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.

Outlines

00:00

🛠️ Innovation Lab Flash Build at Nordstrom

JB Brown, the Nordstream Innovation Lab manager, introduces a unique approach to software development where the team aims to build an iPad app in a week, utilizing real-time customer feedback. The process begins with brainstorming and mapping out customer steps in purchasing sunglasses, followed by creating a paper prototype. The team then iteratively develops the app, integrating features such as picture-taking for comparison, renaming photos for clarity, and a zoom feature. A significant discovery is made regarding the interaction between polarized glasses and the iPad's screen, leading to a design change. The goal is to leave behind a functional app that enhances the customer experience in selecting sunglasses.

05:02

🎉 Successful Completion of the Flash Build Project

The Nordstrom Innovation Lab team successfully completes the flash build project within a week, overcoming challenges and incorporating customer feedback. The final app allows customers to take multiple pictures, compare them side by side, rename them for reference, and zoom in for detail. A 'new customer' feature clears the app for the next user. The team addresses a usability issue with an animation to clarify the photo comparison process. The project concludes with the app being well-received, ready for implementation, and potentially available for public download, marking a significant achievement in customer-focused software development.

Keywords

💡Innovation Lab

An Innovation Lab is a dedicated space where creative and technical professionals collaborate to develop new ideas and solutions. In the context of the video, the Nordstrom Innovation Lab is focused on experimenting with and proving new concepts. The lab's environment fosters innovation by encouraging experimentation and learning from customer feedback, as seen when they decide to build an iPad app based on real-time customer input.

💡Customer Feedback

Customer feedback refers to the opinions and suggestions provided by customers regarding a product or service. It is a crucial part of product development and improvement. In the video, the Nordstrom Innovation Lab emphasizes the importance of customer feedback by integrating it into their development process, ensuring that the iPad app they are building meets the needs and preferences of the customers.

💡iPad App

An iPad app is a software application designed to run on Apple's iPad tablet. In the video, the team at the Innovation Lab is tasked with building an iPad app to assist customers in selecting the best sunglasses. The app development process is iterative, with features being added and refined based on customer feedback and testing.

💡Flash Build

A flash build is a rapid development process where a team comes together to build a software application in a short, concentrated period. The video describes the world's first flash build, where the Nordstrom Innovation Lab team surprises by developing an app in a physical store location. This approach allows for immediate customer interaction and feedback.

💡User Experience

User experience (UX) refers to how a person feels when interacting with a product or service. It encompasses all aspects of the end-user's interaction with the product, including usability, accessibility, and satisfaction. In the video, the Innovation Lab team focuses on creating a positive user experience by building a paper prototype and then an iPad app that is intuitive and meets customer needs.

💡Paper Prototype

A paper prototype is a physical, low-fidelity model of a user interface used in the early stages of design to test and iterate ideas. In the video, the team uses a paper prototype to simulate the iPad app's functionality. This allows them to gather customer feedback and make changes without investing significant time in developing a digital version first.

💡Iterative Development

Iterative development is a process of repeated cycles of development where each cycle involves refining and enhancing the product based on feedback and testing. The video showcases iterative development as the team continuously improves the iPad app by adding features and making adjustments based on customer interactions and feedback throughout the week.

💡Polarized Glasses

Polarized glasses are sunglasses that contain a special filter which blocks out intense glare, allowing the wearer to see more clearly. In the video, a discovery is made that the polarization of the iPad screen and the glasses interact, causing a black screen when viewed in portrait mode. This insight leads to a design change to a landscape orientation for the app.

💡Feature Development

Feature development is the process of creating and implementing new features or functions within a software application. The video describes how the team at the Innovation Lab develops various features for the iPad app, such as the ability to take and compare pictures of sunglasses, rename pictures, and zoom in for detailed views, all aimed at enhancing the customer's experience.

💡Timeboxing

Timeboxing is a project management technique where tasks are allocated a fixed time period to be completed. In the video, the Innovation Lab's app development is timeboxed to a week, which means they have to prioritize and complete the most important features within that timeframe. This constraint pushes the team to focus on delivering a minimum viable product that addresses the main customer needs.

Highlights

JB Brown introduces the Nordstrom Innovation Lab and their approach to experimenting with ideas.

The lab aims to build an iPad app with real-time customer feedback throughout the development process.

The team works in-store to ensure they receive direct customer feedback, aligning the app's features with customer needs.

The project's goal is to create an app that helps customers select the best sunglasses, leveraging customer input.

The team uses a story map to outline the customer's journey and how the app could enhance their experience.

A paper prototype is created for initial customer testing, allowing for quick iterations based on feedback.

Day two brings the first working prototype, enabling customers to compare sunglasses via photos.

Real-time customer feedback is integrated into the development process, shaping the app's features.

The team addresses a discovery about polarization interference between sunglasses and the iPad's screen.

The app is redesigned to a landscape orientation to prevent polarization issues.

Additional features are added, including renaming photos, zooming, and a new customer button for resetting the app.

The team refines the app based on user feedback, improving the clarity of the photo comparison feature.

The development process is time-boxed to a week, focusing on delivering a minimum viable product.

The app is considered a success, meeting the needs identified by customers and sales staff.

The final app is intuitive and aids in the sunglass selection process, ready for potential implementation or public release.

