iRobot Connect
How might we assist people in aging gracefully at home by enabling iRobot to meet their emerging home health needs?
Overview
iRobot Connect is a thoughtful, interactive partner in aging adults’ homes that helps them complete their own cleaning tasks in addition to cleaning for them. iRobot Connect enables home health for aging adults by providing a way for them to interact with their families, iRobot support, and iRobot products while maintaining a sense of autonomy.
Roles
user-research, research synthesis, concept ideation, framework creation, prototyping, materials & manufacturing analysis, solutions user testing, final presentation creation and presenting.
Client
I. Research
Radical Listening
To discover how we might help iRobot support the emerging needs in home health, specifically with aging gracefully in the home, we adopted a radical listening approach during our user interviews. This involved actively listening to our interviewees and asking open-ended questions to gain a deeper understanding of their experiences and needs. By doing so, we were able to identify several key pain points and areas for improvement that had previously been overlooked. These insights were instrumental in guiding our design process and ultimately led to the development of iRobot Connect which better addresses the needs of our users.
Product Exploration
Based on our research, we looked at popular products discussed in our conversations. We used an interactive scale of products that currently exist in the market that are related to home-health and aging to find a white space.
II. Define
Insights & Opportunities
Through our radical listening exercises, we discovered a unique relationship between iRobot, Adult Children, and Aging Adults. We found a marketing opportunity, a product opportunity, and a caregiving opportunity within aging gracefully in the home. We developed 4 key insights that would guide our development and used these opportunities and insights to start ideating for a final solution.
III. Design
Conceptualize, Ideate, Evaluate, Iterate
Using the identified pain points and areas for improvement as a foundation, we iteratively designed and prototyped solutions that were tested with our users to ensure we were meeting their needs. We also made use of cutting-edge technologies and best practices in software development to create a seamless and intuitive user experience to be presented to iRobot.
IV. Deliver
Features Overview
Wellness Checks: The family outside the home can check in on their loved ones and initiate wellness checks using iRobot products.
Voice Command: Voice Command is built directly into the robots themselves so older adults can talk with the robots instead of having difficulty using the app.
Customer Support: 24/7 access to customer support, a team that will have the ability to change the robot setting remotely, streamlining the help process.
Unique Inputs: Allows users to tell iRobot areas to avoid or focus on based on their specific needs.
Cleaning Suggestions: Many older adults expressed a sense of purpose and a healthy physical challenge from cleaning. We want them to keep their autonomy and feel like a partner.
Feasibility
To understand how feasible our solution was, we laid out the current resources iRobot had access to, including customers who already use iRobot products, as well as existing technologies that iRobot could build off of to incorporate our solution iRobot Connect. Additionally, iRobot could also potentially partner up with AI platforms and Customer support companies to implement the full experience of iRobot Connect.
Viability
It was also important for iRobot to understand the viability of our solution. We broke this down into two parts - a cost breakdown of where funds would need to be allocated the most, as well as revenue streams of how iRobot would be able to maintain a sustainable business model. In the cost breakdown, there would be a fixed cost to build in the Connect feature into iRobot’s existing products and a variable cost of building and maintaining a new customer support model. Ideally, that cost would be brought down with the partnerships mentioned. For revenue streams, there will be a one-time revenue in which customers purchase iRobot products with the iRobot Connect feature and a Recurring revenue with a paid subscription fee for full support and home setup.
V. Review
Through a collaborative and agile development process, we were able to deliver the high-quality solution iRobot Connect that enables home health for aging adults by providing a way for them to interact with their families while maintaining autonomy as well as easily interact with iRobot products and support. iRobot Connect is a thoughtful, interactive partner in aging adults’ homes that helps them complete their own cleaning tasks in addition to cleaning for them.
Key Learnings
To develop effective solutions for aging gracefully in the home, it's crucial to understand the needs and preferences of older adults and their caregivers. By conducting interviews with a diverse group of users, you can gain valuable insights that can guide your product development.
Analyzing the data from your interviews can help you identify common themes and patterns. These themes can help you prioritize which features or solutions to focus on first and guide your product development efforts.
The process of interviewing users and developing new solutions is an ongoing one. It's important to continuously iterate and improve your product based on user feedback and changing needs. Regularly engaging with users can help you stay ahead of emerging trends and ensure that your product remains relevant over time.
The Team
Special thanks to Roni Greenberg, Caitlin Spofford, Patricia Song, & Kevin Cheng.
