Nordstrom Innovation Lab

Summary

JB Brown, the Nordstrom Innovation Lab Manager, leads a team in a 'flash build' at a flagship store in Seattle. They aim to create an iPad app to assist customers in choosing sunglasses, leveraging real-time customer feedback throughout the development process. Over five days, they iterate from a paper prototype to a functional app, adding features like side-by-side image comparison, renaming photos, and zoom functionality. A significant discovery about polarization issues leads to a design change. The app's development is time-boxed to a week, resulting in a solution that addresses customer needs and is ready for implementation.

Takeaways

• 🛠️ The Nordstrom Innovation Lab is focused on experimenting with ideas to validate their feasibility and value to customers.
• 📱 The lab aims to build an iPad app with real-time customer feedback, ensuring features are aligned with customer needs.
• 🏬 The team works in-store to directly engage with customers, capturing immediate feedback to refine the app development process.
• 🕶️ The app's goal is to assist customers in choosing the best sunglasses, leveraging customer input to shape its features.
• 📈 The development process includes creating a story map to outline customer steps and potential changes with the app.
• 📄 Paper prototyping is used for an initial, easily modifiable version of the app, allowing for quick adjustments based on customer interaction.
• 🔧 The team iteratively builds and tests the app, integrating customer feedback to enhance functionality and user experience.
• 📸 A key feature of the app allows customers to take and compare pictures of themselves wearing different sunglasses.
• 🔄 The app development process was dynamic, with real-time adjustments made based on unexpected issues, such as polarization interference.
• 🏁 The project was time-boxed to a week, resulting in a functional app that addresses identified customer needs and is ready for implementation.

Q & A

Who is JB Brown and what is his role in the Nordstrom Innovation Lab?

JB Brown is the Nordstrom Innovation Lab manager, responsible for overseeing the lab where they work on experiments to validate ideas.

What is the main goal of the Innovation Lab team during the week described in the transcript?

The main goal is to build an iPad app with customer feedback, ensuring that they are only working on features that are valued by the customers.

Why did the team decide to work in the store while building the app?

They wanted to be in the store to get real-time customer feedback as they worked, ensuring that the app development aligns with customer needs and values.

What is the concept of a 'flash build' as mentioned in the transcript?

A 'flash build' is a unique event where a software team shows up in a surprise location, in this case, Nordstrom's flagship store in downtown Seattle, to build an application.

What was the initial idea for the iPad app the team aimed to develop?

The initial idea was to create an app that helps customers pick the best pair of sunglasses for them, using customer feedback to shape the app's features.

How did the team use customer feedback to guide the app development process?

The team used customer feedback by creating paper prototypes, testing them with customers, and then iterating on the app based on the feedback received.

What was a significant discovery made during the app development process?

A significant discovery was that the polarization of the iPad screen and polarized sunglasses would cancel each other out when in portrait mode, making the screen go black.

How did the team address the issue of polarization affecting the app's usability?

The team addressed the issue by switching the app's design to landscape and locking the aspect ratio of the iPad to ensure it is used in the correct orientation.

What additional features were added to the app over the course of the week?

Additional features included the ability to rename pictures, zoom in for detailed views, switch camera views, and a 'new customer' button to erase all images and start fresh.

How did the team determine when the app development was complete?

The team determined the app was complete when they had addressed the main problems, implemented the most important features, and received positive feedback from users, indicating the app met their needs.

What was the final outcome of the app development process as described in the transcript?

The final outcome was a functioning app that was intuitive and helpful for customers to make sunglass selections, with all requested features and roadblocks resolved.