
sense of responsibility amongst the user, non-monetary reward systems will
be worked out.

Competitor Analysis

We will conduct a competitor analysis using the tool described in this lecture.
In order to do the same, we identified the Local-Ecosystem’s Main Value
Proposition as “Stress free within campus commute: anytime, any place” and
the Design Intervention Goal as “Subscription fee-based Cycle Sharing for
within campus commute”.

Local-Ecosystem’s main value proposition - Stress free within campus

commute: anytime, any place
Category
Form competitor Generic Budget
competitor
Competi Value Competi Value Competi Value Competi Value
tor offering tor offering tor offering tor offering
name name name name
Own Always Electric Weather Walking Always Snacks Taste,
cycles availabl Vehicle proof, availabl in caters to
e since Sharing cost e campus hunger
it System effective solution in-
belongs - , as long between
to the Existing availabl as the class,
purchas e on call commut meeting
er er can and
physicall chatting
y afford with
walking friends
over it

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Hourly Weather
bus proof,
service - free,
Existing availabl
e on
hourly at
fixed
times

Design intervention goal - Subscription fee-based Cycle Sharing for

within campus commute
Category
Form competitor Generic Budget
competitor
Competi Value Competi Value Competi Value Competi Value
tor offering tor offering tor offering tor offering
name name name name
Own Always Hourly Weather
cycles availabl bus proof,
e since service - free,
it Existing availabl
belongs e on
to the hourly at
purchas fixed
er times

The competition analysis shows that, to begin with, the system will have a
huge competition with the cycles in-campus. More than 80% of the residents
own a cycle. We have to ideate on how to on-board these cycles into the
system so that we get our pool of cycles to begin with at reasonable costs
and the system also seams like a win-win situation for the owners. The
electric vehicles are another competitor but considering the number of these
is only 5 and the number is controlled by the IITG admin, we can assume that
we will not have much competition due to them. They are necessary for
people who might not want to cycle/ walk or are not able to due to some
reason. Also the IITG bus service is only an hourly service and is not
sufficient for the number of people in the campus. Hence their presence does
not pose a serious threat to our proposed system. Since at the budget level,
the students (our major chunk of users) are usually trying to juggle with all
they want to achieve in their limited monthly budgets, we have to ensure that
our subscription service fee is mindful of this. Also the subscription fee needs
to be mindful of the fact that I can either own a cycle or rent one and be
designed accordingly.
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Next we conducted a System Carrying Structure Analysis to understand the

social, economic and technological macro-trends and their influence on the
reference context.

Process Sub-process Result Tools

3. System General macro- Report on (social, _
carrying trends analysis economic and
structure technological)
analysis macro-trends and
their influence on
the reference
context.

Social Trends & their Influence on the Reference Context

1. Other IITs do have cycle sharing systems and when students visit these
campuses during internships or inter IIT sports meet, they get exposed to
the idea. They also are able to use the system and see the benefit of the
system.
2. Commute sharing systems like Ola and Uber have reached almost every
nook and corner of the country and shared commute is very acceptable to
the students in general.
3. With increase in congestion in cities, many cities as well as large housing
societies are coming with cycle sharing services and the whole idea is
thus evolving in terms of execution as well as acceptability.
4. Bike share programs are adopting app-based models to give riders more
control and flexibility over the bike rental process. The apps work with
both physical and virtual docking stations, connecting to remote-controlled
locks. Students of most technical universities not only possess the
capability to develop and manage such tech but also enjoy getting into
start ups surrounding such arenas.

Economic Trends & their Influence on the Reference Context

1. The sharing economy model is gearing up in all sectors from commute to

furniture to clothes and so on.
2. The number of shared bike users in China hit 209 million in 2017 – a
market worth some 10.28 billion yuan, according to the iMedia Research.
3. Mobike has accumulated about $1.2 billion in financing; Ofo has raised
about $1.45 billion; Hellobike has received $350 million of D1 round
financing.

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Technological Trends & their Influence on the Reference Context

1. A major hurdle to bike share programs is theft and vandalism. Among the
new technologies emerging on the bike share scene, geo-fencing is
proving to be effective in warding off thieves. Relying on advanced GPS
systems, geo-fencing ensures that bikes stay within a designated
geographic area by immediately notifying operators when a bike is taken
out of the restricted zone. On electric bikes, these systems can be
combined with smart locks that disable a bike’s motors once they leave a
zone of operation, making them unusable and thus less attractive to
thieves.
2. One innovative way cities are promoting cycling as a viable transportation
method is fully integrating their bike share schemes into the public transit
system. Last year, Helsinki rolled out a regional transportation planning
app which connects all of the city’s transport services, including its bike
share program. The app provides information on routes, docking stations
and the availability of bikes around the city and allows users to pay for all
transportation services through one interface.
3. SoftWheel has come up with airless tires and durable rims and paired
them with in-wheel suspension systems resulting in a wheel that
dramatically reduces repairs while maintaining exceptional riding comfort.
4. Santander Cycles, plans to roll out new bikes in with smaller 24” wheels,
making components cheaper and the bikes lighter and easier to transport.

From the macro-trend analysis, we can conclude that the sharing economy is
gaining momentum globally in all walks of life. Thus it is becoming more
socially acceptable to share things rather own. Also manufacturers of
products are becoming aware of this trend and want to design products which
can be more long lasting and robust so that they can be used in the sharing
economy scenario.

Next we will analyse the existing context using the SDO toolkit and define the
design priorities.

Note: I have only taken few parts of the SDO toolkit for demonstration. In
practice you must analyse using all parts of the SDO toolkit.

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Process Sub-process Result Tools

5. Analyse Existing context Summary of the SDO toolkit—
sustainabili analysis from an existing system checklist existing
ty and environmental, analysis system
determine socio-ethical and
priorities economic point of
for the view
design Defining the design Definition of the SDO toolkit—
interventio priorities design priorities for checklist existing
n in view of each dimension of system
sustainabili sustainability
ty

SDO Toolkit for Analysis of Existing System and Definition of Design

Priorities for each Dimension of Sustainability

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