For an incredibly long time, what exactly happens between the legs of female-sex people has been a great mystery.
It‘s not common to talk about our vulvas and how we feel about them in detailed and specific terms - and yes it‘s vulva and not vagina, the vulva is the entire external genital area, the vagina is merely the internal muscle canal.
It‘s so unusual that many women lack the vocabulary to describe their genitals and the education that‘s practised in the school system is sporadic and often only focused on reproduction.
And the vagina is by no means the star of the show and definitely not the female equivalent of the penis. This is the clitoris, which is by no means just a little (apparently difficult to find) knob above the vaginal opening, but is a large and complex organ located beneath the skin‘s surface. A more or less fun fact, for example, is that it was not until 1998 that the complete anatomy of the clitoris was revealed in a study by the Australian urologist Helen O‘Connell (Fyfe, 2018). In fact, most anatomical books don‘t even show the clitoris and therefore not depicting the vulva correctly. Let that sink in.
Conversations about sexuality, well-being or pleasure find no place and lead to misconceptions, rumours and often leave people wondering „Am I normal?“.
This thesis aims to answer the question “How might a concept car look like for Yoni” as means of process and deliverable exploration for The Young.
In essence this thesis is about the world and future of vulvas and which role Yoni could play to ultimately facilitate positive change in people’s lives.
To explore this notion the method of developing a “concept car” was used to deliver a tangible representation of this future brand scenario.
And because the social climate is changing and brands are increasingly acting as amplifiers of cultural trends and the introduction of questions and topics into the mainstream of society. At this point Yoni joins the conversation. Yoni has been offering organic 100% cotton period products since 2015 after the founder found that the products recommended to her by her gynaecologist were not only unavailable to the majority of consumers but regular period products did not list their ingredients and were full of synthetic fibres.
That‘s why Yoni made it its mission to offer better products, products one would trust to touch their most intimate body part. Yoni wanted to change the market for more transparency and a higher standard of menstrual products and has achieved this, especially in recent years. Big brands are now also offering organic alternatives, explaining the ingredients of their products on the packaging or at least online and other brands have followed Yoni‘s lead. But with the constant fulfilment of the initial mission, it is time to find a new drive, a new vision.
And the time is ripe to do so, people are excited and ready to overcome their inhibitions and have meaningful conversations about their vulvas, and are eager for opportunities to learn. And the market is not yet oversaturated with offerings.
To answer the question of what exactly happens in the world of the vulva, this work started with in-depth research both in an interview study and in extensive literature and media research. It was about exploring the behaviour, feelings, culture, history and economy regarding vulvas and menstruation.
The market, consumer and context research resulted in four distinct directions Yoni could follow in the future to have a positive impact on their users‘ lives. These directions were about pushing the menstruation conversation in society further, for more social justice, to build strong communities of people with vulvas to overcome gaps of knowledge and wisdom, to unlock knowledge about hormonal cycles beyond the binary view of period on-period off and finally to discover how to bring vulva care to the forefront of people’s attention to share knowledge, facilitate experiences and overcome bodily shame.
In close collaboration with Yoni one direction was chosen as the means for Yoni to facilitate meaningful positive impact in the lives of their users and subsequently use this direction as a vehicle for organisational transformation and future vision.
This direction is called “vulva care” and targets the redefinition of what true vulva care might mean on a time axis of 1 to 5 years. At the end of this axis stands the concept product of vulvovaginal microbiome testing and personalised vulvar care products which acts as a beacon for creative brand development.
To make this concept product more accessible from an organisational point of view, the product was contextualised in a three step roadmap showcasing three distinct steps on how the company might develop for their current offering and structure towards a focus on vulvovaginal care using digital and care products infused with science and technology to ultimately future-proof a brand with incredible potential.
At the final pages of the report you will find the translation of this concept product into a website and digital product prototype illustrating how Yoni’s brand future might look like.

