Agile research and design iterations for a new consumer good

Background: A consumer goods company came to us with the goal of bringing a new product on the market within 2 years. The client had already developed the technology and came to us to conduct consumer research about products that were already on the market, and to input this research into product concepts and prototypes before further testing the design concepts and prototypes with users.

Project timeline: 5 months

Approach: Close, agile iterations with the design team defined this project. An online ethnography was conducted in Japan and Germany and fed into the design concepts. This online ethnography focused on analyzing consumer perspectives to the category of products, and more specifically in regards to the design and use of similar products already on the market. High level insights as well as country-specific findings were outlined and regularly communicated with the designers as they created the first design concepts. In addition, a task analysis of the current products on the market identified aspects of the user experience that could be simplified and these were fed into the design concepts.

Together with the client and stakeholders from the company, design concepts were prioritized based on the research, handling and aesthetics. Following prioritization of design concepts, an Online Research Community in Japan and Germany was set up in order to test the design concepts with consumers, and to collect additional information related to potential design improvements.

Role: I was project lead for the research portion of the project. Together with my team, I collected part of the German data, and coordinated the team and research focus, as well as prepared the final report. Alongside my team, I closely communicated with the designers in order to feed information from users into the design concepts in an agile and timely manner. I prepared the recruitment for the Online Research Communities, including designing and programming a screening questionnaire and brainstorming activities and research questions for the duration of the communities.