Justin Porcano - How Upwell Design Hacked IKEA To Test The Walhub

Episode 008 - Justin Porcano - How Upwell Design Hacked IKEA To Test The Walhub

Gavin Bryant  00:02

Hello and welcome to the Experimentation Masters Podcast. Today I'd like to welcome Justin Porcano to the show. Justin is a senior Industrial Design Manager at Accenture. He works with design and engineering teams to research test and deliver new products. Justin has worked with some of the world's leading brands including Belkin, HP, and Teague. Prior to Accenture for 7 years Justin owned and operated design consultancy about designs. He's also the co-founder of Save Sight Now Foundation, an organization dedicated to finding a treatment for Usher syndrome type 1 B. 

 

In this episode, we're going to discuss how it Upwell Design. Justin hacked IKEA to test a new product idea, the Wallhub. 

 

Welcome to the show, Justin. 

 

Justin Porcano  01:00

Thanks for having me. 

 

Gavin Bryant  01:02

So Justin, I usually start with asking people to provide an overview of their background. So you've had quite a varied background, you've been a business owner and also work for some of the world's leading design agencies, would you like to give our listeners a bit of an overview of that journey so far?

 

Justin Porcano  01:21

Sure, I'll try and keep it brief. My foundational education was an architecture. I'm kind of born and raised on the east coast before moving out west to change careers from architecture to go into industrial design at Art Center College of Design. I love the field of architecture, but the profession of architecture didn't exactly work for me. But I'll never take that education for granted. It's basically the foundation for my thought process and problem solving skills. 

 

After Art Center, I went to work for Target for a brief stint. Then I landed a dream job working at Pentagram in San Francisco for Robert Bruner, the ex-creative director of Apple, now the creative director and owner of Ammunition worked for... Prior to that, or after Pentagram went on to new deal design, another tier one firm in working on consumer electronics in San Francisco as well. And then I ventured out and started my own kind of one man show consultancy business called Upwell Design, where I either work in house with some of these tier one companies as a contractor or I work direct with client. And this typically range anything from furniture, to lighting, to consumer electronics to wearables. You know I I've done a lot of furniture in my past life and love that scale. I think it's a happy medium between architecture and physical product design. It's a thing that you can kind of still embraces you and envelops you but it's not something you hold in your hand. 

 

And then after a full design work for clients, like Toyota, Belkin, and Bernhardt, doing all sorts of things like I'd mentioned, from handheld products, the furniture moved on to a small company called Matter where they were focusing on kind of the intersection of physical and digital design, I think it's hard to separate the two nowadays, as far as the amount of product that's coming onto the market, most of the things we interact with are connected somehow basically every physical product, this point, or half of them at least, they're almost connected in some way or form. And then we were required by Accenture. 

 

So I wound up at Accenture by means of acquisition from Matter to a service and digital design company by the name of Fjord who was internal at Accenture. And I find myself there today as a Senior Design Manager focusing on industrial design, but also that intersection of kind of digital and physical, doing a lot of work around understanding user needs through research and testing, which means designing a lot of testing, doing a lot of research and understanding the impacts user needs have on industrial design and engineering.

 

Gavin Bryant  04:05

So what are some of those key distinctions that you've seen from working.... Conducting your own small agency to working in-house for larger firm?

 

Justin Porcano  04:17

Oh, wow! I've been there. The differences are night and day. I think when you know Accenture, 600,000 people internationally, you know... Just let alone the amount of incoming emails are enough to occupy half your day as far as responding to irrelevant or relevant. And yeah, versus... When you're an independent contractor or a sole proprietor. You wear every hat, you do everything. Whether that is bringing in clients, doing the work you have, controlling what you look like externally from a marketing point of view. You wear every single hat there is... When you're eternal, it's nice. You've got a team or you work, or you run or lead a couple of teams. And you can kind of really focus on one thing at a time.

 

Gavin Bryant  05:11

Awesome. So thinking about your key principles for design and experimentation, what would some of those key things be?

 

Justin Porcano  05:24

Oh, man. Yeah, well, we like to create things called experience prototypes, it's probably a fairly familiar terroritory with most folks in the industry. And, you know, that's the idea of how fast can you get to understanding users’ needs, their use cases and solving them. So we work through a process of... A lot of times clients will come to us and treat us like an R&D team, where they say we've got an idea for this type of sensor or this type of button on our flagship product, because we want to do this for the user. 

