Designer case: fully engaged in digital innovation

The original question from Standby Zorg? It was about a new corporate identity and website design. Of course, you can say: fine, we'll do it. But that's not how we approach things. What Heads want is: always to add value for the customer, their involved stakeholders, and society. At Standby Zorg, we saw many more opportunities that they couldn't capitalize on with just a new website. That's how we started working with them on digitizing internal processes, because we saw that this was the bottleneck for further growth. We searched for the goal on the horizon and worked backwards from there. That's how we developed a plan to digitally transform Standby Zorg into a modern organization, ready for the future. And that is precisely the kind of process where our designers play a central role.

Three steps back for progress

At Freshheads, we are quite headstrong. Instead of simply building what a client asks for, we always first look for the question behind the question. Jordy: “Standby Zorg has been around for about twenty years. The organization was ready for the next step. But what exactly is that? That's what we discussed first.” The collaboration between Standby Zorg and Freshheads started with two sessions. Not about the product – so not the website, corporate identity, or anything else – but about what the organization is here for. And what is needed to further improve their services. During the first session, Nick and fellow Head Sepp Haans immediately delved into the vision, ambition, and strategic goals of Standby Zorg as an organization. “We talked about what makes them unique in the market. They know that best. We also discussed the current processes. And especially how they see their future,” says Nick. “Then you notice that the needs from the organization are indeed much broader than just that website or corporate identity.”

But wait a minute, Nick, analyzing an organization: isn't that not a designer's job? Laughing: “I understand your question. And yet this is something we are particularly good at. Because we are not entrenched in Standby Zorg's market, but we are incredibly curious and critical. And because as designers, we are trained to think from the end user's needs, instead of from a product,” he says. “Through our experiences with different types of organizations, we have a lot of knowledge about digitalization. We combine that with the substantive knowledge and skills the client has of their market. In this way, we come up with a product or process from which the client benefits in the long term.”

Design a new business model

During those initial sessions, our Heads quickly realized: Standby Zorg is not a standard care institution. For example, because they provide 'block care', meaning they are always in someone's home for at least three hours. Because they assist with complex questions, such as dementia and palliative care. And because they work only with freelancers, constantly searching for the best match. Jordy: “Then you know: there are serious opportunities for this organization with a platform, through which you can connect supply and demand.” That is a completely different business model than how Standby Zorg currently operates.