Learning Launch  for “Mancealer”

Challenge

My entrepreneurship project at business school this fall semester was the perfect opportunity to try  out various design thinking principles. We set out to create a concealer for Asian men, which we felt  was an under-served market. My team and I realized early on that design thinking was well-suited  for the task of product innovation in a niche market. Even though most men have facial  imperfections they would prefer to conceal, make-up remains culturally taboo for many men in Asia.  Solving this problem would require some novel approaches to product development and a deep  understanding of men’s psyche. In addition, the product needs to be affordable due to the price  sensitivity of the customer, as well as fit within an existing men’s grooming category and daily  routine in order to quickly gain market acceptance.

To this end, we tried to follow the core design thinking methodology of in-depth qualitative research  with a small but reliable sample of the customer segment, then mapping the customer journey,  brainstorming initial concepts, and testing our assumptions through an iterative design process that  involved multiple rounds of prototyping and customer co-creation.

Selection

The design thinking tool that will be discussed here is the learning launch our team embarked on to  test whether a market exists for our pioneering men’s concealer product.

Our goal was understand what works and get to the “wow zone” with our idea. To do this we knew  that cheap experiments would be the best and fastest route to test our hypothesis and key  assumptions and allow us to gather the data to enable a scale-up of the project. Based on our initial  customer interviews and ideation, we decided to produce a minimum viable product consisting of a  tinted moisturizer with colour pigments that suit Asian skin tones.

Since no data existed on whether such a concept would work in our market with our specific target  audience, we decided to create our own via a learning launch.

Application

Given this was a school project, the learning launch consisted of the following steps: 1) state  hypothesis (there is a market for concealing products for Asian men), 2) state key assumptions (men  would like to cover facial imperfections but they are not keen on “make-up” which is considered  feminine), 3) focus on customer value creation (for our target customer this includes convenience,  fuss-free application and removal and affordability), 4) execution (what are the team capabilities in  product design and marketing), 5) scalability (what will our intended distribution channels cost), and  6) prioritize key assumptions (iterating based on user feedback).

We collected detailed feedback from users after each product iteration to ensure we were designing  for the user and meeting their needs, based on the design thinking principle of “search for the truth,  not prove your idea” and overcoming confirmation bias with disconfirming evidence.

When it came to designing the user testing, we went for a low-cost approach by getting participants  our apartment complex who were also within our customer persona to validate the product.  Following that we designed and executed a blind test made up of a two-step conjoint analysis that

involved participants testing different products and giving us feedback on not only the features but  also the price. Happily, a full 50% of the test sample gave the thumbs to our product over  competitors.

Insight & Approach

The favourable results from the blind test were fed back into our product design process and vastly  helped to increase the appeal of our idea. The design thinking approach was instrumental in getting  us to product-market fit faster and at a lower cost. The key lesson from the learning launch was that  men are willing to pay for a product that delivers multiple benefits in one package.

We think we are close to achieving customer wow, and at least on paper, the business model and  execution wows too.

My team would be keen to explore the learning launch tool again to test and learn other product  design or innovation projects, for instance if we decide to expand into new product lines,  geographies or market segments.

