ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION? 1) Go to at least 6 different stores. They can be at the same shopping center or different locations. Spend at least 15 minutes in each store making OBSERVATIONS using the lab guide for reference. Take photos to capture your observations. 2) Create a presentation that captures your INSIGHTS and HIDDEN OPPORTUNITIES. What types of things had you missed before? What were your biggest surprises? Are there opportunities hidden in plain sight? Use your photos to highlight your insights. Your presentation can be in the form of slides or a short video.

1. Observation Lab
A Crash Course on Creativity
Stanford Venture Lab Fall 2012
By: Audrey Leung

2. Store 1: Ulta Beauty
• Many people were
carrying products in their
hands. The store could offer
shopping bags at the
entrance of the store, so
people can collect the
products more easily before • There could
paying be clearer
signs
differentiating
face, hair,
bath, and
makeup
products in
the store.

3. Store 1: Ulta Beauty (cont.)
 There is an extremely nice and convenient hair
salon in the back of the store that is not visible or
known as you walk in. There could be more
advertisements or signs marketing this service.

4. Store 1: Ulta Beauty (cont.)
 Opportunity for
more tester
bottles. Testers
were only
offered for
perfume and
hairdryers.

5. Store 2: Justice
 Cash register and customer
service reps are stationed at the
back of the store. They should
place more customer service
reps in the front of the store to
draw customers in.
 The store has very old, faded
carpet, which clashes with the
brightly colored clothing.
Consider changing the carpet to
match the theme of products
being sold.
 If the entire store is 40% off, then
the sale isn’t really much of a
sale. They should not discount
the whole store, but instead be
more selective about sales.

6. Store 3: Luxury Perfumes
 Font of the two words in
the sign clash with each
other. Keep the font
consistent so that it
conveys a consistent
message. The current
sign emphasizes the
word “luxury” too much,
so that it almost seems
overdone.
 There is no customer
service in the store.
Keep someone at the
counter at all times.

7. Store 3: Luxury Perfumes (cont.)
 The perfumes are scattered in all different locations with
no rhyme or reason. Organize the perfumes by brand and
put up clearer signs.
 Most of the perfume is behind the counter or in a glass
case. Allow more perfume to be more accessible to the

8. Store 4: Don Roberto Jewelers
 Advertisement outside the
store is all in Spanish. This
caters specifically to Hispanic
customers, but may exclude
people who do not speak
Spanish. Have signs in
English and Spanish to cater
to customers that speak either
language.

9. Store 5: Finish Line
 The store sells a lot of
clothing that are branded
with college logos.
However, the name of the
store, “Finish Line” does
not convey this theme in
their products.
 All the shoes seemed to
be scattered throughout
the store, and it was
difficult to search for the
right pair of shoes. They
should organize the shoes
by brand or type of activity
to make shoes more easily
found.
 Sale and non-sale items
were scattered throughout
the store. If they placed
sale items in one location,
it would draw the people

10. Store 6: Bath and Body Works
 Prices of the  The store is catered
products were mainly toward
not easy to
find. There women. They could
was no have a section
labeling on the selling men’s
shelves of the products/fragrances
prices. The
only prices
available were
the
promotions
and discount
offers. The
store should
make pricing
more
transparent to
customers.