Eddy Chen
R&D | Physical Product | Design Strategy
Procter & Gamble specializes in the consumer goods and has many trusted brands across beauty, health, home care, and family care, such as Tides, Swiffer, Crest, Always, Gillette, head & shoulders, Pamper, etc.
I am responsible for facilitating and lead field interviews, and transferring findings into actionable insights and concepts. I made several prototypes for user testing. I also came up a design strategy for the product.
Under NDA with P&G. Some images are blurred for confidentiality.
In 2022, the global baby care products market size was worth USD 19.46 billion, and thetotal global baby wipes market revenue was worth USD 5.4 billion.
The baby care product market is intensely saturated, where there are various baby wipe options with unique materials, scents, and levels of moisture, and so on... We worked with P&G to diverge from the conventional competitive landscape and create a competitive advantage for the Pampers brand baby wipes product that eases the overall parenting experience out of the home.
After 10 weeks, we pitched to the Procter & Gamble baby care team in Cincinnati, OH with:
A minimal viable prototype: 3D-printed, functional prototype
A product video prototype: See our solution in real usage, and how it solves the problems
Leading research insights: Our research and development journey
Recommended next steps: Material selection, emotional consideration, verify testing data
In addition, our team was invited to present in-depth research process and insights with various concepts to the P&G packaging broad members outside of the class scope.
Baby care is a private and sensitive topic. Parents are most comfortable to change diapers at the home environment where we could observe the real moments and behaviors.
We conducted secondary research on the existing products, reviews, and forums. Then, we visited 8 parents’ to learn about their behaviors and struggles around diaper changing process. We prepared a discussion guide to organize the research questions and topics, and stimuli activities to break the ice and start the conversation.
After the initial research, we gathered our findings, quotes, and images to generate pain points in common themes and insights with 'how might we' statements that inform our design direction.
Based on users personas, journey map, and insights, we had a brainstorming session and created some rapid prototypes for concept validation.
Ranking activities with painted prototypes to control the appearance.
Synthesizing & Brainstorming
Incorporating parents’ feedback on the rapid prototypes, we narrowed down a few concepts while adding new concepts to the next round testing. We made more polished prototypes and variations, combined with research activities.
Product Review after diaper changes
Keywords matching
We had another challenge when we created the final prototype considering the supply chain, P&G’s business model, and parents’ desirability.
By introducing a ‘Lock-and-Key’ component, we fit the products into its business model without adding stress to the current supply chain.
This project was heavily focused on design research and process. Our team not only successfully hand-off to client with functional prototypes, but we took one step further by considering their business model and design strategy. During the process, I learned some valuable lessons:
Design research is not just Q&A, but there are many techniques and observation needed to get in-depth response and true insights.
All ideas should be thoroughly explored through team evaluation or research before any decisions are made to discontinue them.
There will always be more problems coming up in the middle of the design process.
We were so grateful for the opportunity to work with P&G Baby Care team. I learned a lot from Marisa and Richard, and they kept us on the right track. Fortunately, we were invited to present our solution at the P&G headquarter in Cincinnati, OH, and our research insights to the packaging Board members.
The P&G team will integrate the valuable insights gleaned from our consumer research, the feedback from our minimally viable prototypes, and our strategic recommendations into the future product development.