One of the key business models Gorenje andASKO have researched upon is a service model of circular washing machine under a pay per use (PPU) business model. PPU business models are currently mostly used within shared washing rooms, which is also the segment in which ASKO will enter withtheir first circular washing machines. However, even though PPU business models help nudge sustainable consumer behaviour, it can also have negative effects on consumer acceptance towards PSS and create negative emotional connections towards the brand itself. Key competitors currently offer circular products under PPU or leasing business models, but lack differentiation and clear unique selling points. To date, most competitors in the market struggle to offer new experiences with a circular product launch and seem to solely meet the requirements of potential regulations. However, this also offers an opportunity towards ASKO, as they have a chance to reposition their brand towards a broader target market and create new and unique brand experiences which set themselves apart from competition. MyASKO is a sub-brand and brand extension of ASKO which is targeted towards “aware millennials” who are using shared washing rooms within student accommodations, serviced apartments or communal homes. MyASKO also offers a digital brand experience which is rewarding and gives members the opportunity to proactively contribute towards local & global sustainable initiatives by choosing to wash on sustainable modes. By making the experience more rewarding and by engaging with local communities through sustainable initiatives, MyASKO increased the chance to create brand loyalty and potentially keep members for future circular washing machines for the private domestic market.

This thesis introduces the vision and implementation to involve and empower end-consumers in the circular economy. This thesis is the graduation project of Strategic product design master’s program, developed for Circularise, a B2B company who connects supply chain. It aims for an in-depth understanding of the users need and challenges in the purchase decision of durable products with recycled plastic components.

The project began with literature researches of consumer behaviours with circular products. It also looked into their behaviour with blockchain technology, and current support that blockchain technology provides to a circular economy, namely, supply chain transparency and others. The new target segmentation was created according to literature, and user research was done with the target group. Contextmapping method was used to collect the user’s insight, and qualitative data were analysed. The results showed that consumers lack trust in sustainable claims that were advertised by brands, consumers lack motivation since the sustainable impacts are not clearly measurable, and more. The research also showed that blockchain technology in supply chain transparency could provide consumers with trustworthy sustainable data to support their purchase decision of the product.
Based on these insights, new target segment (end-consumers), brand identity, platform design, and a roadmap of implementation plan were created with value exchange between consumers, brands, original equipment manufacturers, part manufacturers, material manufacturers, and recyclers in the future.
This thesis aims to empower consumers by translation blockchain’s sustainable claims from manufacturers, into product storytelling. With accumulated value, it also proposes a long-term strategy to connect the consumers to the supply chain. This will further influence the connection of the chain to recyclers and close the loop for the circular economy in the future.

The fashion industry is the second most polluting industry in the world, mostly due to the many ways fashion is polluting the environment (Fischer, 2015). First of all by the CO2 emission produced in manufacturing and logistics, second the massive amounts of water used in dyeing processes and production of natural resources, third the pollution of groundwater and rivers by pesticides and dyes and last but not least the enormous amount of waste created by fast fashion items that are only worn once. One of the most impactful garments in this industry is something most of us wear every day: a pair of jeans. The production of a single pair uses on average 8000 litres of water (Water Footprint Network, 2016). Besides water, toxic and corrosive chemicals are used to dye and ‘wash’ the jeans to its desired style. Every year, more than 2 billion pairs of jeans are produced worldwide, adding to its yet existing footprint (Greenpeace, 2016). Some brands in the industry are already putting a lot of effort into the production of sustainable denim. However, reducing the impact of the denim industry is not just up to denim brands and manufacturers anymore: consumers have to play their part as well. To raise awareness and higher the demand for sustainable jeans amongst consumers, this graduation project for House of Denim focusses on solving the following challenge: how might we help consumers buy better jeans? To raise the demand for sustainable jeans, the impact of a jeans has to become more transparent and understandable for consumers. In an attempt to achieve this, a jungle of certifications has popped up in the fashion and jeans industry, resulting in more confusion than transparency; many consumers are not familiar with any of these existing certifications. Besides awareness, understanding what a certification stands for demands quite some knowledge of materials or manufacturing from consumers. To make it easier for consumers to make a positive choice, Brighter Blue, a product rating tool, was developed in cooperation with denim experts and consumers. To accomplish this, the project used an inside- out approach to research the impact of a pair of jeans, to see what factors contribute most to this impact and to explore how this impact could be minimised. Afterwards, a case study was used as a parallel perspective, to see and learn how indices in other industries help change behaviour. Qualitative interviews with eight denim experts and a literature study on green consumer behaviour defined the most important challenges and design guidelines for Brighter Blue. These guidelines were further developed into a first minimum lovable prototype of the rating: the impact index. From this moment and outside-in approached was used to develop this concept using lean methodology. Through three design interventions with important industry stakeholders and (expert) consumers, the rating was developed into the final concept Brighter Blue. Brighter Blue is a positive and easy indicator of the best jeans out there: accessible on various levels to serve as many consumers as possible. By means of a hangtag and Google extension, the ratings are communicated to consumers, so they can look good and feel confident that they have made the right choice. An overarching platform conveys the message that sustainable choices do not have to be that hard or complicated: everyone can vote with their money. Brighter Blue helps consumers regain their power to decide and gives a little push to young conscious consumers that want to make better choices but not always know how. This thesis presents the development and final concept of Brighter Blue, including the rating methodology, working mechanism, benchmarks, prototypes of the various consumer tools, and a detailed plan for further implementation and market launch.

