Driving Continuous Innovation.

CHALLENGE

Cementing leadership in passenger experience.

In 2019, Vancouver International Airport (YVR) celebrated a record-breaking victory being named “Best Airport in North America” by the Skytrax World Airport Awards for its tenth consecutive year. Despite its relatively small size compared to other hubs, YVR prides itself as a global leader in airport innovation. Its combination of quintessential Canadian hospitality with industry-leading travel technology was recognized by millions of international travelers during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and Paralympic Winter Games. A decade later, YVR wanted to fortify—and augment—its foothold on exceptional passenger experience. The airport partnered with Teague to think beyond the status quo and take its innovation program to the next level.

While the broader ask was to provide insightful investment guidelines, deeper research and strategy needs inspired a vital subset of deliverables to kickstart the innovation program’s next iteration—and future iterations to come. The team wanted a strategy to expand and build upon, not a static report destined to collect dust the following year. A “living” repository of knowledge, a technology forecast, and a detailed playbook to provide a lasting approach to business and innovation strategy would help ensure YVR’s success in setting a global standard.

SOLUTION

An innovation program with dynamic tools for growth.

Teague’s partnership with YVR culminated in an innovation program with lasting, expandable components. An internal knowledge base was created as a “living” repository of information—a wiki-style tool designed to be easily and continuously updated as an integral part of the innovation program’s flywheel. To ideate passenger-centric solutions with realistic archetypes, the knowledge base included the translation of passenger feedback into six personas with corresponding pain-points, travel goals, and mindsets.

The knowledge base also included our technology forecast, which yielded four key areas of focus: biometrics as identity, security through restraint, sensor fusion, and direct consumer content. Still relevant post-pandemic, these subjects advanced the narrative of YVR’s “preferred future.” We took our findings a step further by creating custom Google search topics as a way for YVR leadership to keep a finger on the pulse of any news, data, or other content related to the trends we deemed most important, as well as topics to monitor the following year.

Most immediately actionable of our deliverables was the YVR Innovation Playbook, in which we detailed recommendations and project opportunities to set in motion in 6 to 12 months. Like the knowledge base and technology forecast, however, the Playbook was also designed with long-term use in mind, outlining repeatable steps for business strategy, maintaining a useful knowledge base, and building an innovation roadmap.