Alan SchweglerKeeping a cruise line afloat when COVID stopped the boats.
Edelweiss Cruiseline runs sightseeing and dinner cruises on the Milwaukee River. When COVID-19 cratered bookings, they needed fresh ways to keep generating business — so I ran a two-day design-thinking workshop to find them.
The work at a glance.
- The problem
- COVID disrupted a cruise business and created an urgent need for practical revenue ideas.
- My responsibility
- Facilitated a remote, two-day design-thinking workshop.
- The key decision
- Start with customer needs, then turn the group’s ideas into concrete service concepts the business could evaluate.
- The outcome
- The group developed concepts including customized cruise packages and private charters. These informed business changes; no quantified revenue lift is claimed.
Generating business when the river went quiet.
Edelweiss Cruiseline offers sightseeing and dinner cruises on the Milwaukee River. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, bookings and revenue fell sharply, and the company needed innovative ways to keep generating business through the downturn.
The goal of the workshop was simple to state and hard to solve: generate new, realistic ideas to help Edelweiss keep money coming in while the world stayed home.
Two days, run remotely, end to end.
The session ran over two three-hour days, using SWOT, the Business Model Canvas, and the Ladder of Abstraction to move the group from assessing the business to generating concrete ideas.
Assess where they stood
We opened with a meet-and-greet and a current-state presentation from the Edelweiss team, then ran a SWOT analysis and a Business Model Canvas to map their competitive position in Milwaukee.
Generate the ideas
We started with Simon Sinek’s “How Great Leaders Inspire Action” for an emotional lift in a bleak moment, then spent the day ideating with the Ladder of Abstraction — landing twelve revenue-generating ideas.
Working boards from the two sessions — assessment, framing, and ideation.
Supporting artifacts
Twelve ideas, four worth building.
Virtual river tours
Customers take a guided virtual tour of the Milwaukee River from the comfort of home.
Dinner & movie nights
A movie paired with a three-course meal, served while cruising the river.
Customized cruise packages
Now liveGuests build their own cruise — choosing activities, food, and drinks.
Private boat charters
Now liveRent a boat for a private party or event, start to finish.
Customized packages & private charters now live on edelweissboats.com ↗
Design thinking, turned into real direction.
By empathizing with Edelweiss’s customers and starting from their needs, the group landed on solutions that were innovative but also practical and effective. The collaborative format surfaced a wider, more diverse range of ideas than any one person would have reached alone.
Two of the concepts — customized cruise packages and private boat charters — went on to attract new customers and are generating revenue today. It’s a clear example of design thinking turning a complex, high-pressure problem into actionable direction.
In the client’s words.
My co-worker and I participated in a Business Transformation Workshop with Alan and his team and I couldn’t have been more impressed with the process and result. Alan’s step-by-step method was easy to follow and kept us engaged throughout. He was professional yet down to earth, which let us be candid about our business — and his approach led us to implement meaningful changes. I’d highly recommend this workshop to anyone; it can be applied to many fields.
— Jordan Mendez · Director of Business Operations, Edelweiss Cruises & Boat Tours