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Continuous Learning Loops

Learn how to use feedback to plan what’s next with your product or service – this could be evolving your offer, new opportunities for business growth, or spotting your next circular intervention and even evolving the feedback mechanism itself.

Design is continuous with the circular economy. That’s why it’s important to create feedback cycles and learn from the input you get along the way. This will help you use the feedback you are collecting to explore the next steps to iterate your design and continue to add value to your business and the system as a whole.

STEPS

1

Review your progress against the feedback you set out to collect in Embed Feedback Mechanisms as well as your overall strategy in the Business Model Canvas.

2

Start by asking whether you have achieved what you set out to do. Have you been able to find answers to the questions you posed?

3

Synthesise this feedback by looking for patterns and insights about what you are learning. How has what you are learning shifted your thinking?

4

Use this flowchart to answer these types of questions:

  • Do you need to change the feedback mechanism?
  • Is it giving you data that is of value or are you wasting time collecting some of that information?
  • What do you need to do to alter your product or service to ensure it’s bringing business value to you, and adding value to the system as a whole?
  • How might you make your product/service better, not just for the consumer, but other users in the value chain?
  • Is your product or service breaking down from a usability or technical standpoint? Does anything need to be adapted for it to work better?
  • What will your next intervention be? Will you be scaling the same model or looking to increase your influence by expanding to different loops in the system?
5

Return to methods in the Define section and develop an action plan for scaling.

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WHO'S DOING IT WELL

Internet enabled pay-per-wash

Bundles uses Internet of Things technology to provide customers with a pay-per-wash service on washing machines. They also maintain and refurbish their machines to prolong their lives.

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The Circular Design Guide is a collaboration between the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and IDEO. To give your feedback, email us directly or join our linkedin group.

Copyright © Ellen MacArthur Foundation 2017, 2018