Entering the Industrial Wearables Market
How might Bose help enhance the safety and productivity of frontline workers?
The Context
Frontline workers represents a huge portion of the workforce in almost every major industry from manufacturing to construction to healthcare to the oil and gas industry.
As these industries grapple with how to leverage technology to enhance the safety and productivity of their frontline workers, Bose’s core capabilities in sound management, Audio Augmented Reality and building durable hardware put it in a unique position to enter the Industrial Wearables market with an audio-based solution.
The Outcome
A validated proof of concept for a Bose Industrial Wearable, which was showcased at the 2019 Enterprise Wearables Technology Summit.
The Deliverables
Market Sizing, Business Modeling, Product Strategy, Piloting Partnerships, SME interviews, Personas, Target Customer, Concepts and Prototypes, Vision Video
The Team
- Business Lead
- Strategy Lead (me)
- Design Lead
- Technical Lead
Notable Contributions
Innovation/Design Strategy
Business modeling & Market Sizing
Concept Development, Prototyping and Testing
01
understand and observe
Initially, we needed to go broad, and understand as much as we could about which industries employ front line workers, and who the different types of front line workers are based on work environment, responsibilities and skillsets.
Secondary Research
We dove into data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to map out which industries employed frontline workers, and size the front line workforce by industry.
Front Line Worker Interviews
We interviewed home health care workers, doctors, warehouse workers, factory workers, postal workers, delivery workers, construction workers and oil and gas workers to understand their experiences, needs and frustrations.
Site Visits
We visited construction sites, oil refineries, manufacturing facilities and hospitals to observe some of the environments of front line workers, how they do their jobs and the daily impediments that exist to getting their jobs done.
Expert Interviews & Industry Conferences
We attended industry conferences and interviewed Enterprise Solution consultants and Hardware and Software Enterprise solution providers to understand what companies were looking for with regards to the safety and efficiency of their frontline workers, and how they were currently addressing those needs.
Key Outputs
Frontline worker personas based on similarities in tasks, workflows and work environments.
Unmet needs and opportunity areas for frontline workers based on interviews and observation.
02
narrow focus
Equipped with an understanding of the landscape of enterprise frontline workers and their needs, we then narrowed our focus to workers in heavy industrial environments (construction sites, oil rigs and refineries and heavy manufacturing facilities), who work in noisy and often dangerous work environments. We chose this group based on alignment between their unmet needs and Bose’s core competencies in designing comfortable wearables and solving complex audio problems.
Unmet Needs of Frontline Workers in Heavy Industrial Environments
- Dual, but conflicting needs for hearing protection and communication with colleagues
- They rely on their senses, including their ears, to tell them when something is amiss in their work environment (e.g. a machine whirring too loudly, the sound of a displaced belt)
- They often work in extreme and hazardous environments, where they fall prey to prolonged heat exposure, exhaustion, or dehydration.
- They are expected to document the work done and remaining on-the-go either using paper and pen, or hand-held, screen-based devices which them down.
Our Core Competencies
- Noise cancelation
- Sound management and hearing enhancement
- Building durable and comfortable hardware
- UI Affordances and Hardware sensors necessary to take an Audio-first approach to enhancing the safety and productivity of front line workers
03
ideate, prototype, test
We created a series of “What If” statements and sketches to spark conversation and co-creation with workers in heavy industrial environments. These early paper concepts also helped us determine which opportunity areas resonated most with front line workers.
We then made “Wizard of Oz” prototypes for the concepts that resonated most, and tested them in situ with front line workers in industrial environments. Simultaneously, we met with Directors of Environmental Health and Safety, and Innovation at major industrial companies to validate our product idea not just with end-users, but the business buyers as well.
At the end of this phase, we had a validated product concept that we knew fulfilled several unmet needs of front line workers in industrial environments, and their employers.
04
business modeling
Bose is mostly a B2C business. Enterprise sales is new to us. So once we had built a desirable product concept, the next step was to ensure that we would be able to build a workable business model around it. I led the team through the Business Model Canvas exercise to design a business strategy around our strengths while identifying key areas of investment required to enable the B2B marketing and selling of a Bose Industrial Wearable (confidential).
05
building conviction and securing pilot partners
Confident in the desirability, viability and feasibility of our early stage product idea, we created a video to communicate our vision for the Bose Industrial Wearable to internal stakeholders as well as potential pilot partners.
06
the outcome
Based on the business case we presented to key internal stakeholders including the CEO and the Director of Strategy and Innovation, we Bose decided to announce its intentions to enter the Industrial Wearable market, and showcase our validated proof of concept at the 2019 Enterprise Wearables Technology Summit in Dallas, TX, to generate interest and sign on pilot partners.
