Customer Segments

Working with our previous interviews the team met with two 3D printing labs, one based in Montreal, Canada at the University of McGill, and one in Chicago at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Both indicated that payment through an interface was an incredibly important feature for any 3D printing interface. The expression of interest by both these labs, as well as understanding of the problems that come with 3D print submissions processes, indicates that 3D labs (loosely defined) are one of our core customer segments. In the terms used in Talking to Humans, they might be our early adopters, in large part because they are already experiencing the pain points associated with large 3D print operations.

At the Art Institute of Chicago we were able to observe real time applications that helped visualize our business model canvas. While some members of our team were more familiar with the variation and possibilities in 3D print design and application, other members had limited exposure to the complexity of today’s 3D printing resources. As a group we began to narrow our potential customer segments and potential prototype to help a specific customer base meet and achieve their 3D printing solutions.

The AAC center uses multi-platform printing, from paper to plastic and resin, using printers ranging from $10000 to $50000 in initial investment, with an additional large-scale investment in supporting supplies. Cross platform software is available, but limited and unreliable. Most print jobs are handled in queue, with a printing specialist controlling the workflow and final output. User error in initial print design varies with a common baseline. First time and infrequent users with a higher incidence of failure, while a more experienced user having a better grasp a printer is capable of for a given print job. It is our opinion at this time 3D printing is still best utilized in an environment specifically designed to control 3D design and workflow, such as a dedicated department in an academic or community library.

Our business model iteration had been concerned with more of a macro solution, a solution for everyone, but as we considered our value propositions and customer segments we believed that the a lack of hardware standardization, limited cross platform software and the wide range of 3D printing uses for a wide range of needs would make a full scope solution impractical, if not impossible to design and implement. 3D printing is still very much in its technological infancy and any large-scale business solution would need far greater resources for an initial start-up.

As we move toward our next phase we have decided to expand these hypothesis:

· Develop hypotheses to test

· Form metrics to measure & validate our hypotheses

· Develop a script to tease our information from our target audience

· Interview and observe (to the best of our ability) several 3D print labs (which include maker spaces, library 3d print labs, school labs.)