Pain points:
Losing carabiners
Carrying something heavy or bulky
Danger of downclimbing without being secured to an anchor
Lack of redundancy with descending on a single carabiner
Behaviors:
Climbers don't want to carry more than they should - extra weight or bulky items
Climbers go for convenience - if the product is simple and easy to use
Most climbers don't like spending too much money - they would rather use cheap gear or avoid losing any gear at all if it means spending more money
Climbers are more likely to challenge themselves if they have a way to retrieve gear
Fake Door - Our team plans on creating a survey to distribute to climbing Reddit sites, the Alpine Club Discord forum, and Facebook climbing pages to try and probe what kind of interest our product would have. The survey would include questions regarding general interest in a product, if the user would use and carry the product with them, and asking how much a user would consider paying for such a product.
Key question being asked - Do users want the product? How much would users be willing to pay for the product?
Deadline: We have already created the survey and distributed it on some channels. We have received a number of responses, with most participants stating they would purchase the device at a price range of $20-$70. We will continue to seek more responses moving forward.
YouTube - We posted a segment of our pretotyping video with a description and key questions. We will review the comments to gauge interest and viability.
Key question being asked - Would climbers purchase and use a device to retrieve carabiners?
Deadline: We have posted the video and received several useful comments. The responses have been mixed, with some people saying that they would not use a device and others saying that they would. Some of the responses include:
"I would probably purchase such a device (if it worked well) just because it might cause me to climb more limit stuff, and that would be worth whatever the device cost. It would also mean that I'd be able to bail on routes for whatever reason, eg, that I'm not feeling it, that some other route became available, or that I suddenly have to leave, etc, which I guess is also a pro / would lead to slightly more or better climbing."
Useful "if you intend to rappel off a route without existing rap stations (or where none of the rap stations has any biners), and don't want to leave any biners."
"You would need to bail pretty often to make such a device a worthy purchase."
Pinocchio - With cardboard and a spool of cord, we would like to ask test users if they would carry a product similar to the cardboard mockup.
Key question being asked - Would users carry this product with them to climbs?
Deadline: We will complete this pretotype by Monday 11/11 and test with users by Wednesday 11/13.
Infiltrator - Using the traffic and interest generated by previous bail climbing products, we would like to use the interest and information found from those products.
Key question being asked - Why were previous products unsuccessful?
Deadline: We will complete this pretotype by Monday 11/11.
A carabiner that increases redundancy and can be retrieved
Question: "Will the increased redundancy make users feel safer when descending on a carabiner?"
MVP features
Two points of failure
Representation of strength rating
A gate attachment that utilizes a snap-fit mechanism to increase usability
Question: "Does a plastic part that utilizes a snap fit work effectively and appeal to users?"
MVP key features
3D printed iterations of a snap fit mechanism
Snap fit calculations demonstrating the required dimensions
Iterations of lever rms that attach to the gate
Question: "Which lever arm design is most effective for opening the gate?"
MVP key features
3D printed iterations of the different lever arm designs.
Our data quality has been fairly reliable. We have spoken with primarily sport climbers during the second iteration of user interviews, so we are confident that they represent they views of our target users. We have heard the same need come up several times without promp[ting, so we are confident that it is a widespread need. That being said, our sample size is relatively small all considered. Interviewing even more users would give us increased confidence that the need is relevant.
Feedback from Team 4
First, your website is looks really good. For the Fake door, can you get a user to make it to a fake purchasing page (of course do not take their money or collect CC numbers or anything) to make it clearer that they are spending money. People will say they will pay for stuff but when they have to swipe their card they might reconsider. I love the boulder spirt concept where people will bring down others carabiners, you could also look into if people will bring them down for free, as this will significantly simplify implementation. Overall, you have really good ideas for how to move forward. Sorry for not having more to add.
Feedback from Team 3
Team 6:
Pain points:
Are your users climbers or people who go outdoors for the most part. If they are climbers, are these points exclusive to sport climbing. Very good points on behaviors, many climbers I know are natural problem solvers, and believe they can come up with a solution to the problem without paying for something.
Pretotypes:
Fake door is a perfect pretotype for the question you wish to answer.
You live in Boulder, there are plenty of climbing gyms with incredibly experienced climbers. Many will be willing to do interviews and give their opinions on whether they would pay for your product as well. It seems your youtube pretotype is doing well, I would be worried about how you can make your product work for gear attached to a bolt very high off the ground. Having the risk of falling from further up and safety could influence whether or not your users are willing to invest.
Concepts are interesting, make sure you address the high risk cases.