Hired by FitBit, a health tracking device company, my team of Steven Geitzer, Marcus Busby, and myself conducted deep ethnographic research to strategize approaches to expand the company’s scope to the dog owner market.
We targeted an edge case – dog owners who fly commercially with dogs – in order to quickly discover insights, and we delivered a pivotal typology that helped FitBit understand the unmet needs of an emerging market. We spent time doing market research, field observations, and interviews; then we categorized and differentiated our findings. In our team, I was critical to clarifying insights and energizing exploration and discovery.
We discovered two types of owners. Trainers teach their dog to be independent and strong; protectors coddle and control their dog’s environment to keep them safe. Trainers are not afraid to punish their dogs to develop its independence. In contrast, protectors are attempt to merely keep their dogs safe. Protectors see their dogs as baby humans - innocent and helpless - and there are more and more of them every day. However, most dog products solve the needs of trainers. The emerging market of protector dog owners has a shortage of product development.
From these insights, we advised FitBit on three jumping points for future direction in their business development.
We targeted an edge case – dog owners who fly commercially with dogs – in order to quickly discover insights, and we delivered a pivotal typology that helped FitBit understand the unmet needs of an emerging market. We spent time doing market research, field observations, and interviews; then we categorized and differentiated our findings. In our team, I was critical to clarifying insights and energizing exploration and discovery.
We discovered two types of owners. Trainers teach their dog to be independent and strong; protectors coddle and control their dog’s environment to keep them safe. Trainers are not afraid to punish their dogs to develop its independence. In contrast, protectors are attempt to merely keep their dogs safe. Protectors see their dogs as baby humans - innocent and helpless - and there are more and more of them every day. However, most dog products solve the needs of trainers. The emerging market of protector dog owners has a shortage of product development.
From these insights, we advised FitBit on three jumping points for future direction in their business development.