Kidsband was our entry for the 2015 Launch DePaul new venture competition sponsored by the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center. At the Launch DePaul Awards ceremony, 6 final teams had presented to a panel of judges in a Shark Tank competition in an attempt to win cash prizes for their product. In addition to the judges, 200 potential investors had attended the ceremony. We had hopes of getting funding to kickstart the product as we aimed to create something meaningful and life changing to parents and guardians all over the world.
When my colleague, Jenny Fuerte, informed me she wanted a partner to join alongside her into the Launch DePaul competition I was honored that she had reached out to me. Fuerte was a single mom to a son age 6. She also attended school full time, which happened to be an hour away. The safety of her son at home and at school was always in the back of her mind. When Fuerte shared her proposed product, Kidsband, it all made sense. It quickly became apparent how vital and beneficial this tool was to not only the market, but also to parents and guardians who shared the same pain points and struggles as Fuerte.
The initial steps we took as a team was performing a competitor analysis with similar tools and softwares that were on the market, the biggest being Fitbit. Upon completion of the competitor analysis, we gained insights into a handful of key features that might be promising to include into Kidsband.
Our next steps included interviewing users from our primarily target audience which included a mixture of parents and guardians. We ran through the paper prototypes of our app with the aid of a physical wristband to ensure that this tool would be something our target audience would deem as vital and impactful to their everyday lives. Not too long into each of our interviews did we find out that most, if not all, of the parents/guardians shared the same senses of worry, panic, and anxiety over the well-being of their children. After each interview, Kidsband emerged as an essential tool that parents would invest in and find value in for their own peace of mind.
Upon completion of our interviews and the analysis of all the qualitative data, I then moved to creating mid-fidelity mockups of Kidsband in Axure. The design was fueled by insights found from the interviews and qualitative data. The primary piece being that the signup process should be quick and seamless during one's busy schedule. A few of our participants agreed to being participating in a short usability test of the current low fidelity state of Kidsband. Design iterations were following the usability test to get the product closer to more of a high-fidelity state.
Below you will find the final product at the time which was presented at Launch DePaul to a panel of judges and room full of 200 investors.
Kidsband had won 3rd Place among its fellow contestants. Fuerte and I were pleased with the result and delighted to have gotten the opportunity to spread the word about such an advantageous tool for many parents and guardians. Following the Launch DePaul competition, a professor of mine had reached out to me and proceeded to share eye opening feedback with me. She mentioned that although this tool was targeted towards being used to monitor the health and safety of children, she found benefit in using this tool for her husband who had severe dementia and hypertension. Hearing this feedback made me realize that this tool was not only beneficial for children, but can essential be opened up to seniors and all those whom need extra monitoring! Fuerte and I were truly blown away at this feedback because it hadn't been something we saw but were amazed at the potential it had!
At the start of 2020, I embarked on a journey to redesign Kidsband. When I looked back at the project, I found that it appeared very outdated, and also lacked a lot of essential new features that would make it a powerful contender for the current times. I performed a new competitive analysis with new and well known names on the market in which Kidsband could compete with, such as the Apple Watch.
Upon doing the research, I was delighted with the new insights and additions that Kidsband may adopt to be more impactful:
I'm a Product Designer based in Chicago with experience in delivering 0 → 1 products that meet business goals.
