Venture design goes off grid at Kanha with the making of a Safari Bio-Lodge
Nearly 24 months prior to its launch, following a meeting with the founders, trips were undertaken to see a project site at Kanha, Central India's famed Tiger district and understand the initial lay of the project. So, to the jungle we headed.
As Venture Designers, we relish the possibility of creative disruptions and innovations that can both, stimulate new markets and surprise the old ones. This was a venture that we felt could be molded to be unusual in its appetite.
While Kanha had its retinue of branded resorts and lodges in various shapes and sizes, the need to be original here was foremost in our mind. As an experience, brand, and product this venture needed to be carefully designed and shaped. Familiarity with the luxury space and prior adventures helped in the case of the Venture Designers.
This venture was around the collective dream of three nemophilists - two passionate co-founders Durgesh S (seasoned naturalist and intrepid adventurer) and Sunny S (software product engineer turned forest-fanatic), later joined in by Anand S (jungle whisperer and naturalist). For venture design teams, a triple dose of adventure is a welcome shot.
This venture was a challenge beset with adventures and uncertain unknowns. Hence, we began our work with a blank paper with no fixed agenda except a vision to help design and build something unique & memorable, and something to return to.
Many adventures begin with imagining a world anew, without templates and seeking new roads. Where design gets to venture.
Venture Design by practice tends to begin from the last mile backwards. It starts from the end i.e. a beautiful future imagined and then working backwards to build it. Getting to understand first-hand, the vision of the founders, their culture, capabilities, peculiarities is critical. When this is mapped to the opportunities in the new business being conceptualized, the path becomes clearer.
The market allows one of two paths, 2 strategies. A strategy that's guided by competitive action - taking a position relative to the incumbent competitors in the market. Or taking a blue ocean route which looks at a strategic virgin space to occupy, that is original and which at times changes the very nature of competition. It begins a whole new product/service category. In many ways, this process mirrors the decision probabilities of a new citizen in the jungle and where she/he is going to pitch its tent.
They say when two paths diverge, the road less taken bears much greater rewards. This is equally a first principle in our practice of venture design. Stranger paths often bear the sweeter fruits.
The origins of Outpost 12, a unique jungle-first innovation and experience
We envisioned this site / place, as a naturalist's HQ. It had to be a unique safari bio-lodge that distinctively interpreted Kanha and brought in the world of civilians to understand the ways and wiles of the jungle. The spirit of animism and the need to become a part of the forest was how the venture and experience was envisioned to be brought to life.
For the team at NYUCT Design Labs, after its adventures in Coorg (Switching on a Rainforest), Kumaon (Venture Design of the world's first 100% Himalayan distillery) and Pangthang in Sikkim, a beautiful part of the wild reserves near Gangtok, this adventure presented a different terrain.
This time, it was wilderness territory in Tiger country where the mist, the trees, the grass, the clouds and winds hide moments that are off the template and bucket lists. The experience design had to be such that serendipity, and the element of surprise was organically retained across the customer's experience journey.
The venture's design conceptualization began with distilling Kanha's animist way of life. This was a first principle in this venture design adventure.
Outpost 12 was envisioned to be animist and bring visitors center-stage into the forest’s first principles. Plenty was distilled, imagined and designed to give visitors, travelers and even regulars of Kanha, a sense of an open-jungle university.
The forest catches your whispers and furtive prayers when sincere!
Deciphering and foraging the jungle to present experiences that are otherworldly, included even responsible retail. In hindsight though nothing sums up Outpost 12 fully. Here mathematics & reasoning often go for a drive in the wild. The stars, river, trees, wilderness and its inhabitants reinforce one primal lesson. That, in the jungle, no two days or nights are ever the same. In Kanha, we would dare say, no two moments are ever the same…
When you go seeking, the forest rewards you with its unbound experiences.
What would be the form, function and flavour of this creatively disruptive brand?
Brand design and development stayed wild and unpretentious at heart. We had to keep the universe in mind. After all, brand design is about system design - culture, experiences, identity, service, customer journeys, channels and touch points were woven together to bring to life this bio-lodge. A charter helps put together a brand vision.
The identity was hand designed in a manner that blended the antlers of the Barasingha and the tattoo art form of the Baigas. The narrative was of course a free spirit rendering of what Kanha and the jungles whispered into our ears.
Wilderness is great for venture design. Especially when it ventures into stranger territories.
Experience design and innovations included art, culture, trails, discoveries, and reimagination
Experience design followed a path between organized frameworks (customer journey mapping, personas and ideation sprints) and cultural research that helps unearth what can be uniquely interpreted and reimagined.
Every experience designed was traced from a local practice, culture and idiom.
The installations, exhibits and accessories on the property were developed from material to design. This was led by NYUCT Design Labs and in collaboration with several independents and artistes of different material expertise. This allowed for a beautiful diversity of culture to be brought to life spatially at Outpost 12. Gond art interpretive visits, the Baiga living culture had an influence on our interior design, custom made accessories, installations and the cultural experiences for guests. Mud-mirror art like Lippan, large tribal jewellery installations made with ceramics, custom artworks with local Gond artists were evolved around the material and cultural universe of Kanha and Madhya Pradesh, by the designers and artists.
