Future Thinking
Future Thinking
Future Thinking
Future Thinking
Case Study #1
Company:
A US-Based Technology Startup for Safe Water
(In conjunction with Brainpool)
Product Goal:
Create a self-cleaning water bottle with the UV-LED technology to provide safe, sanitary drinking water.
Challenge:
This Silicon Valley startup’s product intent mirrored a number of eco-friendly players in the market. With clean water increasingly growing in demand globally, there are more entrepreneurial initiatives entering the marketplace. Companies are receptive to customer demand for greener, sustainable products that offer to meet this demand while providing a quality experience.
Our competitive landscape research revealed the product missed a key differentiator which we concluded the original concept and marketing direction was not inclusive of female consumers. Female consumers have a significant influence on purchasing decisions of products and services within the health, beauty, home, and well-being industries. We integrated the idea of ‘Design through Gender Lens’.
Contributions:
Deploying our knowledge in ‘Design through Gender Lens’, the product has become more inclusive with an experience for all. We guided the team on how to rethink their concept, designs, and design DNA to create a product concept that would appeal to both female and male sensitivities. As we expected, the idea of diversity and inclusive design broadened the market for greater business success.
We analyzed the user experience design and provided a roadmap, creative direction and project management to challenge the organization’s original logic and reinvent the vision, so it matched a product effectively designed for gender. We recommended design concepts for the UV-LED-based water bottle and pitcher.
The new product vision embodied more gender-inclusive qualities including emotional connection, comfort, inclusiveness, warmth and softer palettes.
We created mockups and prototypes, with testing, serving until the creation of the final working prototypes, and advised with the company’s first round material research and pricing.
Result:
The company far surpassed its crowdfunding campaign goal, raising nearly $3 million, and subsequently introduced the product to market.
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Case Study #2
Company:
A Japan-based Information Communication Technology Company
(In conjunction with Brainpool)
Product Goal:
Envision a future sensory experience that demonstrates that technology can coexist with humans.
Scenario:
Technology’s rapid advancement is creating anxious sentiments among populations globally. The fear is that technologies like AI, robotics and deep learning will contribute to replace people’s responsibilities, particularly at work.
The company created the new future study research division that demonstrates technology and humans can coexist.
Contributions:
We crafted a new approach to the growing relationship between humans, technology, and beyond, creatively challenged the company to explore how to help people move deeper into connection with each other and nature. We used signal scanning and its curation to set a new direction that challenged the team to explore sensing beyond the human five, perceiving value in other living beings’ sensory experiences in the biosphere. By examining how other life forms in nature connect, we were able to work with greater awareness of how to optimize the human connection experience.
We provided project management strategies to ensure efficient resource allocation and deliverables were accomplished on schedule.
Result:
Based on the roadmap we advised, they established this new future-study division in their company to plan ahead with the concrete mission of how it affects their products and services.
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