The Good Kitchen Story

By- Kamakshi Gupta

2021JULB02014
PGDM SPECx 2021-23

1. 4 steps of Design Thinking used

1. Observation:
 Seniors were embarrassed to accept government assistance
 Loss of control over food choices was painful
 They were lonely, eating alone and missed the seasonal food of their youth
 60% had poor nutrition
 20% were malnourished
 Workers were bored and unmotivated making the same meals everyday
 Workers- preparing low-cost meals because of perception that it is a low
status job

Key Stakeholders: Workshop Participants

 Employees of residential care centers
 Municipality officials
 Expert in elderly issues
 Volunteers
 Kitchen workers

2. Empathize: Interviewed key stakeholders for their preferences and living situations
as merely fixing the menu would not solve this problem.

3. Problem Articulation:
 How might senior ciizens have the right nutrition and are satisfied as well?
How do we motivate the workers to work efficiently and take pride in their
work?
Insights: More than 12,500 senior citizens had one major problem and it was
identified as nutrition. Workers were bored and unmotivated making the
same meals everyday

4. Ideate & Prototyping: Ethnographic approach (human centered approach)

The design agency found that there are both emotional needs at the elderly side and
worker’s side. So, they approached the stakeholders and formed workshops to
create a sense of ownership.
 They suggested them to look at the kitchen for senior citizens as a restaurant, the
cooks as chefs and description as menu, vehicles replaced with waiters.
NEW NAME: THE GOOD KITCHEN

 Creating 3 different versions of menu- asked workshop participants what

they liked and colors they preferred, if they preferred photos or illustrations.
 New uniforms
 Modular meals
 Newsletters, etc.
Results:
 500% increase in meal orders in the first week. No. of customers increased from 650
to 700.
 Sickness absence went down 9%
 More people applied for job because of its improved reputation

2. Tools used for Design Thinking

 Ethnographic research
 Mind mapping
 Trigger questions
 Interviewing key stakeholders
 Prototyping
 Journey Mapping
 Visualization
 Co- creation

3. State the insights gained; list as many as you can think of

 Seniors were embarrassed to accept government assistance
 Loss of control over food choices was painful
 They were lonely, eating alone and missed the seasonal food of their youth
 60% had poor nutrition
 20% were malnourished
 Workers were bored and unmotivated making the same meals everyday
 Workers- preparing low-cost meals because of perception that it is a low status job

4. Learning from the case

 Design thinking is a powerful tool, not only from the point of business
but also for people’s happiness and satisfaction.
 It is important to engage with the whole system- key stakeholders,
everyone involved in the production of the product or service, that
needs improvement.
 The workers had a sudden shift in their perception of their job and
resulted in higher customer satisfaction and took pride in their job.
 Hence, Design Thinking is not limited to products or technology but also
used in motivating people.