Procter & Gamble
Health Innovation Project
In our human-centered design class, we partnered with Procter and Gamble to develop lead design directions for a health innovation project. Through ethnographic interviews, synthesis, and prototyping, we were able to present our partners at P&G with our findings in the form of digital and physical prototypes along with consumer behavior models and other deliverables.
Note: This project is under NDA and can only be discussed at a high level while keeping details confidential.
Date: Sep 2019 - Dec 2019
Team: Chris Baggott, Mengxue Bi, Jean Jiang, Alan Scarth
Skills Used and Developed:
-
Ethnographic Interviews
-
Insight Discovery and Synthesis
-
Journey Mapping
-
Prototyping (Low and Mid-Fidelity)
-
Storytelling
-
Consumer Pitch Creation
Challenge
Gain a deep understanding of the consumer's health desires, goals, and behaviors.
Design and build an innovative solution to address consumer needs and fit into P&G's existing health product portfolio.
In-home Ethnography
Our team conducted in-home interviews with eight people in the project-specified target audience. We leveraged these discussions to deeply understand our consumers' habits, pain points, and desires related to their health. These initial findings helped us understand the design opportunities and guide our initial design direction.
Synthesis
Our group discussed the interviews at length to comprehensively understand each user and their desires related to their health. We mapped out all the important takeaways from the interviews and then extracted key insights and behavior models (in the form of journey maps and other frameworks) from the patterns we saw in interview responses.
Prototyping and Testing
Next, we created more than a dozen low-fidelity prototypes based on our synthesis from the in-home interviews. All of these prototypes were based on "how might we" statements and design requirements we identified. Then during the testing phase, we used various activities involving our eight interviewees to refine our design direction and delve deeper into our user behaviors.
Our testing included two cycles of consumer interaction through which we gathered prototype feedback. After each round of tests, the team refined the prototypes and converged on our final proposed solution.
Presentation & Final Deliverables
At the end of the ten-week project, our team presented our P&G sponsors with promising leads for our healthcare innovation project, including:
-
Minimum Viable Product which provided a desirable consumer experience
-
Detailed model of consumer behavior
-
Consumer pitch video to tell a compelling story about the product
-
Executive summary
Results and Next Steps
The final deliverables were very enthusiastically received by the P&G sponsors, who complimented our effectiveness in exploring the user needs and modeling consumer behavior. Through our work and our deliverables, we also provided critical info about consumer viability that was incorporated into the project specifications going forward. Next steps for P&G would include further refinement and testing of the MVP and development of a roadmap for release to the market if the project were to be deemed viable.
My Key Learnings
Insight Discovery: Through ethnographic interviews as well as consumer-prototype interactions, I gained experience in effective research techniques to gain deep insights and guide learning. My observation and listening skills improved as I learned to translate these interactions into desires and pain points.
Iterative Idea Generation and Evolution: The project developed my ability to successfully innovate in both individual and team settings. Throughout the accelerated timeline of the project there were many times where fast cycles of innovation were critical to moving forward.
Low and Mid-Fidelity Prototyping: Rapidly building and testing our ideas through prototypes was a necessary step to gain additional insight into consumer interactions with these potential solutions. Starting with low-fidelity allowed the team to quickly gather consumer feedback before moving on to mid-fidelity later in the project.
Design Strategy at Low and High Levels: I grew more confident in translating consumer needs into broader insights and then into product features. Also, when we were preparing for the final presentation, I gained experience in considering at a higher level about how this innovation would fit into P&G's existing product landscape, and how the company might create a sustainable business around our ideas.