In the basement of John Lewis’s London HQ, engineers and designers tinker away at work benches, using 3D printers, laser cutters and even toy furniture to make their ideas a reality.
Overseen by futurologist John Vary, Room Y is the company's in-house Skunkworks. A small team of six build prototypes of multi-sensory exhibits for John Lewis stores. Inventions include a giant 3D-printed hollowed out head, installed in their Oxford Street branch. Inside was a psychometric test - like a Tinder for furniture - where people swiped right on what they liked and had their choices emailed to them.
In Room Y, Vary used Sylvanian Families furniture to test their Sofa Studio concept. When rolled out, customers used augmented reality to see what different combinations of sofa shapes and fabrics looked like. The team also worked on a chatbot to help people choose Valentine's Day gifts.
These experiments allow Vary and his team to create a minimal viable product for testing customer reaction. “It’s a place where people can openly share ideas, and then build,” Vary says. It might sound trite, but to innovate quickly in a big business, you need to attract people who aren't afraid to fail. "You need the right mindset for growth. People who are curious, fearless and not scared to share their ideas,” he says.
Vary, who spoke at WIRED Retail 2017, began working for John Lewis in 2014. Before that, he worked as Burberry's innovation manager for five years. He's conscious that innovation is often used as a meaningless buzzword. “If you build something without value, it's not innovation, it's just invention."
Whilst one-hour delivery is a reality, it's easy to question the brick and mortar stores' role in the future of retail. Yet, in its Sofa Studio, some people favoured real-life visualisation over AR. "They just put the sofa bed and chairs next to each other to see how they worked. We never created that," Vary says.
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This helped the team understand what customers want. As a futurologist, Vary has to predict how this could change in the coming decades. "What will voice be like in 2030? Will we even have smartphones then? What can we change now that will make life easier for us in the future? These are the questions you need to ask," he says.
Imagining the John Lewis of the future requires creativity – and resilience. "When I first started, I was told I was stepping on a lot of toes. From that moment on I knew I was doing a good job," Vary says. "Having the freedom to look beyond the horizon is important.” People that help Vary look beyond are picked up by JLAB – John Lewis' technology accelerator. Now in its fourth year, one startup wins funding to spend 12 weeks in their lab, developing their business.
With a world so focused on what technology can do for us, Vary wants John Lewis to instead focus on what we can do for technology. Next, his team will look at how to humanise voice assistants. "I’m interested in how we will evolve in society and the challenges we'll face. Only then you can start layering in emerging technologies.”
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
