Space: the final frontier. You've booked a trip on a SpaceShipTwo for hundreds of thousands of dollars. It's going to be amazing. But what happens in the months, weeks, and days leading up to that singular event? What happens on that day-of-a-lifetime?

Project

There's no shortage of excitement leading up to an event like blasting off into space. The challenge comes in managing that buildup.

I helped the Virgin Galactic team to build out the set of activities and touchpoints for future astronauts leading up to, during, and after their flights.

Process

Starting with a series of workshops with the Virgin Galactic team, I developed a broad engagement plan for Virgin's customers, from the lead up to their visit to the spaceport, to a specialized training program, to a magnificent, meaningful touchdown celebration. We started by service mapping the intense activities of the astronaut training. Building on this blueprint, we researched training techniques and integrated 3-D visualizations, wearable technology, and immersive experiences to build a fun and memorable learning environment.  We identified a number of novel approaches, like engaging the ground crew to foster a deeper sense of what it takes to put a rocketship in space. From the center of the experience, the training, we expanded out to design the pre-flight interactions -most of which take place remotely- and the post-flight celebration. 

Roles

• Service Strategy

• Service Design

• Design Research

• Design for Experience