In order to realize sustainable customer growth, a company could adopt different strategies: opening up a new market, developing new products, etc. Based on the SWOT analysis, No Label is small and lacking capital, while its main target group (middle-class men, aged 25-45) is growing rapidly. Thus, No Label’s biggest opportunity lies in focusing on the current market and attract more potential customers within the market. After several interviews with its potential customers, the designer found the main challenge for converting its potential customers to real customers is that those people don’t hold a strong belief that No Label is a “relevant brand” and “My kind of product”. The believes that the brand is relevant could result in higher brand loyalty and positive responses to brand-driven activities such as their willingness to pay a premium price, keep purchasing the same brand, adopt new products and so on. This project focuses on leveraging branding and design to elicit the belief of "relevant brand" and "My kind of product", thus converting potential customers of No Lable.

The project is about an online second-hand trading platform running in China, named Paipai Second-hand (Paipai). The project aimed to tailor a branding strategy for Paipai and deliver the according brand knowledge through a holistic brand experience to create Paipai’s brand image in consumers’ mind and build up its brand equity. Starting from the market analysis, the author investigated the context around the brand. Parallelly, some user studies were conducted to understand the user needs. The conclusions from both parts resulted in a re-defined brand positioning, including the target group, the category, and a series of benefits. After, some other researches were designed to learn users’ desires to brand experience. Based on the brand strategy and the user needs, a design guideline was created to lead Paipai’s brand experience design. Some paradigms reflecting the requirements from the guideline were designed and evaluated by users. The result of the evaluation showed that the brand experiences were desired and the design guideline was effective. The project has three distinguishing features. First, it took a user-centered approach. End-users were invited to participate in every step of the project so that their needs can be maximally detected. Second, the result of the project was mainly based on first-hand studies, which can ensure that the results of the project are tailored for Paipai and are the most likely to be the suitable solution. Third, the project aimed at a holistic brand experience to establish the brand equity rather than some marketing activities for hot spots, resulting in accumulative brand knowledge. The deliverables of the project were a re-defined brand positioning, a set of determined brand personality, a design guideline for desired brand experience, and a series of touch points paradigms.

Tripick is an online platform which makes it possible to save holiday destinations from different tour operators and share them with travelpartners so jointly the best location can be chosen. Users of the platform will search for a holiday destination just as they normally do, but when they have found a potential location they can easily save it on Tripick. In this way, they will have a collection of potential destinations from different providers at the end of their search. The platform is separated from the websites of the providers and when people want to book, it will be done through the website of the original provider. From the internal and external analysis some main insights are derived which are combined into a final positioning for Tripick, namely ‘Tripick is your personal online travel assistant for group holidays’. Tripick consists of two main USP´s to differentiate itself from competitors. First Tripick as an assistant, in which Tripick will assist on a wider range of aspects of the holiday than competitors do, by not limiting it to the search for an accommodation but also on other aspects of the holiday. Second, the focus on the group process instead of individuals or pairs. The big idea has been set up which captures the brand message of Tripick, namely ‘Your group guide to sparkling holidays’. This is translated into a design language which has an overall appearance of simplicity, pleasure and trust. The colours that will be used are white, green, orange and yellow. Furthermore, straight forms will be used with rounded elements and when possible symmetry will be strived for. The tone of voice will be informal and personal with an inspiring and supportive character. During the ideation the functions of Tripick are designed. Besides the main functions, saving, sharing and rating of accommodations, some sub functions have been designed. These are personalised filters, a travel overview, a cost overview, saving of transportation and activities, different chats and the option to view the site of the tour operator within Tripick. In order to make money with Tripick the business model Leverage customer data will be used. First party data gathered from Tripick will be sold to tour operators. With this data, tour operators can keep the availability of saved accommodations up to date but they can also provide special offers to persuade the customer to book their accommodation instead of accommodations of other tour operators that are saved on Tripick. Tripick will be launched in December 2017, because then people will start searching for their summer holiday. The launch event and the promotion strategy consists of multiple activities, but the main focus will be on social media, especially Facebook. The attraction of tour operators for the business model will start in December 2018, because first enough data must be collected to be able to offer a complete dataset.

