During my 6 years in R&D at Procter & Gamble, I led a range of research including observational studies, large quantitative product tests, qualitative interviews and focus groups. This is the story of how my user and design insights led to my being listed as an inventor on US Patent 9,233,055.
To onboard to my new project, I received videos of people using the team's recent prototype, which required users to dissolve it in water.
To mine for insights, I created a detailed user journey map and tracked details (amount of water, user technique, timing, etc) across steps of the use experience. This led to the identification of a key product failure in ~50% of uses.
I collaborated with process and formulation experts to build understanding of product and developed technical tests to confirm hypothesized link between failure rate and product sidedness.
Defined problem: How can we reduce or eliminate product failure due to sidedness?
While considering various approaches to resolving issue (process, formulation, user) I suggested reapplying Schiphol Airport's fly in the urinal strategy - to give users something to aim at while adding water to the product.
Collaborated with team's industrial designer to prototype and user test multiple signals (product shape, color, etc). Lead design drastically improved user experience and led to my being named an inventor on US Patent 9,233,055.
