Suck it up
Floor cleaning products that focus on human needs rather than technical specs.
Context
Our team was contacted by a global floor care manufacturer that was ready for a new product direction. After decades of fighting for market share with competing products, they were ready to find new customer challenges that were not being addressed by current products on the market. The design challenge was to deepen customer insights for both domestic and commercial product users and create 10 new product concepts that would pave the way for a new brand direction.
Services
User Insights
Innovation Strategy
Product Design
Methods
Ethnography
Co-Creation
Storyboarding
Focus Groups
Insights
Cleaning is a human experience. The problem is that most cleaning products focus on the technical elements of the cleaning device rather than the human elements of the cleaning experience. We conducted in-home ethnographies and ride-alongs with professional cleaning teams to get up close and personal with the current floor cleaning process. Below are some of our key research insights that would drive new product development.
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Vacuum cleaners are the primary cleaning device used in homes. Unfortunately, most vacuum cleaners are designed to only clean the floor of your home, which represents only a fraction of the surface area that needs to be cleaned.
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Over the last few decades, consumers have started to think of the vacuum cleaner as a disposable item, with a life span of just a few years. The reality is that most issues can be repaired with a simple fix. Their is a big opportunity to increase the lifespan of cleaning devices with thoughtful design and clear user education.
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By far, the most difficult and the most important area to clean in any home or building is the bathroom. The challenge is that there are so many tight spaces that cleaners often resort to archaic cleaning methods like traditional mops and scrubbing by hand.
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There are nearly 800,000 residential maids and housekeepers working in the United States. This market segment needs equipment that has the versatility of domestic products and the durability of commercial products to do their job well. Unfortunately, very few products exist for this user group, and the ones that do are cumbersome and don't perform well.
Solution
Keeping these newfound user needs front and center, we collaborated with cross functional client teams to turn insights into new product features. As we defined new products in domestic and commercial categories, a key solution space emerged: the maid service gap.
The floor care equipment industry groups products into 2 categories: domestic and commercial. This leaves out a key user group, professional home cleaners, who require the durability of commercial products and the versatility of domestic products. We took the principle of “designing for super-users” to guide several of our key breakthrough product concepts. In the end, these types of products will trickle down from the super-user to the everyday user; after all, who doesn’t want to “clean like the pros”?!
Impact
This project helped revitalize and clarify our client’s family of brands by grounding each one in the attributes that mattered most to real users—durability, ease of use, versatility, and the ability to clean the hard-to-reach spaces. By translating field insights into brand principles, design criteria, and a multi-year product pipeline, we equipped the organization with a clear roadmap for innovation rather than one-off product bets. 13 new products are poised to launch over the next 5 years.
The first new product emerging from this pipeline—a next-generation lightweight, cordless backpack vacuum—has already launched and is performing well in the market. This product is targeted primarily to maid service businesses but we believe will perform well as a domestic cleaning product, integrating ergonomic comfort, versatility, runtime, and mobility.
As additional products in the pipeline roll out, our client is now positioned to deliver a cohesive portfolio built on user-centered insight, brand clarity, and long-term strategic focus.
