Air New Zealand and its Skycouch - Creative Confidence #20
Air New Zealand's Skycouch is an example of how openness to experimentation can yield a breakthrough in innovation.
Because of its relatively isolated location in the Southern Hemisphere, Air New Zealand flies some very long routes. And if you’ve ever sat through even a few hours in a coach-class seat, you know that there’s plenty of room for improvement.
So CEO Rob Fyfe challenged his team to rethink the customer experience on its long-haul flights; including the seats. He made it clear that a risk-averse operational culture shouldn’t stop experimentation in the commercial and product parts of the business.
With license to exercise their creativity, Air New Zealand managers got into a design thinking workshop aimed at generating breakthrough ideas.
They brainstormed and prototyped a dozen unconventional (and some seemingly impractical) concepts, including harnesses that hold people standing up, groups of seats facing one another around a table, and even hammocks in the air.
Because everyone was actively participating, no one was afraid of being judged.
By being open to wild ideas and questioning assumptions, they developed the Skycouch. It’s a deceptively simple solution to a long-standing pain for passengers: being unable to lie down in economy class.
The seats include a heavily padded section that can be swung up like a footrest, transforming a row of three seats into a futon-like platform that a couple can lie down on together.
It might seem unavoidable that lie-flat seats take up more room (as they do in business-class cabins around the world). Air New Zealand challenged that conventional wisdom with Skycouch.
Lesson:
Defer judgement long enough to let an idea evolve. Sometimes the craziest ideas can lead to valuable solutions.
[Creative Confidence Newsletter: 20 of 25]
Want book summaries, content tips and occasional hugs in your inbox?