Our client, a smart home technology startup, was looking for opportunities to develop an inexpensive, emerging back-end technology to support a range of affordable smart home devices. Our team conducted market insights research in order to identify the experiences consumers aspire to in their homes and translate these into a product concept, validate the concept with consumers, and develop an executable marketing plan.

What meanings do homeowners attach to their homes?

• We found that for most people, home is like a family member or close friend
• A home's well-being and a homeowner's happiness are inextricably linked
• Two general personas emerged: pragmatic, who are concerned about their homes' functionality; and experiential, who seek to elevate the emotional and aesthetic experience of their homes

• Our target of pragmatic homeowners derive meanings of validation, freedom, and security from a well-functioning home

What type of product will deliver the experience that people want in their homes?

• Invisible problems with homes, such as water leaks, are the biggest pain points for homeowners, as they are unpredictable and expensive.

• After conceptualizing a variety of smart home monitoring options, we created a very basic storyboard illustrating our recommended application, an in-wall moisture sensor system, and validated its appeal with homeowners.
  

• Following concept validation, we mapped a marketing plan to prototype the system and bring it to market.

My personal contributions to this project included:

• Conducting intercept interviews first to understand what home means to consumers and then to validate the concept resulting from our needs finding research
• Analyzing data to generate key insights (e.g. two personas, home as intimate relationship)
• Sketching a storyboard to use for concept validation
• Conducting competitive market analysis for home moisture detection systems
  
• Co-authoring and presenting research findings and marketing plan recommendations