Interview with Juho Passonen
What was/is your role in the process of developing PostiBox?
As Posti’s Head of Design, I had a two-fold role: I was part of the original Posti working group that conceived the concept of Box together with the agencies Motley and Fyra, but I also specifically lead the planning and building of the downstairs design lab spaces that my design team uses now for customer research and co-creation.
How did this project start? Why did you see the need? What was the initial idea of PostiBox?
Posti is in the middle of the biggest transformation in its nearly 400-year history, with the volume of traditional letter mail going down due to digitalization, and the volume of parcels we’re moving absolutely booming with the continuous growth in ecommerce. The world is changing around us, and we need to keep answering to the challenges of the new age.
The original concept of Box was to tackle this challenge by creating a space like no other: a new kind of a transition from ecommerce to brick & mortar, that also serves as a platform to experiment with new concepts and foster low-barrier opportunities for both our consumer and business customers to co-create better services with us.
It looks like fun filling the gap between existing concepts and new needs. You combine in a smart way the digital and analogue world. Which I find very interesting. You take todays shopping experience (which are shifting more and more from analogue to digital) and create a physical space that fills all the weaknesses. Is it the first step of future concepts?
Posti is constantly evolving its digital and physical touchpoints, and experimenting with new ways of serving its customers. Box is one of these experiments. An important one for sure, but still an isolated experiment. That being said, over the 1,5-ish years (in June 2021) that we’ve been operating it, we’ve learned a ton about the interface between B&M and eCommerce, and I’m sure that’s going to be reflected one way or another to how our entire retail network will develop in the future.
Do you think that PostiBox is a new category of space?
I do think we’ve managed to create something new from an experimental perspective, if not quite an entirely new category altogether. Retail spaces considered equally from their experiential perspective than their usefulness are nothing new (neither are flagships stores that bring some element of the brand’s own ecommerce to the B&M), but I personally haven’t seen a lot of examples of brands bridging other brands’ ecommerce to their physical spaces. THAT aspect of Box, I think, is relatively new.
How does the process look like, developing the services/design/new ideas? On your website you mention the trial-and-error system. How does that work and what are the advantages?
The core idea of Box has been pretty clear from the get-go, and the process to build the original concept was not unlike any typical service design process with its phases of discovery, sandboxing, ideation, and building, in strong collaboration between Posti’s own team, design agency Motley, and the architecture agency Fyra. The process to practically try different angles and ways to serve different customer segments, however, has been based on trial-and-error, to see what sticks. Our absolutely fantastic Box team has been experimenting with different service concepts, both with our consumer and business customers, and the learnings have constantly evolved Box’s concept.
What services/functions come together in this space?
One of the world’s biggest parcel lockers, with receiving and sending consumer and small business parcels.
Direct connection via video call to our customer service center to help you with any of Posti’s services
Spots for recycling packaging material, as well as fitting rooms for trying out clothing you received (for faster returns)
My design team’s customer research laboratory with interview and workshop equipment
Floor space for our ecommerce customers to build pop-up shops at Box
Event space and services that are bookable by any of our business customers
Bookable meeting space for Posti’s internal workshops, board meetings, customer workshops, etc.
Is it a complete self-service “store”? Or is there also a “help desk” included?
While it’s totally ok and possible to just go all self-service during your visit, our absolutely stellar Box Host team is always on-site to help anyone who steps in. You can also use our touchscreen self-service kiosks to connect to our customer service center remotely via a video call.
Do you plan to expand the project? Or add new services to the existing one?
This is a question I can’t answer for business confidentiality reasons, but as I said earlier, our retail is constantly evolving, and we’re following how Box is doing very closely to learn from it.
How does function and design come together? What were your goals and requirements?
I would actually need more time than I have to reply to you to explain this thoroughly, but let me try with a short version: The way we think about design at Posti is that it’s holistic. There is no “design” AND “function”, there’s only design. The purpose, the function, the aesthetics, the emotions, and all the other attributes of holistic design will need to come to play together, regardless of whether we’re designing a space, a digital product, or a logistical process. With Box, we were aiming for a space that’s equally experiential, as it is functional and beautiful, and we spent a lot of time thinking about the flow of space, the materials that would reflect our sustainable values, and the functionality of the core customer journey, parcel flow.
