Design strategy for a top energy company (Eneco)

Enabling customer involvement and participation in district heating

A roadmap to the future vision of Eneco

Led a service design and strategy project during an academic exchange at TU Delft, in collaboration with one of the top three energy companies in the Netherlands (Eneco), as part of a Design Strategy course.

Challenge: Eneco’s customer participation in sustainability initiatives was failing due to a lack of trust in large corporations.

Goal: Rebuild trust and encourage participation by fostering meaningful engagement through effective communication, awareness, and long-term relationship-building.

Approach:

• Used Stakeholder Mapping, Ecosystem Mapping, and Contextual Inquiry to understand Eneco’s vision, customer mindsets, and systemic barriers to trust.

• Developed a Service Blueprint rooted in Systems Thinking, outlining interactions, pain points, and opportunities across touchpoints.

• Co-created a strategic framework based on three pillars: Educate, Inspire, and Support, using Persona Development, Empathy Mapping, and Customer Journey Mapping to inform design decisions.

• Proposed a gamified behavior change model to promote sustainable energy habits. Game winners received financial rewards and were empowered to become local community leaders, identifying neighborhood needs and launching social enterprises—reinforcing trust and participation.
  
  

Conducted qualitative research, insight generation, and scenario testing to validate the service model and ensure alignment with both customer expectations and Eneco’s long-term sustainability goals.

Gamifying Energy Use for Community Empowerment