How 'Priming' Can Help You Improve

Dutch bicycle manufacturer VanMoof found it had a problem. VanMoof makes high-end bikes many of which are built with anti-theft trackers and electric assist motors, all containing sensitive electronics. As it shipped the bikes to customers, it found they were arriving damaged. Solving this problem was especially critical given the company’s goal of selling 90% of their bikes on line by 2020. Thinking ‘out of the box’ the company came up with an ‘on the box’ solution. They printed a graphic of a flat screen television on the side of the box.

"Your covetable products, your frictionless website, your killer brand?—?they all count for nothing when your delivery partner drops the ball," Bex Rad, VanMoof’s creative director was recently quoted as saying.

What VanMoof tapped into was a principle of priming. Priming is a way of framing a thought or action. In this case the company wanted the shippers to treat their bikes like they would a flat screen TV, something expensive and easy to break. Most people don’t automatically equate a bike with those characteristics and as a result are ‘primed’ to be less careful with something they view as sturdy, like a bike. By placing the image of a large TV on the box people were primed to treat it carefully. The result? According to the company, shipping damage to bikes dropped by 70-80 percent.

Priming can be a powerful step when a complete Poke Yoke (mistake proofing) is not possible. In this case the printing on the box is significantly less expensive than creating a box capable of preventing all damage.

Another important lesson here, VanMoof tried something. Granted many of us would have perhaps tried it with a specific percentage of the bikes to see if the TV image had any effect. Given the 70% + improvement, even without a more scientific test it seems they have a winner on their hands. They also moved quickly with their experiment. Way too often companies will hesitate to try something, even on a small scale, waiting instead for flawless information on which to base a test. 

There are many opportunities to drive improvement beyond the usual tool kits of Lean, Six Sigma and Agile. Sometimes it just requires a willingness to try a little ‘on the box’ thinking.

#leanthinking #leanmanagement #continuousimprovement #innovation #marlowmethod