Lowe's Home Crew
Making smart homes stupidly
simple
Smart technology will transform every nook and cranny of homes over the next decade. It's unclear whether homeowners are up to the challenge of installing and maintaining a network of appliances themselves.
To help, Lowe's offers Home Crew, a professional services subscription for those wary of the headaches, and software updates, that come with a connected life.
MY ROLE:
Service design lead Qualitative research Workshop facilitation UX/UI
THE CHALLENGE:
Position Lowe’s as the go-to destination for a connected home.
The proliferation of ‘smart’ tech has left many Americans scratching their heads on the sidelines. How might Lowe's invite their core customers into the space as smart home appliances grow increasingly complex?
THE OPPORTUNITY:
Americans are willing to pay for services that eliminate hardware and software inconveniences. The shade tree mechanics of yesterday, if purchasing a Prius today, will opt to purchase ToyotaCare as well. As smart home ecosystems grow more complex, one should expect Americans to do the same for their homes.
THE SOLUTION
Home Crew, an on-demand services subscription by Lowe's, offers an elite force of smart home installers and consultants who ensure your home runs for you. Schedule installations, maintenance, and consultations through a mobile app or browser. The Home Crew team provides services either in-person or via video call.
Inspiration
Home Crew agents help users set life stage goals before introducing smart products.
Installation
Home Crew installers make it easy. Connecting appliances to a hub can be a pain.
Maintenance
Home Crew agents offer peace of mind in knowing that smart tech issues will be resolved.
Anytime, anywhere, mobile support
The Home Crew App allows subscribers to hail home services via video call or home visit.
House-visits on the homeowner's terms
Subscribers retain ownership over their schedule and over which agent to invite.
No more sacrificing Saturdays. Home Crew home visits occur on the user's time by syncing to available time slots on their Google or Outlook calendar.
Calendar Integration
'Add an item' functionality
Subscribers can add items to be delivered during their Home Crew visit. Lowe's saves subscribers a bit of time and creates a new revenue stream.
Agent ratings and skill certifications
Users may request a 'Favorite' or highly rated agent for installing a specific device or managing a certain ecosystem.
DESIGN PROCESS
DISCOVERY
INTERVIEWS
Our team conducted roughly a dozen interviews with homeowners who fit our target demographic- those who have purchased an Alexa or Google Home but no other smart home technology. Our goal was to understand the motivations for, and the barriers to, adopting more smart tech.
SYNTHESIS
We then categorized our interview notes into themes, pinpointing how smart tech typically enters the home and reasons for why the early majority balks at adding more. For instance, we learned that it was very common for home assistants to be gifted and that their value wasn't readily apparent. Additionally, the early majority feels ill-equipped to take on new technology.
Key Insights:
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Intrigue in smart tech exists, yet may not translate into a purchase if the value isn’t glaringly apparent. “I need to see it to believe it.”
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When the value is apparent, the consumer hesitates to make a purchase assuming they lack the skills or knowledge to install and integrate it. “I’m not a techie.”
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Consumers assume the product will break. Unlike a traditional home improvement project, smart tech projects are never completely finished. “Something always goes wrong.”
STRATEGY
STORYBOARDS
The storyboards helped inspire us to adapt the brief. We expanded our work beyond advertising. We believed in exploring a service solution after seeing that the early majority was ill-equipped and unwilling to manage the installation and integration of a smart home appliances.
Traditional Home Improvement:
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Social experience
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Observable progress
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Physiological payoff
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High-fiveable moments
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Certainty of completion
vs.
Smart Home Improvement:
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Solo experience
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Ambiguous progress
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Mental taxation
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Trouble-shooting success
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Completion uncertainy
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
A host of tech and communications companies would present competition in the service space. It was important that our solution leveraged Lowe's strengths: 2,370 brick and mortar stores and existing relationships with home improvers.
DESIGN OBJECTIVE
Provide a world-class service that eliminates the pain surrounding installation, maintenance, and ecosystem integration while leveraging Lowe's proximity to the American homeowners.
IDEATION
WORKSHOP
Workshop participants were dealt diverse 'What If?' cards helping to tease inspiration from world-class service organizations. We considered the retail, hospitality, and tourism industries, and considered other out-of-the-box science fiction solutions.
DESIGN
I set the following design criteria to make sure our design choices aligned with our overall service design objectives. l tried to leverage best practices from the service audit we conducted during our discovery phase.
1) FRICTIONLESS
/ Access anytme, anywhere
/ Fingertip support
/ Time sensitive
2) PERSONALIZED
/ Customized to each ecosystem
/ Responsive to preferences
/ Ultimate control for user
3) HOME-CENTRIC
/ Inspire life-style goals
/ Leverage purchasing history
/ Neighbors like interactions
SKETCH MOCKUPS
I aligned the application's UI with the overarching brand guidelines and design criteria. I felt it was important to introduce a clean and airy interface to reduce clutter and meet our 'frictionless' objective. Sequence dots on the bottom of each screen are intended to offer the user awareness of where they stand in the task.
FEEDBACK
CLIENT PITCH
Representatives from Lowe's brand and design teams served as judges. They were impressed with our willingness to push back on the brief and our ability to view the problem through a wider lens. Members of the design team especially liked the services 'add an item' offering believing it offered an untapped revenue stream.