In 2014 two Industrial Design alumni from the TU Delft decided that they wanted to start a company that will demonstrate that a circular business model can be viable. They have developed a modular headphone, which they provide to customers as a subscription. Customers pay a monthly or yearly fee for the use of the headphone, which entitles them to free repairs and upgrades over time. The company has been growing steadily but too slow to become a sustainable business. One of the challenges they face is that need a better understanding of their customers in order to effectively build a brand and grow their business. The following assignment was therefore formulated for this thesis:

Refine and validate Gerrard Street’s target segment and redesign its touchpoints with Gerrard Street.

The analysis focused on creating a clear definition of Gerrard Street’s most important customer segment and on repositioning the brand. The synthesis and final design demonstrate how this should be implemented within Gerrard Street’s service through the design of a touchpoint.

Refining the target segment
Through a analysis of Gerrards Street’s internal environment was found that their business model is still in the early phases of adoption. It was therefore decided that Gerrard Street should focus their energy on targeting early adopters to build a strong brand before going after the early majority. The literature helped with describing the early adopters of services as young, well educated, having a high social status and do not mind taking risks. Customer research was used to develop a deeper understanding of the early adopters of Gerrard Street’s headphone service. Qualitative exploration through interviews provided direction for the target segment. A survey is used to sharpen that direction and to test some of the insights gathered during the qualitative research. Based on the customer research the target segment is described as:

Young educated men that live in an urban area, who listen to music at every opportunity and use music as a social connector, he values progress and change and works toward self-fulfillment. The need for self-fulfillment is divided into three sub audiences that Gerrard Street can use for specific targeting:

The passionate musician looking for musical fulfillment
The young achiever looking for Professional fulfillment
The Sporty lifestyle looking for Athletic fulfillment

Repositioning the brand
Gerrard Street’s mission is: “We will take the next step towards a circular economy by developing circular consumer electronics” Gerrard Street noticed that the market for people that are into the circular economy and headphone is too small. Therefore it is decided that they should demonstrate that the circular economy benefits the consumer more that traditional solutions, instead of focusing on the environmental image of their service.

The headphone market, the competitive landscape and the environment of the consumers has been explored. Headphones have transformed from rather technical devices to lifestyle products. This led to many new entrants and a highly fragmented market, making it difficult to Stand out. Gerrard Street is competing in this market based on product form for a premium price with fewer features than its competitors. They also lack a specific lifestyle or a strong legacy. It is therefore concluded that they should put the emphasis on developing their service, which is the main differentiator from the competition. Based on new the target segment and the findings of the analysis Gerrard Street has been repositioned as:

Gerrard Street, the audio service for doers, not talkers, for users, not owners, that connect through music and desire a great sound, carefree.

Five design principles were created that provide guidance on how to express the Gerrard Street brand:
Be Bold Confidence - Outspoken - Direct - Unapologetic - Doers
Why so serious? Surprising - Fun - Professionally avoiding Seriousness - Don’t speak your parents language
Quality is usability Making sure that you can always enjoy great sound experience - Here to serve - All grown up - keeping you online
Circular products are better For everyone, but especially for our customers - Smarter choice - no brainer - Modularity - Repair instead of waste
Engaging - A relationship - join the gang - Steer towards conversation instead of statements - Customer community - Honest about taste

Synthesis
To implement the new positioning for the newly formed target segment a touchpoint strategy was created: Adding value through the service by delivering a personal and social experience.
An analysis of Gerrard Street’s current customer journey map pinpointed how they should adapt their service in order to deliver the desired experience. Ideation sessions on these on these different phases were used to develop a desired customer journey that serves as a vision for the development of Gerrard Street’s service. Moments of truth were allocated to parts of the Desired Journey that were especially relevant for achieving this vision. The moment someone’s headphone breaks down has been selected as the moment of truth. The repair experience is truly unique for the Gerrard Street’s brand, since it is the moment where they deliver on their brand promise of providing a great sound carefree.

