To customize or not to customize, that is the question…

When starting new aircraft interior programs, the desire to offer a new leading-edge customer experience burns brightly in the hearts of many product teams. Having a blank canvas can feel rather exhilarating with the seemingly endless possibilities. 

When it comes to inflight entertainment (IFE), exercising caution is prudent. It’s important to not lose sight of the complexities surrounding the overall inflight entertainment experience no matter how small or large the aircraft fleet is. Contrary to what many believe, for both embedded and wireless IFE, history has shown us it’s not as simple as building a website nor an app or series of apps; rather you are creating an experience that is potentially integrated into various hardware with supporting peripherals, devices, features and functions that support the operations, service process flows, cabin interiors, and last but definitely not least, an amazing entertainment experience for your customers that could be in 15 languages or more. The solution and experience must also align with your brand, overall product and business strategy. Depending on the size and assortment of your fleet, you most likely will have only one shot to get it right, assuming you don’t want to start labeling products as ‘Beta’ for launch. For example, we know that embedded IFE development and rollout is not as simple as pushing some files to an aircraft, and if it does appear simple it most likely doesn’t accurately reflect nor support versioning in a way that aligns with the more diverse, larger and complex of fleets.  

So before rushing off to gather your leadership, stakeholders and business partners for enterprise-wide brainstorming sessions, interviewing customers or flying for competitive research, there is a significant amount of planning to undertake and key questions to consider such as:

·      How Organizational support can impact your success?

·      Can we achieve GUI consistency across the fleet or is this a myth? 

·      Will there be additional costs whether we customize or not?

·      How to avoid footing the bill for other airlines change request?

·      Just because you can does it mean you should?

There are no right or wrong answers to these questions. We know what works for some airlines does not work for others. It all boils down to making the best decision for your fleet, your airline and your customers.