 

So, a lot of times it's my team's job to then say, Okay, well, you know, the first question is, does this button make sense? Is that the right way to implement it? And do your users even want this? So, we'll create experiments, you know, it's been hard during COVID, you can't exactly recruit people. So, being really savvy on how you do testing and design and research during a global pandemic has been a challenge. But I think our team has pivoted and did really well, in kind of getting super savvy and creative around testing, you know, that's one of the benefits of a 600,000-person firm is that you've got a couple people you can access internally for research. So we did that with a couple local folks. We design tests, and we basically run them through these tests. That's 90% of our job right now is to understand, first of all, is there a use case for the thing that the client wants to do? If there is, what's the appropriate way? Or what's the best way to provide the user with a solution. And then we test and validate all those potential solutions and look at the trade space. So if you go down this route, yes, while that increases the overall user experience, you might do a sustainability aspect that you care about, because of the material selection, or the complexity and manufacturing, or engineering. 

 

So you bubble up all these tradeoffs, depending on the solution you move forward with, and then you present those options to the client, and let them make a very informed business decision.

 

Gavin Bryant  07:39

So you mentioned at the start of your overview there that.... Do customers even want this? Is that a question that companies are more readily asking, or are companies still overlooking that key premise, and just moving to build? 

 

Justin Porcano  08:01

Yeah, I'd say, by the time they've come to us, they're not asking that question anymore, they're under the impression that users do want this. A lot of times they have a predefined solution in mind. And that's often not the right solution as far as execution. But we always take a step back, we always first ask, is this fulfilling a need by their user base? And for us in order to answer that, we need to really understand who their users are and what they're looking for. But to your point, most clients come to us with a fairly good understanding that this is something their users want and need, and just need help understanding on. Okay, what exactly is it and how do we implement it?

 

Gavin Bryant  08:48

Okay, so the client would obviously leave with their own research, and there's some insights that have produced that understanding, and you really help them to flesh that out and validate that user need, and to really help them understand what's the best version of the thing that they think they should maybe be implementing? 

 

Justin Porcano  09:09

Yeah, like, you know, 09 times out of 10, it's very reactionary, sometimes some clients are savvy enough to kind of do a little future forecasting or have the finances and resources that have a team who does future forecasting, a lot of times is also reactionary, maybe they're getting their lunch eaten by a competitive client, who's already got that heart rate sensor, that retinal scanner on their phone, because people decided that's a valuable way to unlock something or to unlock some accessibility issue that that's cutting out half of their demographic. And then they're asking us, okay, well, here's our phone, how do we do it better? Or how do we do it right? That's just a poor example, but an example of something.

 

Gavin Bryant  09:53

So thinking about those guiding principles, you've been working around product development experimentation for well over a decade now, how have your guiding principles evolved over time? If at all?

 

Justin Porcano  10:09

Yeah... God! Guiding principle.... It's still different, I mean, super high level, it's the ability to first you know.... Principle number one; understand who your user is, right? And use whatever research means necessary it is to understand them and cast as wide of a net as possible. Understand what your client's business needs are. And make sure that those aligned with the users needs.... Yeah, and then when it when it comes down to principles, it's a matter of being empathetic. I think, you know, in understanding the context, you know, there's no magic or set of guidelines, like list of principles 01 through 05, for me, at least, you know, every project we get, because you know, Accenture and how we typically act, we don't produce a product, we act almost as like a consultancy. 

 

So we take a deep dive into whoever the new client space is, whether are they in the fitness area? Are they in the gaming area? Are they in kind of productivity area, and we learn as much as we can about that space as quick as we can. And then, between understanding the content, context, user needs and business and client needs, you start to design kind of test and do applicable research that makes sense.

 

Gavin Bryant  11:42

Now, I mean, summarize the key takeaway there is understand your user and be empathetic and be willing to learn, through whatever means whether that's qualitative, quantitative means to have the deepest understanding of that news or needs before you continue.

 

Justin Porcano  12:00

Yeah, absolutely. 

 

Gavin Bryant  12:03

Let's take a stroll down memory lane now and go back to Upwell Design and to Wallhub. Where did the idea for Wallhub come from? What was the inspiration?

