The Challenge

Business Goals

Embark must regularly bring new consumer products based on scientific discovery to remain the industry leader. An ideal science product or service should: 1) Match Embark’s mission, 2) Provide substantial customer value, and 3) Show positive unit economics.

Hypothesis Statement

We hypothesized that enabling rescue dog owners to find out their dogs' age using DNA methylation would: 1) Encourage owners to act on their findings, 2) Help owners make informed care decisions, and thus 3) Strengthen the bond between owners and their dogs, 2)

Tiger Team

I guided a team of PMs, engineers, and scientists through a series of exercises designed to understand the customer need/value, business opportunity, and competitive landscape associated with bringing a new DNA test to market. We also discussed what it could look like to integrate such an offering into our current product ecosystem as well as our tech stack.

Big Hairy Questions

During the discovery phase, our tiger team focused on crucial questions, including: 1) What specific customer problems will this product solve; 2) How can we best convey the scientific aspects of this product to our customers; 3) What is the potential pricing that customers would be willing to accep; and 4) How might we fold this product into our ecosystem without blowing up our infrastructure?

Challenging Assumptions

Assumptions are a natural foundation for the start of any product design process. They are helpful starting points for discussions and experiments. Left unchecked, however, assumptions can lead even the most seasoned product teams and engineers down a costly rabbit hole by building something users do not want.

Before committing time and resources toward building the unknown, I devised a testing plan targeted at our riskiest and least understood assumptions. We considered small and larger scale experiments identifying the ones that offered the most significant insights with minimal effort.

User Perceptions

We started with early research, including a survey to understand users' understanding of the science and their perception of the product's value. We conducted user testing using tools like UserTesting.com, Maze, and FeedbackLoop.

Early UX

Following research and journey mapping, I crafted a set of detailed wireframes for the results experience's user interface. I incorporated various elements within this phase, such as age estimates, estimated birthdays, life stages, and care plans.

User Testing

I conducted a task-based user test with ~10 participants who owned rescue dogs of unknown age. Each participant was screened via UserTesting.com and completed a 14-question test, including 3 task-based tests and 11 verbal response questions.

User Quotes

“Dogs are part of your family. Why wouldn’t you want to know your dog’s age? You want to get them gifts for their birthday.” // “All of this is really fascinating. We have two dogs and I love them both and it’s fun to do something for them and learn more about them.”

Painted Door Test

Given the sheer complexity associated with introducing a new product to the Embark portfolio, it was imperative for us to get this product offering in front of real customers. To do so, we devised a souped-up ”painted door” test to gauge genuine customer interest and honest customer feedback.

Test Structure

As a part of the painted door test, we sent a series of emails to 81,000 existing Embark customers who have at least one dog listed with an estimated birth date in their account. We introduced the Age Test product at a price point of $149, offering a $30 discount for early adopters.

Strong Signals

In about a week, we sold 2,459 Age Test kits to existing Embark customers through an email campaign offering three price options. After hitting our sales goal, we set up a waiting list for more interest. Within the next week, we received 3K sign-ups.

It’s a “Go!”

Given the strong interest, viable price, and positive user feedback, we fully launched the Age Test. We shared these results with the team and got executive approval for the launch. 🎉

Going to Market

In the next ~6 months, I worked with PM, engineering, science, logistics, and customer service teams to integrate the Age Test into our product ecosystem and improve its UX/UI based on early feedback. We also set up ways to collect ongoing customer feedback to meet customer expectations and re-worked existing product features that may have conflicted with the Age Test offering.

Sales

We launched the Embark Age Test for general availability by teaming up with product marketing and creative teams. In the first three months of the soft launch, we made $3M in sales, with 87% from new customers. Age Test has a 4.87-star rating and continues to growing MoM, generating meaningful and value for Embark and its customers.