💡 TL;DR
‍TWC asked the EffectiveUI team to deliver a conceptual model for the future of TWC’s connected home and home security product. We delivered vision storyboards along with specific innovation recommendations to implement a more proactive and frictionless system.

Background

Time Warner Cable (TWC) was the second largest American telco. IntelligentHome was TWC's home management system that provided home security, control, automation and energy management. IntelligentHome system customer’s could remotely access and control their home using a mobile app and in-house touchscreen.

The Problem

The TWC IntelligentHome product team wanted to reinvent the smart home experience on the TWC home security platform.

• Create a vision for the implementation of a proactive home management platform
• Suggest strategies for how to drive need and importance of a proactive IntelligentHome platform inside the home.
• Create visual artifacts to help speak to the vision for the proactive home story.

My role

I led a six member design team. As lead, my role was:

• Design an approach and create a scope, schedule, and resourcing model
• Develop a partnership with the client stakeholders
• Provide overall direction on project deliverables
• Plan and lead all internal and external workshops and collaborative design sessions
• Plan, script, and conduct all user research
• Mentor the design team on innovation approaches

The Outcomes

The product concepts were shared with the c-level executive team at TWC. Feedback was unanimously positive and the presentation was shared widely, but unfortunately, all plans were put on hold because of the turbulence and uncertainty of the ongoing Charter purchase/merger.

Final Delivery included:

• Storyboard
• A demonstration of the future potential of the IntelligentHome system based on collective ideation and focused through user validation
• 6 implementable product concepts
• Guiding Principles for Design
• A set of 8 guiding themes for designing based on user research
• Proactive home concepts
• A set of product notifications and recommendations to the user which would enable the system to be proactive as opposed to reactive

The Process We Followed

I scoped a seven step process to approach this problem.

Discovery

The Discovery phase included a kickoff workshop, stakeholder interviews, and market research, and a comparative analysis. The objective was to build an understanding of the product and market space to appropriately plan for the ideation workshop.

Ideation Workshop

The ideation workshop at the TWC corporate NYC headquarters was an opportunity to create common understanding of the IntelligentHome product’s successes and struggles, as well as use innovation techniques to generate new ideas for solving pain points and reducing friction. The outcome of the workshop was lots and lots of sticky notes and initial concept sketches.

Storyboarding Ideation

Following the Ideation Workshop, the team returned to the office to continue ideation, prioritize concepts, and begin forming a narrative for draft storyboards. The story was intended to be futuristic and demonstrate one example of the future potential of the IntelligentHome system.

User Testing

With draft storyboards created, I planned and conducted concept testing on representative users to validate the various concepts and better understand the behaviors and motivations involved in the experience. The outcome of the research was a further prioritization of concepts as well as a set of important themes to measure a concept’s alignment with user needs.

Participant Demographics

• 8 women \ 3 men aged 31-55 years old
• Participants located in TWC markets: New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles
• Occupations included: Teacher, VP of Operations, Commercial Real Estate Broker, Small Business Owner, Executive Assistant
• 6 participants had children under 18 in their household
• 7 participants had a home security system
• All participants had smart devices in the household (Nest, smart locks, AwoX, smart sprinkler system, Belkin Wemo)

Note Taking

Analysis

Reporting

Revision & Alignment

The storyboard and concepts were revised based on the outcomes of the user research. Following that, the team held an alignment workshop with the TWC stakeholder team for final input and direction.

Design & Document

The team delivered:

Storyboard

• A demonstration of the future potential of the IntelligentHome system based on collective ideation and focused through user validation
• 6 implementable product concepts

Rules Library

The Rules Library is a concept for a web based rules hub, similar to IFTT from which to control your connected home.

Guiding Principles for Design

A set of 8 guiding themes for designing based on user research.

Proactive Home Concepts

A set of product notifications and recommendations to the user which would enable the system to be proactive as opposed to reactive

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