IQOS

I spent the summer of 2019 interning at Philip Morris Switzerland and learned a lot about Consumer Experience. I worked in the Consumer Journey & Incubation team for their reduced-risk heated tobacco product, IQOS.

Design-Thinking & Agile Development

My first impression of the company was that it was fast-moving and adaptable, what a design-thinker might refer to as 'agile'. The first IQOS was sold only five years before I joined, and sent the clear message that the company was adapting its approach and departing from the conventions of the industry.

At the start of my internship, I completed a design-thinking course which helped me understand how each project is organised and iterated as it progresses. Our team worked a lot like a UX/CX team would in any agile firm. We worked directly with consumers for every part of their journey with our product, gaining valuable insights to identify any gaps in the experience consumers were receiving and the experience they wanted (known as 'experience gaps').

This direct consumer contact was especially useful when working with the Incubation team, where I spent most of my time workshopping, designing, and prototyping solutions to these experience gaps.

Workshopping the Unboxing Experience

My biggest project was workshopping and redesigning the unboxing experience for at-home trials of IQOS. For this project, I had to really understand how our current packaging and supporting materials made consumers feel. Then I researched what consumers liked about unboxing experiences from other industries and brainstormed how we might be able to adapt our approach so that IQOS consumers could be equally delighted. After all, the unboxing experience is the first physical touchpoint at-home trial users have with the product, so it's important to establish a good first impression with a frictionless experience.

Cross-functional communication was an important part of my job when developing the new packaging. I couldn't get way too attached to any one design and had to keep iterating as new needs and constraints emerged. Working with the industrialisation team and their agencies made testing the feasibility of my designs much more efficient.

I also gained valuable experience putting what I learned in my design-thinking course into practice when organising and participating in workshops for IQOS loyalty programmes and boutiques. The design-thinking practices that I had learned and implemented during my internship were carried on into my remote-working contract that followed, as well as projects I continue to work on today.

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For confidentiality reasons, I am unable to display any visuals of my designs from this client.