Pranali D, one of the Managing Partners at NYUCT Design Labs led this critical process and visioning. The diverse cast of multidisciplinary makers and creators who collaborated included Kedar M, Priya Patil, Prajval M, Ronak N, Lamya D, Gauri S, Prathamesh P, Harsh M.
For our food and experience design, we looked at sourcing, grower communities, palatable flavors, superfoods, interactive elements and most critically going off the plate to present a true adventure. Our food-venture designers in the NYUCT Collective, Dr. Samir M and his colleague Mandar helped with the menu engineering and food experience design and guide the young team of chefs led by Yogank P to rustle up edible magic. A batch of Kanha cocktails were also designed and created, with the signature ones made from local Mahua.
The fresh meat & seasonal vegetables are sourced from micro-farms around the jungle, while custom-cocktails and home-made ferments stay uniquely inspired by the forest and its flora. The breakfast menu includes both, a range of comfort food and home-styled classics of the region.
From the spot flowers that helped us create Kanha's unique Tequila moment to the Mahua concoctions and millet super food experience and the Maikaal Thali, the food journey and experience design required a collective curation. And yes, plenty of food trials and tasteful errors. What didn't make it to the menu might as be getting itself ready for the second version to unveil soon.
Experience design is equal parts Art and Science. The part that is art needs the subject to whisper its secrets and eccentricities so that design can take flight with it. Kanha was deeply inspiring.
Positioning, pricing and distribution and finding a sweet spot
Every new product has to think of its pricing, ability to distribute itself, choice of marketing channels and the kind of target audience communities that it seeks to engage and convert into customers.
Having heard of a rather preposterous valuation and projection provided by a city-dwelling hospitality consulting firm, shared by the founders with us in confidence, our initial views were to first scope out and envision our venture in terms of what it will be as a product, experience and model, before we get into the task of projections, pricing corridors and market making.
The opportunity to turn the rather hasty and insincere valuation around its head, was a bait we relished. After all, how can someone value and appraise a project when the experience and design had not even been shared? It is so unfair to judge such an original and entrepreneurial venture of the founders. After all we must be fair to the founders who bring their dreams, sweat and toil to the products and experiences being built.
As business and experience designers, we learn the hard way. That the true test and valuation of a product / service is possible only when full stack of experience and power of the brand has been gauged. And it is only when something has been fleshed out fully, and tested that one can learn to value it right. How can one value something that the mind hasn't conjured yet or has only imagined in narrow, templated ways?
What's the value of a tiger sighting? What's the price of a foraged mushroom meal? What's the memorability of a tattoo that has traces of the Baiga's ancient history? What is the worth of a meal that is made from super food local millets and is flavored with Mahua? What is the value of a service design that retains its promise of honesty and country wisdom throughout the customer journey? What is the value of a custom 4X4 that will beget its own original nickname? What is the value of the vision that a couple of non-industry naturalists cherish - that of sharing their way of life with urban concrete-jungle dwelling visitors?
Branding, content, digital and finding a language for Outpost 12
The Outpost 12 brand stands steadfast on the principal values and way of life that the bio-lodge represents and promises - across its brand universe, channels and touchpoints.
The identity was hand-designed in a manner that blended the antlers of the Barasingha and the tattoo art form of the Baigas.
The narrative was of course a free spirit rendering of what Kanha and the jungles whispered into our ears. Animist, nature first and staying loyal to the original inhabitants of the land.
Going to market with a prayer to the Sal Forests and the animist Gods of Kanha
Going to market was always going to be earnest and lean. The idea was to seed and share the experience and the promise amongst key distributor partners, key markets through a lean tailored plan.
The digital discovery and experience of Outpost 12 was equally critical. Digital presence is an extremely valuable marketing and influence channels for modern brands. The design and development of the website aimed at both functional efficiencies as also ensuring that the promise of a forest first bio-lodge didn't get watered down. Rather it must amplify the experience.
The Sinali team did something beautiful. Outpost 12 was built to be a tribute to the amazing naturalists, conservators around the world and in India. It is this community of keepers that makes the jungle experience truly special. But then what is it that drives these professionals? What is the life of a naturalist like? Between dawn to dusk, they are on a mission to catch the elusive stripes. But there is far more than meets the eye. The Stripe Chasers documentary was sponsored and co-produced by Sinali to take audiences through the real life of naturalists.
Venture design and development helps businesses and founders, translate exponential ideas into launch ready ventures, products and experiences. Outpost 12 was not an outcome of excel sheets and valuation models - it was an outcome of a passionate community seized with a common purpose - bring Kanha alive uniquely and memorably! Bringing this alive across the business model, customer journey, brand and positioning, design and experiences and taking an honest forest-first venture to market. Some lessons get reinforced.
It does take a village to start an innovation. To build a venture. Who is building yours?
Give us a shout in case you need to design and build something beautiful and exceptional. And bring it to life right from blueprint to market, without headaches and hiccups.
Write to us if you are making something beautiful and memorable and need help. As a venture development firm and studio, we have worked across diverse sectors and across a spectrum of mandates.