 

Justin Porcano  12:18

I think that originated from a MUJI competition. God! I don't know how many years ago now 2006. Where the Ask was "Create a home product that lived on the peripheral of a space'." That was it. That was the brief, it was pretty wide at that point. I constantly lose my keys. Yes, my wife and she'll be the first person to tell you that. And I have a pretty regimented process and I think we all do it, you know, keys, phones, wallets, cell phone before you walk out the door, and, you know, just brainstorming and looking around the room and thinking how you can support a process like that and thinking about an object that lives on the periphery. Just light switch wallplates became this existing thing that lives within our infrastructure, within our homes that felt like it could have been upgraded a more function than covering up a hole in the wall or slop in the wall from an electrical box. It was there already. So let's make some better use out of it or add some function to it.

 

Gavin Bryant  13:28

Yeah, interesting. A different way of thinking about exploration and discovery, rather than completely coming from a user need, it was maybe an underutilized space that could potentially solve a problem. 

 

So just before we move on, the example of the IKEA experiment that Justin performed is one that I use in my workshops regularly. I think that it's an amazing example of being really industrious, really creative to gather data and information quickly and cheaply from customers to understand demand and interest. And in this example, that we're going to talk through is using an existing retail space in IKEA with existing foot traffic, effectively planting the Wallhub in the physical premise, and then observing the reactions and behaviors of customers with this, what perceived to be a new product. 

 

So thinking about the Wallhub, just moving along to the next step there, there's been an identification or an opportunity to use a light switch a plate to provide a new product or service. So you mentioned earlier that through your career in architecture that you developed, really sound thinking processes and probably Solving processes. So what was that high level problem solving process that you worked through from identification of a potential idea through to IKEA, where you're testing live in the wild?

 

Justin Porcano  15:16

Yeah, I mean, there are so many things that go into that one, you know, starts with simple affordance, my ability to, you know, there are issues like how do I get keys on and off a hook, that without actually activating the light switch? Like, if I'm in a dark room... You know, so going through the motions of what a user might do when entering a room and leaving a room, what are my physical interactions, without thinking about the product? How would I engage this thing intuitively?

 

So I think the first thing is to kind of lay out a user journey and understand all those steps of interaction, whether it, you know, everything from approaching to turning off the lights, to finding your keys to walking out the door to opening and closing the door, you know, you start to use that as a little bit of a blueprint, and understand where these points of friction might exist any potential areas you need to solve for. And there's a whole other side around manufacturability, and want and need, right? 

 

You know, in the US there are single gang, double gang, triple gang, there are toggle variations, there are two core variations as far as styles. And that was probably the biggest problem working against us. The amount of potential issues and SKU’s and for a startup to put out 10 different SKU’s in production is a lot to spend what went out the gate, ideally, you want one nice little product and you sell it, make some money off it, and kind of, build on that. But if you only put one of these out, and let's say you've got the bulk of your mass to the right of the switch, and you're too close to a doorframe, well, now that renders that useless for users. 

 

So one of our early cells were to make this thing flippable. And that's by creating a blank and allowing the user to flip over and plug a blank in which is why it’s blank. So you solve that left to right issue. But then you still have your SKU problems, you have to go out and identify okay, what are the most popular SKU’s to launch with? So we do that then there are manufacturing constraints around, how many parts can you manufacture? You want to keep it as cheap as possible? So how do you design the part breakup for injection molding? What type of plastic do you want? There are all these considerations. 

 

How wide are the hooks? How many hooks do you want on there? How should they snap? Should they snap in and out? Should it be permanent? What's the price point? So you know, all these things are constantly competing for space and time with each other. And there's a push and pull here as far as what you prioritize? And what you begin to let go either based on cost or user experience.

 

Gavin Bryant  17:42

Okay, so moving forward a little bit. So, assuming that there is a prototype product available now, you ran a Kickstarter Campaign, could you share an overview of the Kickstarter Campaigns and the learning and insights that came from that process?

 

Justin Porcano  18:01

Yeah, I mean, my point of view is probably dated by now considering I think this is like 10 years ago, I'm sure there are new tactics out there. But yes, the first and only valuable thing of a Kickstarter Campaign is a well done video, and even production quality counts in this case, high production value for sure on top of a really thorough explanation and a story about why the need is there, and why people want to buy it. I think those are the three things you need to take away with that. 

