♻️ Building a scalable circular economy venture
Creating new and scalable services connecting businesses and consumers in the circular economy
Note: To respect client confidentiality, some project specifics have been intentionally left out.
Project Summary
Client: Leading logistics provider, Nordics
Timeline: 5 months (2023)
Industry: Logistics | Circular Economy | Venture Building
My Role: Lead CX Researcher & Strategist
Team:
Client-side: 6 Domain Experts (Logistics, Operations, IT, Retail, Partnerships)
Venture Studio Team: Entrepreneur-in-Residence, Junior Designer, Business & Operations Specialists
Expertise: Customer Research • Venture Building • Service Design • Strategy • Capability Building
Challenge
A major Nordic logistics provider saw growing demand for circular services, like resale, repair, rental, and recycling. However, most retailers and manufacturers lacked the infrastructure to scale these models effectively. With a powerful logistics network and access to 200,000+ business customers and 5M+ consumers, the client was well positioned to lead in this space. The opportunity was clear, and my venture studio team was brought in to help define the next steps and turn the solution into reality.
We set out to define and validate a new venture: a platform combining digital and operational capabilities to help brands transition from linear to circular business models. The challenge was to rethink the post-purchase experience and deliver value for both consumers and partner businesses.
The goal: Make it easy for consumers to extend product lifecycles -- saving time, space, and money -- while enabling businesses to unlock new revenue, reach new customer segments, and reduce their environmental footprint.
Approach
I led a 4-phase process to explore opportunities, validate demand, and define a compelling venture concept, ensuring real problems were solved for real customers. The process was research-driven, involving 120+ hours of interviews with 100+ businesses across 17 markets and 14 sectors.
Discovery
Interviewed 84 stakeholders in the circular economy (CE) space (including manufacturers, retailers, service providers, and consumers) to uncover their pains, hopes, and fears.
Common themes: fragmented CE operations, lack of infrastructure, missing IT systems, low consumer awareness, and no viable logistics partners.
Value Proposition Design
Collaborated with the internal venture team to define two core propositions: (1) a circularity management platform for resales, repairs, and recycling, and (2) rental-as-a-service for consumer goods.
We tested these with 68 businesses (mainly manufacturers and retailers) and iterated based on feedback.
Prototyping & Validation
Ran 32 tests with early-stage service prototypes to evaluate business fit, identify MVP features, service delivery needs, and early adopter segments.
Business Modeling
Built revenue and scaling hypotheses, mapped risk areas, and designed a phased roadmap: build to validate (0–6 months), build to automate (6–12 months), build to scale (12–36 months).
Insights in Action: Iteratively sorting and organizing findings from 80+ Discovery Phase interviews on Miro.
Designing for What Matters: Connecting customer understanding with validated value propositions to solve real problems.
Bringing Ideas to Life: Testing a service flow prototype to validate concepts with real users.
Outcomes & Impact
Strong market interest with 27 pilot customers expressing intent to test the platform.
Estimated €150M revenue potential, aligned with a circular market expected to cover one-third of all European consumer goods by 2030.
The venture team secured internal funding for the first 12 months, enabling initial development and market entry.
Team conviction was high: every team member said they’d personally invest in the venture, based on market evidence.
“In my 20 years in the business, this is the most compelling venture proposal I’ve ever seen.”
— Client CEO
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