The final design
The moment someone's headphone breaks down is usually considered as a very negative experience. The repair experience has been designed to radically change the perception by providing a moment where negative energy becomes something great and sharable. The customer should feel empowered by fixing their headphone, since they do not have to throw it away. The aim of the design was to let the customer consciously experience this moment, providing positive feedback and adding extra satisfiers. The final design serves as an example for Gerrard Street on how they can implement the findings of this thesis.

Some consultants within KPMG advisory feel like the services that KPMG advisory generates for its clients, could be improved. They see a potential solution within the application of design activities related to design paradigms such as user experience and customer experience. However several hurdles are experienced within the introduction of these approaches. In other words there are difficulties with the successful introduction of an approach called design thinking.

According to a market analyses, KPMG’s advisory services has maintained about the same size in a growing advisory market, where competition has increased the past seven years. KPMG is the only company of the Big Four that has not grown within the past seven years. In the meantime KPMG has lost its leading advisory position within the Big Four consultancies to Deloitte.

The market for business services is changing. There is increased competition caused by growing competitors and new European and Dutch audit legislation. In addition clients expect better business services and better business service experiences. KPMG’s position on the advisory market, the growing competition and the development of increased expectations of business services indicate the need for new ways to develop better experiences for clients. Design thinking is an approach that can be used to do just that. Therefore the assignment of this project was to find a way to introduce design thinking in a successful way at KPMG and design a solution that would enable consultants to apply it in their profession.

Design thinking is an approach that centralizes human needs by using technology driven solutions in combination with business feasibility. This way design thinking can be used to develop holistic systems that solve multiple problems at ones. The design thinking process exists out of three stages, inspiration, ideation and implementation. Each of these stages exist out of several design activities. To apply design thinking, a certain mindset is needed. One needs to be empathic, use integrative thinking, collaborative, optimistic and experimental to successfully apply design thinking. This mindset can be created under the right conditions.

There are several hurdles associated with the introduction of design thinking within corporations. To learn why and how design thinking is applied within corporation, qualitative research was done with design professionals. This research resulted into several advantages that design thinking brings into corporations and strategies to introduce the approach into corporations.

Through conversations and interviews with consultants several hurdles and strategies for the introduction of new initiatives, such as design thinking, were identified. Together with the results of the research with design professionals, these findings were translated into a list of requirements for successful design thinking introduction within KPMG.

The value of design thinking should be expressed in terms time and money to make its application interesting for consultants. It should be applied within a service that has often been provided by KPMG and that as many consultants as possible are part of in order to succesfully spread it through the organisation.

The proposal development process meets all the requirements that are addressed in these lists. Through the application of context generating methods, co-creation session and idea testing, design thinking can potentially safe a lot of time, increase proposal acceptance and improve the experience of clients at the same time.

To enable consultants to take advantage of these design thinking characteristics, a toolkit for the proposal development process was designed based upon existing design thinking methods. The toolkit is called KPMG Essence and exists out of four stages that are associated with the design stages. These are 1. Plan, 2. Discover, 3. Ideate and 4. Preview.

The first stage exists out of tools that guide consultants in planning a co-creation session and gathering context about a clients problem. The second and third stages exist out of tools that guide a co-creation session with all consultants that are involved with the development of a proposal. The fourth step enables consultants to preview their ideas to clients and gather feedback about the generated ideas. This enables consultants to learn what direction to take within the further development of the proposal and to estimate whether they can offer the client the solutions they look for, before they spend day on writing a proposal in vain.

The Discover and Ideate stages were tested on a real life client case together with seven consultants. Consultants were very enthusiastic about the session and gave a the value of the session a 6 out of 7.

At the end of the report a plan of implementation and several recommendations are made for further development.

KPMG Essence provides a first step in the further application of design thinking within the proposal process. Furthermore it enables all advisory consultants to experience design thinking. As there are many more opportunities to introduce design thinking within KPMG the tool is expected to create awareness among enthusiastic consultants about how design thinking might also improve other services within KPMG.