 

For us the first time we launched, we didn't clear that Kickstarter hurdle, because of that flip ability between left and right. So we went back, we redesigned, so it could be flipped from left and right. Engineered that, relaunched... By the time I relaunched already had a manufacturer contract manufacturer on board who wanted a partner. So we were launching more as you know, Kickstarter was... At that point used as a little bit of marketing, a little bit of pre sales, even if we had a Kickstarter goal or not, we were still launching the product.

 

Gavin Bryant  19:06

Okay, so from Version-1 Kickstarter to Version-2. So the key piece of feedback that you received from customers was the flip ability.

 

Justin Porcano  19:17

Yeah, if you had the envelope holder, it gets pretty long. And, you know, most light switches are near entryways. And if you've got molding around an entryway and your lights, which is too close, you're kind of screwed if you've got it to one side and you can't exactly fit it because the moldings in the way.... So everyone's like, Oh, is it only to the right my light switches on the left? And it's like yeah, that's something I should have picked up on foreseen but you miss stuff. And that's what happens when you don't do user testing. I didn't do user testing on that product.

 

Gavin Bryant  19:48

Okay, so for that, so for Round-1 on Kickstarter you didn't make the hurdle. You got invaluable feedback from consumers, and then you reworked it You iterated. And then do I understand correctly for Version-2 Kickstarter, you set the threshold lower than Version-1, and you end up oversubscribed.

 

Justin Porcano  20:12

We might have. I don't remember where our price point was on Version-2, we did clear that hurdle. But I don't remember what the number was. It was pretty low. It was in some Kickstarter, like need $100,000. We were probably around $15,000 or $20,000, I think. 

 

Gavin Bryant  20:30

Yeah, I was thinking, as I was stepping through that example, was that a deliberate tactic to hit the threshold lower in the second version to then send the Kickstarter algorithm whirring to then provide more focus and exposure to the Wallhub.

 

Justin Porcano  20:49

Yeah, we had. So prior to Kickstarter, or in between the two campaigns, we won an award to go show at ICF that's International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York, where it gets a lot of publicity, it's super modern. So we had a booth there, which is pretty expensive to have a booth there. But we won one for free, we gained the interest of a local or US based contract manufacturer. And we were off to the races. Then at that point, the second Kickstarter became a marketing tool, and a way to kind of test you know, a marketing tool on the way to get pre-sales perhaps.

 

Gavin Bryant  21:26

So was IKEA the third step in that process? You mentioned Kickstarter, the Design show, and then IKEA was number three?

 

Justin Porcano  21:34

Yeah, IKEA was.... I think when I first started this, the design or conceived this, I always thought it'd be an interesting idea. Because it just felt like an IKEA product as far as its functionality, and minimalism. And I thought it’d just be interesting to throw it in there and see how people reacted like, what's the worst that could happen? You lose a couple Wallhubs. And then later, I think once we got further along, we're like, you know, I was just looking for a way to kind of create some buzz about... I wanted to sell in IKEA, in places like Home Depot and these big retailers. And I think, it was two prong, it was how do you create some buzz and marketing interest around it? You know, get creative in that space? And can we make a video out of it like we did? And also, can you provide evidence for retailers that there's a want and need for it?

 

Gavin Bryant  22:25

One of the things that I was thinking about with the original prototype, you mentioned that this was going back 15 or more years now. Is it something that you could have quickly hacked together, like a CAD design and 3D printed now?

 

Justin Porcano  22:40

Yeah, it was funny. It's like, we didn't have 3d printers on our desktops like I do now. I'm sitting right next to one. So, I did prototypes, but I had to go outside a house to do this, I had to send them out and prototype them, and they were wildly expensive to do it back then. But yeah, hands down, this is something you would just print and print and print and make as many copies as you can. But no matter how many I made a copy, like, if I'm only testing within my household, in my context, I'm gonna work on whatever works, that light switch behind me over there, right? Like, I don't understand everyone's context without having a wide pool of testers to test with... You miss these kinds of these little things that maybe aren't obvious to you, but are obvious to other users.

 

Gavin Bryant  23:24

So, let's jump into the IKEA experiment now. So, I'll post a link to Justin's video which is up on YouTube, I think that is has around 80,000 views. So the video received a lot of traction, and a lot of buzz, which was the intent of the exercise. So, let's just thinking to the start of that IKEA experiment, how did it all come about?

