Sometimes, I simply want to do a fun thought exercise — product design is a way to get some fun as a PM.
Some clarifying questions:
- Do we have a business objective or target customers in mind for this product?
- Are we selling this computer keyboard as a standalone product or this is part of a product component (keyboards for iPad or laptop)?
Business Objectives: Among all the business objectives such as increasing revenue, capture market share, establish a market foothold etc. let’s assume that we want to create this computer keyboard as an entry product to establish a market foothold.
Customers: Various ways to segment customers of a computer keyboard are
- by professionals: gamers, office white-collar users or students, blue-collar workers
- by age: tweens in the age of 8–14, working group mid-20s to early 40s, managers/aged workers above mid-40s.
Gamers and Office workers are very competitive types of customers for keyboards, so the market for those users is probably saturated or with high-entry barriers due to the familiarity of brands (Razer, Logitech, Apple) and high expectations. Also, if we target these customer groups, we are in direct competition with those companies.
Nowadays, children get early exposure to computers, and the age of 8–14 might be interesting to look at. There is not a clear competitor who has looked at this market, and we can influence parents to buy the best keyboards for their children. (If have time, should go for an estimation of the size of this market).
Customer Needs:
- Functional needs: Adult keyboards do not fit with their hand developments. Certain teen languages or emoji could be better capture in the keyboards. It might be the first time they learn typing, so need something to accompany them in this learning journey. Teens also have a hard time managing their passwords, and they are the target of phishing or other bad actors. Parent-monitor/control.
- Emotional needs: Adult keyboard might be boring or does not allow the expression of their personality. There are many function keys that are hard to remember.
Solutions: (Popularity 1–5, Pain/Value — 1 to 5, Effort 1 — 5)
- A keyboard dimension that tailors to this age group (P=3, V=3, E=3 → 9).
- The keyboard that allows changes of skin or color (P=4, V=2, E=1 → 7).
- Selling the keyboard with software to teach shorthand or keyboard typing (P=2, V=4, E=3 → 9).
- Design a touch-sensor display embedded on the keyboard to simplify all the function keys and a fingerprint unblocks to capture all passwords(P = 4, V= 4, E=1 → 9).
- A keyboard that can also turn into a table display (P = 2, V = 2, E = 1 → 5).
- A keyboard that allows sending/alert to parents if their children is producing or engaging in harmful content (P=4, V=5, E=1 → 10).
Prioritization:
Among all the problems, we will prioritize the problem based on the frequency and level of pains of the problems.
We should also think about how unique/excited the product is and how defensible technology. Our top picks are (1) form factor sturdy/cheerful/fit with their age group (2) changeable skin (3) sensor display integrated with finger-print to allow passwords auto-filled (4) gather content typing and use ML to detect harmful content to alert parents.
Summary: We propose a keyboard for tweens (age group 8–14) that focuses on a form factor of this age group, highlight personality by allowing changes of keyboard skin/color and sensor display integrated with finger-print to allow passwords auto-filled. However, we should not just sell the keyboard, but also include several online program/software to go with it. Since parents are the decision-maker, we want to sell them the parent-alert features. Parents can’t possibly monitor all the channels/programs that their children engage with, but they can still receive alerts if the keyboard detect harmful content that their children engage with.
