User Experience for an Inclusive Clothing Startup
How human-centered design helped Werable find their niche and target audience
In the second installment for 55 Minutes — a user experience design studio — to gain feedback about the impact of their work (see my first interview here), I chatted one of their clients, Claudia Poh from Werable. Werable is a startup company which engaged the 55 Minutes team for six months from June to December 2020 for a) support with user research, b) definition of a clear problem statement to solve, and c) to better understand its target users. Keep reading to learn more about the project.
Q: Hi Claudia! Can you quickly describe Werable to me? What stage of growth are you in? What are your priorities for this year?
A: Werable is a design studio that inspires confidence through easy-to-wear apparel. We are currently in our research and development stage. By end of this year, we’ll be launching a series of tops you can put on with minimal arm movement.We’re currently in an incubator program organized by the Textile and Fashion Federation (TaFF). The goal is to strengthen our brand strategy and business model. We’re also reaching out and building user base, having these people using and trying products, and getting data to show that products work.
Q: I see. And what needs did you have when looking to engage 55 Minutes?
A: We were at a point where we needed to know what focus for the project was. We didn’t have a problem statement or target audience and didn’t know who to interview. Our mission was broad, we just wanted to make it easier for people to get dressed, and we needed some help with direction to make it much more specific. I needed to go interview people and figure out existing problems to fish out offerings. I needed researchers, people to consolidate that data for me to not feel overwhelmed.
Q: What did you know about company and what factors did you consider before engaging them?
A: I didn’t hesitate to work with them as at that point in time I was working independently. I didn’t want to onboard someone only for those needs to be misaligned. It was important for me to build relationships and figure out the vision of the company while I entered the research and development phase.
I met Wendy, co-founder of 55 Minutes, and our relationship was formed on the basis of trust. I liked the way Wendy pitched the company; she asked the right questions, and she didn’t jump the gun. That was the exact kind of ethos I was looking for.
Q: How did the team help you to achieve your goals?
A: They did desk research, interviews, and bodystorming, for example, and desktop research on aging in Singapore.
I needed much more reliable statistics; if I’m going to build a business out of it, I need to make sure enough people are in this market for me to tap on. They also analysed findings — what worked and didn’t work.
They were helpful and thorough. They would count how many times someone had to lift their arms to put the shirt on so we knew how to measure if our prototypes were making a difference. They might not be fashion designers, but they went out of their way to understand the clothing and dressing challenges and ideate solutions.
They also started playing a much more proactive role in the ideation as well. They’d ask me “What if we just reverse it or add a tab etc.” Although they couldn’t quite help with the execution, their inputs helped me experiment as the research allowed them to quickly empathise with the target users.
Q: How have your initial thoughts and plans changed along the way and why? How has 55 Minutes influenced your work?
A: The biggest discovery was reframing how we defined our audience. At the start, we focused our research on caregivers as our primary persona based on the initial desktop research done by 55 Minutes. We also saw this as an opportunity to explore assistive dressing as an extension of my existing work. In the meantime, we categorized the care receiver profiles based on their dexterity and motor skills for the purpose of the study.
We got in touch with Stroke Support Station found that there were many opportunities to co-create there. It was in these interviews we learned that the way we identify our audience internally isn’t necessarily the way they see themselves. Care receivers don’t identify themselves as care receivers, neither do they want to engage with products that affirm that. We need to create solutions that are desired, feasible and financially viable, so we decided to reframe Werable’s core offerings beyond stroke survivors. Human-centered design calls for us to respond and pivot according to our findings. This was a major insight that we took from our collaboration together.
“Human-centred design calls for us to respond and pivot according to our findings.”
Q: What was the biggest takeaway and value from working with 55 Minutes?
A: I learned a lot from working with Wendy, such as managing a team and structuring a project and its expectations. No one can really just tell you how to become a leader but she showed me by example.
Their processes also helped immensely as they centered my focus on the data that mattered the most and helped me reframe my audience.
Q: Why didn’t you just hire a researcher onto your own team?
A: For an early stage startup, the biggest asset wasn’t having a researcher to interview people for me or the deliverables, but the biggest value add was having a whole team of likeminded individuals from different specializations as a sounding board.
Lots of time when I doubted myself, they were a support system that encouraged me. Towards the end, I realized if I have a much clearer sense of direction, then it’s much clearer to have a full-time person on board. But in the beginning, you need support where your problems become their problems. I needed a team to share my problem and value.
Q: Thanks so much for chatting with me. Do you have anything to add as you reflect on your experience with your engagement with them?
A: There was a lot of flexibility in the timeline. The prototyping process can be quite uncertain and the team showed a lot of understanding.
Shaping the scope of the research is deeply tied to brand positioning and the viability of the business. It’s important for a startup to pivot based on our findings. It’s a challenge to pivot when there are multiple stakeholders in collaboration.
If you’re a young startup, it’s important for you to constantly tie the scope of your research back to the viability of the business.