 

Justin Porcano  24:00

Well, it's definitely something I wanted to do like, like I think as an industrial designer, and a designer in general, like, I kind of get off on like my products interacting with people and using them for..... I love sociology, and how people interact with each other and how some of the things we can create and make and how it changes their experience and either their interaction with that product or their interaction with each other. And I was just wildly curious to see if I just went in and installed this thing, how would people interact with it? 

 

So, for me, it just became obvious. Well, I got to dress up like a key employee. I've got to put a couple of these in my backpack and just go in there pretend like I work there. So that's what we did. We got a couple other production prototypes. We went out and scouted it one day to understand what locations would make the most amount of sense? Where we would film from? Who would be miced up? Where we would have mics and camera people? Think there were like three or four of us that were kind of running around. Doing this, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. And then the goal is just to get as much audio and video as we could in as many locations and then cut it all later.

 

Gavin Bryant  25:10

So thinking about that day, how many Wallhubs did you take along with you on that day?

 

Justin Porcano  25:18

Probably about 30, 40.

 

Gavin Bryant  25:22

And how many did customers pick up and try to purchase?

 

Justin Porcano  25:28

I think we left it like 10. 

Gavin Bryant  25:30

Really? 

 

Justin Porcano  25:30

So, in a span of like, in maybe two hours? Yeah, to go through that much product in two hours, that has no point of purchase kind of display or call out except they were just stuck on a wall on the shelf was pretty good.

 

Gavin Bryant  25:47

Yeah, that's pretty insane. Isn't it? Two hours 75% of the product went and from the footage that you'll be able to see in the YouTube clip that there is a strong intention and commitment to pay. People take them to the register and try and purchase them.

 

Justin Porcano  26:05

Yeah, that's probably one of the highlights of the video.

 

Gavin Bryant  26:08

One of the highlights for me was that you ate the meatballs at IKEA. Did you end up with food poisoning?

 

Justin Porcano  26:15

No, no, not this time. 

 

Gavin Bryant  26:17

Not this time. [chuckles] So thinking post experiment now.... So just to summarize, experiment, Justin off eBay, he bought an IKEA polo, packed around 40 wall hub devices and scoped out IKEA prior to they affixed their Wallhubs to various locations. Then the team filmed video and audio as customers interacted and tried to purchase them. 

 

So post experiment, you get back, you're analyzing all the data and information, what's the team thinking?

 

Justin Porcano  27:00

By pretty much that we were lucky to get out of there with that much good footage and audio and not be arrested. This was a time when I think people were super sensitive, we're not that far away from 9/11. So some random person running around in the store, putting stuff on walls, just not a good look in a public space security eventually approaches at the end, and they were on to us. And they were kind enough to not do anything except kindly ask us to leave.

 

Gavin Bryant  27:32

Okay. Do did the team think about testing multiple locations and different geographies, or it was just the one location.

 

Justin Porcano  27:42

It was just the one location. It was a pretty significant effort and the people I brought along with me, they're just contracting to help me and work on that. And I think we got a pretty good amount of information from that "Stunt", and we got a lot of great marketing traction out of it as well.

 

Gavin Bryant  28:03

So one of the key indicators there was customers were willing to pay for it, which is always one of the strongest forms of evidence from a customer. What was some of the other key insights that you drew from the experiment that informed next direction for Wallhub?

 

Justin Porcano  28:26

Yeah, well, I think a couple of other valuable learnings from that experiment was one around packaging, and one around location within the retail space, you know, is this an impulse buy that should be at it, we located in a couple spots, we located in an area around storage, right? So it was in their storage area we located in the area that was preset up, you know, he always has these kind of preset up living room scenarios or kitchen setup. So you can see how the product would work or function or live within a space. And then we set it up at basically at checkout to understand where did it perform best? And you know, was the packaging clear enough for people to understand what the product was? 

 

So your product language and your visual design language different than the existing IKEA packaging, you know, you're not trying to be IKEA if you're also trying to not stand out too much, so there were definitely learnings around there.

 

Gavin Bryant  29:19

Did you end up approaching IKEA category managers to present them with the findings of the experiment?