Transcripts

[Music]

I'm JB Brown The nordstream Innovation

lab manager and this is the

lab we work on onee experiments somebody

will have an idea and we'll find a way

to figure out how to prove if the idea

is going to work and this week The

Innovation lab is going to be building

an iPad app with customer feedback as we

go through the week we wanted to work in

the store to make sure that we were

getting customer feedback as we worked

so that we were never working on

anything that wasn't valued by the

customer and only doing things that are

delivering value so we'll be building a

feature and testing it until we get to

the point where we have something that's

good enough that we can just leave and

leave the iPad app behind and have this

new thing that customers can use this is

the world's first flash build it's a

flash mob where a software team shows up

and Builds an application in a surprise

location this is a nordstom Innovation

lab and we're at the flagship store in

downtown Seattle right now the team is

just setting up their equipment to get

started we're going to build an iPad app

that helps customers pick the best pair

of sunglasses for them we really don't

know what the features are yet we're

going to use customer feedback as we go

along throughout the day and the rest of

the week in order to build the best

thing so the next thing we're going to

do is use your story map so we're going

going to sit here and together outline

all the steps that customer would take

and actually even beforehand how they

buy sunglasses like what are the the

different things that they might do and

how that process might change if we have

this application and we'll actually dig

into what we have to build in order to

support that process so now that we've

done a card mapping we're going to do a

paper prototype and this is something

that we commonly do in The Innovation

lab it's a great way to show what we'd

like to do in a rough prototype that we

can easily throw out change alter based

on feedback from the customers I'll

continue building individual paper

slides and our user experience

specialist atel will bring the prototype

to a customer and say okay I have this

app and this is a paper version I'd like

you to kind of use it like you would

normally use an app and you can press

things interact with them and then

she'll change out the pages based on how

the customer uses it so it's a similar

experience to the iPad only an analog

version so it's day two and we have our

first working prototype of this app and

how it works is I take my first pair of

sunglasses put it on a picture all right

and then I want to compare it to this

other pair I've got right

here put these

on take another picture

I can just hold these up like this and

see which one I like better well tell

and Kim have been talking to people and

doing paper prototypes we've been en

coding building an iPad app we take a

stab at something we look at the paper

prototypes that can put together we

might take one at a time usually we come

to the board and we grab the most

important feature and we start

implementing it the really cool thing

with this flash build is that we have

actual real customers just today we

delivered four or five different

separate features and I deliver it

SWA the iPad with tell she'd go and talk

to a customer and 10 minutes later I had

feedback from real customers about this

thing that I delivered and it changed

how we did the next thing and it's been

really really great watching day-to-day

what they've been doing the team to get

all the feedback from the sales people

the feedback the sales people have

gathered from the customers and it's a

really interesting process to kind of

come in on Tuesday we had no idea what

this would look like there was an idea

that somebody had to say people take a

lot of pictures of themselves with the

sunglasses it'd be cool if we could show

them side by side to help them make the

proc is better and that was the idea

that was it they came in they had

nothing built and they've been building

this literally on the spot throughout

each day and by now we actually have an

app a functioning app that they can go

through it's very intuitive to help look

at themselves and make the sunglass

selection process easier which is pretty

cool to watch so yesterday the sunglass

buyer for Nordstrom came down to check

out our progress and she happened to put

on polarized glasses and then held up

the iPad and portrait View and was

surprised that she couldn't see anything

cuz it was black and we figured out that

the polarization of the iPad running up

and down and the polarization of the

glasses running vertical cancel each

other out you don't see anything but if

you turn the iPad to landscape you see

perfectly fine because the polarization

of the two items line up and it's okay

so it was pretty good find to be in the

store and she just happened to put on

polarized glasses and so today first

thing we're going to do is switch it to

a landscape design and then lock in the

aspect ratio of the iPad so customers

and sales people just naturally pick it

up and use it in landscape and not try

and go to Portrait okay so I'm going to

show you what we've been working on the

last last 5 days we've added quite a few

features over the week you take a

picture multiple pictures of the

customer and then you can pull them up

you tap the first one you can see it um

larger and then tap the second and do a

side by-side comparison of each glass

next to each other we also added a

feature where you can rename the picture

because we heard from salespeople if a

customer is trying on quite a lot of

glasses it's helpful to be able to know

what order they were taken in and also

rename if you want with the brand or

some distinguishing feature about the

glass another feature we added was the

ability to zoom you can zoom in and

really get a good detailed look at the

frames side by side also to see one of

the pictures larger if you want to just

better view of one frame you can flip

the camera view as well face it forward

so the salesperson could take a picture

of it like this or you can flip the

camera like so take a picture of uh

yourself facing forward and then at the

end of it all we have a button called

new customer which just erases all of

the images and allows the salesperson to

start with a new customer we're just

trying to put the final touches on the

app tell talk to a lot of users and they

said that when we went into the compare

view it was unclear where the pictures

were coming from and which picture was

which so the animation here is trying to

solve that problem make a little more

clear what's going on one of the

challenges with software is when are you

done right and I think the answer is

really it depends on how much time you

have at least the most important things

got done so this was time box to a week

and we did a week's worth of work and it

seems like what we have now is something

that makes customers happy and addresses

the main problems and something that we

can track we have metrics on so I think

we're going to call that a day the

application has developed so far

everything's finished everything that

we've asked for and even the little

roadblocks and glitches that we kind of

stumbled across as we use the app during

the week has been solved um I think that

it's going to be really easy to be able

to implement into our sale and I think

that we're going to find a lot of

success with application whether it's

via a selling tool for us or if it goes

public into a downloadable format

whatever happens I think this was

generally quite a

[Music]

success