Moving from one moment… to the whole experience

Last month I bought a box of the best pencils I have ever used. I go through pencils by the dozens, so this is saying a lot! They’re a joy to write and draw with – light to hold, clean to sharpen, smooth to write with, pleasant to hold (no splinters) and the graphite is easy to erase. They’re available at the supermarket and are ‘eco-friendly’. On the surface, the pencil designers have created me something that meets every need I could dream of.

Except …

It wasn’t until I began sharpening them that I noticed that the shavings had … static charge. A quick check of the tiny print on the back of the box revealed that although the pencils looked like wood, they were in fact made of partly-recycled plastic. Plastic pencils! It means is that every time I sharpen one, I’ll be creating shards of micro-plastics that go straight to landfill. It’s a thought that quickly deflates any joy I have from using them. They might be the perfect pencil ‘in the moment’, but I can’t imagine buying them again. (And now I’m left with the dilemma of what’s the most eco-friendly way to dispose of the ones I have - use them up or throw them away whole? They’re not recyclable.)

It’s a good reminder of the importance of thinking and researching beyond ‘the experience’ when it comes to understanding what people really need. After all, although my use of the pencil is the key moment, it’s only part of the overall lifecycle of the product or experience journey for the person using it. Extend your research to what happens before and after the moment, and you may discover that there is more nuance to the needs you think you’ve uncovered.

Plastic pencil, anyone?