How to Bond With Your Pandemic Pup

Bark x UPenn | Fall 2021

Instructor: Jenna Shanis, Peel Design

Challenge

Our goal was to come up with a product or service recommendation for Bark that would address the state of people's relationships with their pets as they begin to return to office.

Get to know the target demographic and their needs via secondary research and in-depth interviews
Prioritize customer pain points based on the business needs and capabilities of the client
Choose a recommended solution that sits in the medium-term (2–5 years) future

How might we deliver in-person experiences to dog owners that will make up for lost quality time with their dog, without overspending?

Team

I worked with two colleagues in my Integrated Product Design: Needfinding class to design and conduct surveys and in-depth interviews, perform observational field research, and synthesize findings into a final recommendation for our client

TOOLS & Methods

In-depth contextual interviews with home tours & online shopping observation
Design Thinking frameworks
Projective writing exercises & analysis
Qualtrics, Miro, Zoom, Adobe Photoshop

Interviews

Using a detailed and expansive discussion guide, we each interviewed 3 subjects for an average of 90 minutes each
Subjects walked us through a typical pet supply or service purchase and showed us a tour of all pet-related items and areas in the home
Each subject completed a projective writing exercise—we asked them to write a letter to themselves from the perspective of their dog(s)
We ultimately identified our target area of opportunity: The intersection of emotional needs and increased willingness to pay

We generated dozens of product ideas that could meet our client's needs as well as their customers', and in the end we selected one of my pitches: Bark S'Paw, a social and emotional experience for dogs and their parents.

I designed a mockup of a cover story for our product that highlights the benefits of Bark S'Paw

BARK S'PAW: A PLACE FOR both of you

A salon that caters to humans and their pets, together—dogs are groomed next to their owners, who may choose from services such as a manicure, massage, or hair styling
An experience that creates brand advocates via an irresistible social media-friendly photo station when the service is complete
Turns a chore that customers already pay for into a fun activity to bring them closer with the pets they may have started leaving at home as they return to the office

We performed competitive analysis to determine the uniqueness of our recommendation as well as a storyboard showing the customer journey we expect for the average S'Paw patron

Above: Competitive analysis of similar services currently on the market

Right: Sketch of a customer journey from discovery to brand advocate

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