Zalando.
Distilling, building, expressing and applying a company's purpose...in collaboration with 10,000 people.
Role: Storyteller & Experience Designer | Agency: IDEO
Learning: Say it long before you say it short.
Zalando grew from a start-up of three, to a company of 10,000 in a handful of years.
Without a common sense of purpose, it was starting to feel like ten thousand tiny kingdoms, rather than one powerful team all charging in the same direction. Our task was to capture a purpose that was true to who Zalando had always been, and was brave enough to leapfrog them into the future.
Step one was talking, synthesising and prototyping purpose with Zalandos, from the packers in their logistics warehouses, to the founders at HQ. All those months of listening were distilled into a purpose statement - Reimagine fashion for the good of all.
Landing on a purpose statement was the easy bit. Then we needed to make sure it would take root and grow, unlike so many others that had withered and died from inaction and cynicism.
With that in mind, we created The Festival of Purpose, a week-long on-boarding experience where all Zalandos would be immersed in, wrestle with, and get to know the purpose statement.
And last but not least, we designed a Purpose Kit for every employee. It was their first-week field guide into the wild world of Zalando's new purpose, helping them inject a little reimagining into their day-to-day work.
