Connecting Mission to Product

Gaard One engineers gear for the 21st century outdoor enthusiast who enjoys tech savvy, handy, and resourceful equipment.  Gaard One sought out our help in transitioning their company to a B-corp (benefits corporation) to get the message out to their customers that with each $1 that they spend in product, Gaard One will conserve one square foot of land.  The following design strategy was leading us throughout the project.

problem

• Gaard One’s customer base was unaware that they were contributing to a good cause until they had already decided to purchase product.  This did not allow customers passionate about saving land (a lot of their customer base is) to be a part of a mission they would enjoy.

Methods

Secondary Research: As a team we each chose an area to focus on like competitors’, products, users, and brand presence).  My focus was competitors’. I did this because I wanted to find out what had already been done.

Stakeholder Interview- this was to find out what the current experience was like, and understand their vision.

Content Audit- we did this to identify what the current content was, what the competitor content was, and what the users wanted.

Touchpoints Journey Map- this mapped out our vision for when our users would be exposed to Gaard One.

Video Presentation- When unable to present in person we created a video presentation to present our findings and recommendations to the client. We walked through each step within the video, and included a reenactment of the trade-show booth from the customer’s point of view.  As a team we decided the trade-show booth was the touch point to focus on.  We focused on this because most of their current sales and exposure came from the trade-show. This gave us the opportunity to change the message behind the product and to make it a mission-first company.  We created a scenario and recorded it for our client at Gaard One.  My role was to write the narrative of the trade show experience for our fictitious user named Jayden.

Prototyped Touchpoints- We prototyped the touch points.  I prototyped the Impact Page on the website.  My adjustments made the page more user-centered.  Based on the findings in the comparitors/competitors research, this helped connect the mission to the users. I gave it more structure by adding sections by labeling sections who, what, where, and how.  This helped users identify the connection between Gaardians and Gaard One by adding videos and quotes of the Gaardians talking about Gaard One and their mission as well as their title on the conservancy board.  I also included events that could create community around the mission as well as opportunities for users to use their gear.  These events are held at Belwin Conservancy, the current conservancy Gaard One is working with.  Meetup events are centered around outdoor activities which are also listed on the Impact page.  This page highlights important campaigns for land conservancy as well as any recent bills pass.

FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

I created a roadmap for implementation so Gaard One would know when to create and implement which prototypes.  As part of the Google Heart Framework, I also identified signals and metrics for Gaard One to use to measure the success of these changes.