Problems
An area of our kitchen has been very inefficient and I've been wanting to upgrade the specific area to tackle some concerns. Below are 2 min concerns we had:
Open shelfs, cluttered look
We had a very simple furniture with shelfs without any door or drawers. Therefore, everything was visible. That was contributing to overall cluttered look.
Too few shelfs, wasted space
The furniture we had only had 2 levels: a shelf and a top. This created some dead space.
I found a good modular furniture that would be a great fit for the purpose and tackle my problems. Therefore I designed a furniture based on the measurements. By the way, the planner app on IKEA is one of my favourite products.
Convince a stakeholder
Purchasing furniture is a commitment for the household. It's crucial to have all the stakeholders' buy-in. In my case, myself and my partner. I thought in what way I can convince my partner fast. For my partner, I decided to showcase what his life would look like.
Fast prototyping
It doesn't need to be fancy, so I decided to create an image which he can imagine his improved live with the new furniture.
Thanks to this prototype, I was able to get a buy-in from my stakeholder. In my experience, I think it was fastest to get an approval from him when it comes to furnitures.
The rest
Once we got the stakeholder's buy-in, the rest was easy. Ordered the furniture, arranging a large trash pickup, clearing the space, assembling the furniture, putting things back in the furniture.
Ta da✨
Once we got the stakeholder's buy-in, the rest was easy. Ordered the furniture, arranging a large trash pickup, clearing the space, assembling the furniture, putting things back in the furniture.
Learnings
Importance of prototype
This is something I've learned over my experience in Product Management, but people cannot give opinions until they see the product. So I applied this here and let my partner imagine how this could help him better. If he had some remarks or questions, he could also mention based on what he saw. Once again, I realized the importance of having a prototype.