 

Justin Porcano  29:29

No, I mean, half the battle getting into retails, getting in touch with the right person. And you know, IKEA, I think headquarters being overseas, obviously, from here, that's kind of like a locked vault. I have no idea. You know, they try and do all their stuff internally. Being an outside designer 09 times out of 10 they're hiring some fairly big local names in Sweden and Scandinavian countries to do kind of these unique spots within IKEA, they'll do a piece of pottery or they'll do a line of flatware. You know, it wasn't quite exactly a big Scandinavian name.

 

Gavin Bryant  30:04

So thinking about some of the challenges or mistakes that startups or companies that you've seen.... One of the key things you hit on earlier was when conducting that early prototyping early experimentation that it should be really fast, the velocity is really important to be able to generate learning insights from users and customers as fast as possible. 

 

What are some of the challenges you see with early stage experimentation for product testing?

 

Justin Porcano  30:41

Hmm. I think Yeah.... Again, like the challenges that... I guess that I would see is missing the mark on who your user is because you design your test around understanding your user is or the expectation, or like... You know, you can't design a test for somebody if you don't know who they are, what their needs are. Or even like their age group, or whether it's a physical thing I attribute or an age thing. If you haven't correctly identified the target market base, your tests aren't going to be that good, like results are only as valuable as the test was designed. So a poorly designed test results don't mean much. No matter how good the test results look. So you know, I would say a lot of the challenges of designing accurate tests based on an accurate definition of the target user. Sometimes you just missed the mark on who the user is.

 

Gavin Bryant  31:43

Yeah. So in 2022, do you think generally companies have a good enough understanding of who their customers and users are?

 

Justin Porcano  31:54

With all the data out there, Yes, I would hope they have a pretty good idea of who their users are... Satisfying their needs, like a feature set like.... It needs to have this or it needs to have that, I think on how that gets implemented is where we help out the most, I think they have a decent handle on some of these new spaces, though, like I mentioned in VR, we don't have a good idea on who our consumers are, especially if it's a niche kind of thing. Is it a fitness thing? Is it strictly gaming? Is it a health thing? I think, on these new emerging kind of markets, it's hard to really get a grasp on who your user is, per bucket or per category.

 

Gavin Bryant  32:40

I think that's a really good point that there's so much data and information, there's so much that we know about our customers, but the missing link, or the black hole is that interconnection between customer needs. So your advice to businesses is to spend more time trying to articulate those needs pain points, you know, problems to be solved in customer jobs. 

So thinking about advice that you would give to people if they're in your situation, and upwelled, that difficulty product idea, they've got this great big new idea, what are some of the pieces of advice you would give to people so they can test their product idea, quickly, cheaply, to gather good evidence?

 

Justin Porcano  33:27

Yeah, Gavin before I answer that my ear buds are about to die. So I'm going to put those away and I'll answer that question on it.... Okay, can you hear me? I'm sorry, if you just ask that question. One more time.

 

Gavin Bryant  33:53

So thinking about your key pieces of advice, for our listeners.... They have a great new idea for a new product or service, what advice would you give to them to be able to test quickly, cheaply, so they can gather evidence to make data informed decisions?

 

Justin Porcano  34:14

Test quickly and cheaply... Yeah, I mean, I guess it depends on their resources that they have available, right? Is this a client who just doesn't have that capability? Or is this a design team who a client is just come to? In order to.... Yeah, oh, man, it's a tough one. Again, are we talking about a physical product, a digital product? Are we talking about one that is living at the intersection of both of these things...? You know, the best thing, the first thing that needs to happen is you need to quickly understand who your user is right? Again, I mentioned that multiple times and understand what are the steps along their journey regarding the interaction of this thing or this product? Where are they first introduced to it? Where do they leave it behind that whole step and understand? Where are the most obvious pain points for that overall experience? 

 

So, the first thing is to ramp up as quick as possible as far as, okay, who's my user? And what is their journey in their experience with the thing that I'm creating? And then you can start designing a applicable test that makes sense that can start, and you know, from that understanding your user journey, usually, you start to develop a list of questions, right? And from those questions, you create a set of principles and priorities based on things you need to solve for. And then depending on that specific scenario, you start, you know, there's a hierarchy to that on what you need to solve first in order to make that ideal experience.

