Roompaw

From one time purchase to recurring revenues

Overview
Most of iRobot’s revenues come from one-time purchases. To grow their business, iRobot is seeking a way to bring the one-time purchase into recurring revenue. Instead of creating new hardware or developing a smarter robot, we were asked to introduce a completely different value to iRobot that will strengthen relationships with users, thus bringing in recurring revenue.
My Contribution
I collaborated with the other designer on the team on all the research, design, and strategy activities. We brainstormed design concepts and created wireframes, high-fidelity designs, and interactive prototypes for user feedback & testing.
After the group project finished, I refined the design on my own, conducted 4 more testing sessions, and iterated on the design for learning purposes.
Duration
10 weeks
Tools
Figma, Dscout, Mural, Procreate, Photoshop 
Team
Jean Jiang, Mengxue Bi, Gretchen Vogt
Client
iRobot, well-known for its autonomous home vacuum cleaners (Roomba) in America.
01. ideation
Why pet owners?

According to iRobot stats, more than 75% of Roomba users are pet owners. However, Roombas were not an ideal cleaning tool for pet owners. Besides the technical issues, we considered the following question:

How might we create a more lovable Roomba experience for pet owners?

02. research
To address questions

We conduct 15 semi-structured interviews with 14 pet-owners via dscout (an online qualitative research platform)

Through our research we answered the following questions:
    What is the biggest cleaning concern for pet owners?
    Pets shed A LOT. Every pet owner attributes this as the first cleaning concern in their home. In most cases, pet owners have to vacuum a specific “pet spot” multiple times a day.
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    What is the hesitation for pet owners to buy a Roomba?
    They are not sure if a new smart device can adapt to their home without causing new messes. Though sales and discounts might be a trigger for a lot of people to make a final decision, people need to trust that the product will do the work well before they purchase.
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    What is the product for pet owners that might bring recurring revenue?
    Subscribable PET-SAFE cleaning supplements and other efficient tools like odor removal. Pet safety is all the pet owners’ No.1 concern when they are purchasing any cleaning supplements in their home.
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    03. design
         & iteration
    Fail quickly, grow fast
    We drafted some wireframes right after the research. The first round of design iteration was done among our team, based on the paper prototypes each of us sketched, we picked out the most promising concepts and discarded the ones that were seemingly attractive but will dilute our intended focus on the cleaning concerns of pet owners. These include:
    • The “Usage Report” feature that tells the users how much time they have saved by using Roomba.
    • “Neighborhood” feature that helps users identify the people who live nearby with the same breed of pets.
    04. build
    With supporting rationale
    We moved forward with three finalized design concepts and three insights mapping on to each concept, and built them in the Figma.

    Insight ONE: Pet owners feel stressed about having to adopt different strategies to clean different areas, so they have a stronger incentive to look for an efficient and effective routine without sacrificing control of their life.
    Introducing Scheduling feature. Via this feature, Roomba users can choose the rooms they want the Roomba to clean multiple times a day. Pet owners no longer need to clean the specific spots multiple times a day where cat litter scatters or dog fur clusters.
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    Insight TWO: Users do not make rash decisions. They read reviews and listen to people in similar situations because they are hesitant to have their routine disrupted by a new device or tool.
    Introducing Roompaw, an in-app community for potential and existing Roomba users. For people who still have concerns if a Roomba can go over the threshold in their house, they can resolve their concerns in Roompaw. For pet owners who already have a Roomba, they can ask and share their cleaning tips in Roompaw.
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    Insight THREE: Pet owners desire pet-specific tools because they believe it will take better care of their specific concerns.
    Roompaw subscription provides pet owners with all PET-SAFE cleaning products geared towards their specific pet cleaning needs like cat litter and dog odor.
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    05. strategy
    With supporting rationale
    One of the biggest segments of this project is to draft a business roadmap and business model canvas. We got the chance to truly think about “how can we bring revenue to iRobot with our design concept?”

    How do we map our business plan so that users wouldn’t be driven away by the extra charge?
    How do we intrigue users to taste the value of our features so that they are willing to subscribe to the premium membership to maintain or upgrade the privileges?
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    To hone my business skills, I took a lot of time learning and arranging the business roadmap and building the business model canvas to make sure it would bring benefits to all of our stakeholders at each phase.
    06. self iteration
    No end in improvement
    The group project ended when we finished the strategic plan with good design prototypes, but it’s not great, and I don’t want to leave it without being satisfied with the design. I decided to conduct more rounds of testing myself to polish it. I always picture myself as a designer with a taste for neat and clean design, but whenever I finish my design and look back, I am always not satisfied with it; the prototypes I made were not as aesthetic as it was in my mind. I can tell it’s not so impressive, but I can’t tell what’s wrong with it. The visual skill is something lacking in my design and I need to improve it. So I devoted myself to analyzing countless UI interfaces to learn the protocols that make them look great. Google material design and Apple design patterns helped to fill my knowledge gaps as well. I also connected with 4 experienced designers to critique my prototypes and help me improve my design. Special thanks to Anastasia, Zac, Jared and Chelsea who provided valuable suggestions on my prototypes as well as business strategy.
    Some of the minor changes include:
    • Cards should have a contract with the background
    • The scroll bar can fade out to make the visual more comfortable
    • Number should have two digits
    I also noticed that due to the lack of the design system at the very beginning, the fonts and icons lacked consistency in the app,  shedding light on the importance of the design system to me for the first time.
    To better tell the story and introducing my final design, let’s meet Jing and her pet Almond！
    07. takeaway

    01. Insights are not as easy as I have thought, as ridiculous as that may sound. But it took me some time to notice that insights require getting rid of any concepts you already have and staying focused to uncover the underlying connection and relation. The insights our team came up with during the project had been challenged a lot. Now, I can tell at first glance what is a real insight and what is just an impressive observation.
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    ‍02. Business goals should always be in mind during the whole design process. Design for innovation is quite different from design for business. We came out with so many great design concepts along the way, but we had to cut off a lot of them because they are not aligned with our business goal and dilute the value we were pursuing.

    03. It has been a hard time for team collaboration at first due to the new normal, but what I have learned in this quarter is no one should be silent. I used to be a “listener” and conservative about my ideas before. But somehow in this quarter, I am more willing to express my wildest ideas confidently. Even though some debates followed, I enjoyed being the "not easy-going" one in a group, and I realized innovations come from ideas colliding.
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