The GUEST methodology has been developed by a pool of researchers from the Politecnico di Torino – one of the SINFONICA Partners – with the aim to provide companies with an innovative framework for business management.
The GUEST methodology controls the process, from the original idea to its implementation, and provides a conceptual and practical tool to the various stakeholders, enabling them to communicate their vision, difficulties and opportunities within the same structure.
Every step of this methodology allows the actors to monitor their projects and, at the same time, grants the standardization of documents and tools that should be used to evaluate ideas, successes, actions and results.
Tools and documentation are simple to understand and easy to use. This facilitates the involvement of people with different backgrounds and/or limited business knowledge.
The Guest methodology is divided in 5 phases:
GO phase
The first step of the GUEST methodology deals with the identification of the potential types of stakeholders and final users of the innovative products and services, as well as of their needs and requirements.
UNIFORM phase
In the UNIFORM phase of the GUEST methodology, the information collected in the previous step are standardised with the aim to define the business models that describe the innovations.
EVALUATE phase
The EVALUATE phase of the GUEST methodology has the aim to define the innovation strategic path, intended as the actions to implement to actually develop the solutions, as well as a timeline for the development and a set of KPIs to monitor the implementation.
SOLVE phase
The SOLVE phase of the GUEST methodology relies with the actual implementation of the innovative products and services.
TEST phase
The last phase (TEST) is intended as the application of the developed and tested products and services in real contexts, aimed at monitoring their effectiveness.
Guest-SI
To guide social innovation projects, we are developing a customized version of the methodology: the GUEST-SI.
The GUEST-SI mainly relies in its application to social innovation contexts, in which the correct definition of the potential end-user segments, as well as the definition of their needs and requirements, and of the strategies to engage them, are very important tasks to ensure the final objectives of the project.
The SINFONICA Project
In the context of the SINFONICA Project, the GUEST methodology will be customized to focus on CCAM services and business models, with a particular focus on supporting public and private stakeholders in engaging people with reduced mobility or with special needs.
SINFONICA’s Goals
SINFONICA aims to facilitate the shift toward innovative, smart mobility concepts in an inclusive and equitable way, through the adoption of an approach that always puts users and their needs at the centre.
Fragile individuals are akin to canaries in the mine: their needs often aren’t so different from those of typical individuals, just more pronounced.
An inconvenience for a person can be a blockade for another. Adapting the project to accommodate vulnerable people leads to an enhanced service for all. As our mobility ecosystem evolves, no one should be left stranded without transportation options. The time to innovate is now.
Author: Francesca Merlo (Politecnico di Torino)
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