2025 - Global Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) reinventing future for field service through AI

Client and Project context

The Services business is entering a phase of rapid expansion, with revenues projected to nearly double from 2025 to 2028.

This growth will require scaling operations significantly, including the onboarding of thousands new Service Representatives. This Global Original Equipment manufacturer must adapt quickly to scale performance with growing market demand and its client evolving needs.

To succeed, Global Original Equipment manufacturer must fundamentally rethink how Service Representatives operate. Beyond redefining the “jobs to be done” in the age of AI and GenAI, the challenge lies in driving efficiency at local level while ensuring strategic coherence, establishing standardized ways of working to scale consistently, and building new data-driven capabilities that link service excellence to revenue growth.

Partnered with the Services Team, who advocated for a human-centric approach, our mission was structured in three phases: Understand, Envision, Roadmap.

Volvo Retail was redesigning a tool dedicated to retail agents in a context of shifting business model. This tool purpose was to replace the old system, too complex, too heavy to use and to maintain and therefore to create value for users when possible but mostly relieving pains.

My role in the project: Service Designer

My mission: End-to-end service design to accelerate the client’s transition toward AI-powered solutions for field technicians, customer care agents, and predictive maintenance systems.

→ User & Stakeholder Research: Conducted in-depth interviews and immersive field observations alongside service technicians to uncover unmet needs and pinpoint high-value opportunities for AI integration.

→ Strategic Insight & Alignment: Synthesized findings into a comprehensive insight report, forming the basis of co-creation workshops with key stakeholders. Facilitated alignment between business priorities and user needs, identifying future growth opportunities.

→ Concept Development & Storytelling: Designed strategic concept cards blending user journeys, UX/UI prototypes, and business value propositions. Produced a Go-to-Market-ready concept video that secured CEO buy-in to launch next-phase initiatives.

→ As-is and to-be Agent blueprints accordingly to the Customer journey, guiding the Retail design team in defining the future experience for agents

→ Mapping the future digital retail experience as the future Retail Excellence scoping: overview for the Partners and Retailers requirements to perform their job, and therefore helping in shaping the current product management landscape

→ UX/UI of the platform capabilities for users (user administration, task and activity management, notifications)

My personal take from this project

This project reinforced my belief in the power of service design to bridge strategic ambition and operational reality. Working closely with field technicians and business stakeholders allowed me to translate complex, often fragmented needs into actionable, AI-powered service opportunities. I learned how to balance empathy-driven research with business-critical framing to drive alignment and momentum.

It also deepened my skills in storytelling as a strategic tool. From concept cards to motion video, I saw how visual and narrative clarity can accelerate decision-making and stakeholder buy-in. Crafting a Go-to-Market-ready narrative that resonated at C-level was a turning point — showing how design can be a catalyst for transformation, not just a support function.

On the field - Service approach with boots on the ground

With a team of over ten interdisciplinary researchers engaged across six countries (US, UK, Ireland, France, Italy, Netherlands), combining job shadowing, diary studies, interviews, and process deep dives to capture the full SR experience and its pain points.

The Service design process involved:
→ 10+ global stakeholers interviews. As fundamental basis for our knowledge, get a better understanding of the digital tool ecosystem.

→ 24 Job Shadowing sessions. I, personally led the research in Ireland around Dublin that I already knew from my scholarship. There I shadowed 5 field engineers on the ground during their working day, on the road and around client's facilities such avec Cloud Providers or Industrial Manufacturer.

In the room - Research report, insights definition and C-level rumble

This qualitative depth enabled us to map a comprehensive as-is Service Blueprint mapping, highlighting both operational frictions and strategic opportunities.

These insights were activated in a two-day co-design workshop, where we collaborated with business stakeholders to generate actionable future experience concepts — solving key pain points and unlocking new levers for transformation across the service lifecycle.

We defined a North Star vision supported by 9 key concepts which were selected to be materialized along the Field Engineer’s journey.

Collaborative Creative work - Conceptualization and materialization with a motion video

Working closely with a UX Designer and an Art Director, we co-created a set of deliverables to bring these concepts to life:

→ A structured PowerPoint deck detailing each concept’s value for Field Engineers and the business, mapped through a Service Blueprint to highlight ecosystem interactions.

→ Conceptual mock-ups across mobile, tablet, and desktop formats to prototype user interactions and visualize the experience.

→ Motion Video Asset: I led the creation of a motion video using an AI-powered methodology for storyboarding, storytelling, and animation. Tools used: GPT for image generation; ElevenLabs for voice-over narration; HailuoAI for motion sequence generation; Figma for collaborative storyboarding; Premiere Pro for final video editing

This multi-format approach enabled us to translate abstract service concepts into tangible, engaging narratives, supporting stakeholder alignment and decision-making.

More projects on my portfolio

Portfolio

Over the past 14 years, I've helped over 30 brands — across industries and business models (B2C, B2B, B2E, B2B2E) — shape better experiences.

Go to porfolio

Product design projects

From idea to interface, I craft products that connect user needs with business value. I balance strategy and execution to design smooth, accessible, and meaningful products.

Go to product design

CX design projects

I help organizations rethink services, redesign experiences, and align strategy with what truly matters — people’s lives, business value, and long-term impact.

Go to CX projects

Gabrielle de La Forest - Research & Service Design

Gabrielle de La Forest Research & Service Design