 

Gavin Bryant  35:45

Good point. So working into our three closing questions now. So first question; the Wallhub experiment was an amazing example of ingenuity and resourcefulness to test an idea quickly and cheaply, and discovered that customers would inherently pay for the product? Are there any other experiments that you've performed, that have reframed client perspective, or organization or perspective? Maybe a different way of think about, it have shifted business or internal assumptions.

 

Justin Porcano  36:29

Yeah, so I mean, without breaching any confidentiality, you know, we had a recent client, who had an idea for a product. And this is what we do. A lot of times, you know, a lot of things we design our tests, it is valuable. The things that don't go to market are sometimes as valuable as the things they do, because of the money, they save the mistakes, they save companies from making as far as an investment goes, and we recently did that for a company who.... You know, there is a popular game involved, and they were thinking about an accessory that would make it an even more interesting experience. And we went down the same methodology in this path of understanding who the user is, you know, how do they interact with this game? How do they play it? Would this thing be of need? At the end of the day, you know, we created prototypes, physical functioning prototypes that people could test, that work great. But, you know, the quick discovery was like, Yeah, as cool as that is, and as well as that work, it doesn't really work with your target demographic, or at the very least, the early adopters, who would kind of then push this thing out, you know, whether through YouTube channels or whatever. While the thing was cool, it turned out that it wasn't the right solution for the problem or for the end user, and the client wind up just nixing the whole program. Rather than ramping up a giant team thinking about manufacturing and distribution, you save 10s of millions of dollars, when you avoid a track like that.

 

Gavin Bryant  38:04

Did they pivot the solution or they kill the idea completely?

 

Justin Porcano  38:10

they mothballed it for a little bit. The idea probably got killed as far as solving some still user needs that exists there. That's TBD on a next step. Is that a digital solves, or physical solve, software solves, you know, how do you make that better?

 

Gavin Bryant  38:26

Yeah, I think that's a really good example, one of the key benefits of performing early stage product experiments is that it provides you with an opportunity to stop an idea if there's not demonstrated interest or demand, which then allows you to repurpose business capital onto other projects and other initiatives. So really good example. So thinking about some resources that you recommend to our listeners, what are some of the key focus areas you'd recommend for listeners?

 

Justin Porcano  39:00

Yeah, I guess, you know, I was having conversation with someone about this earlier about, how technology.... Like for me personally, and you just can be totally different. But like, I subscribe to platforms, whether it's like Google News, or Apple news, and I just got keywords of things that interest me, you know, like, I like looking at TED talks, to see what's going out there or like keywords for me or, you know, design research user experience. And then the beauty of the technology in these new platforms is that, I don't rely on one author or one writer or one publication for my news sources, you know, and I think this is probably a commentary on the larger problem with society and how we typically rely on one media source for all information. But I think the same holds true for research and gathering information is that, I like to gather information from multiple sources on the same topic before I come up with an opinion on something or I decide that something is absolute, at least in my opinion, or something that I would lean on. 

 

So, anything that's inventive or new or you know that that revolves around technology. Like, a accessibility is huge to me right now, and that's accessibility for all disabilities at this point, so like, that's where my interests lie, and like the challenge of creating a good user experience for people who are able bodied is hard enough. And when you layer on top accessibility issues, I think then you get significantly challenged and I love that challenge. I think it's one that we morally need to confront as designers, as well, you know, we're starting to see a shift from that from clients. I think there are people out there without saying any names that are really starting to pay attention from a moral obligation as well as a business obligation as making things accessible as possible.

 

Gavin Bryant  40:55

Okay, so summarizing there. So a good way to think about learning and an exploration discovery about new information and resources is to elevate that up into areas of interest, and then aggregate information and then distill it down. And you'll start to form your own philosophy and opinions about that space, rather than relying on one book or on one blog.

 

Justin Porcano  41:25

Yeah, for those looking to do cheap user research, Amazon reviews, I don't think there's a better resource. You know, if you dig and comb through that you can start to pull out little nuggets that can help inform decision making. 

 

Gavin Bryant  41:41

Good tip. And last question, if listeners want to get in touch with you, what's the best way to find you?

 

Justin Porcano  41:50

I would say [email protected]. That's the best way to contact me. My sites online @jporcano.com. But it's not a public site, unfortunately. So the best way is by email.

 

Gavin Bryant  42:05

Excellent. Thanks so much for the chat today, Justin. Really appreciate it.

 

Justin Porcano  42:11

Absolutely. Thank you, Gavin.