PHASE 1:
Customer & Market Research
Embedded Files
CUSTOMERS & BENEFITS
MEET KRYSTAL, A COMMON COMMUTER.
"It's a pain to bring around when I'm traveling from place to place, and my helmet just doesn't really fit how I need it."
Krystal is a 25 year old and is considered an urban young professional. When she's not in her graduate school classes, she's always on the go, traversing across campus to get to her part time job and commuting across the city to visit her partner who lives about 5 miles away.
To get from one place to the next, she rides her bike almost every day. And while safety is her biggest concern, she's often without a helmet.
BUT ... KRYSTAL ISN'T ALONE, MANY COMMON COMMUTERS Don'T WEAR A HELMET.
While some common commuters simply forget to sometimes bring their helmet with them, a majority have pointed to the following pain points with as reasons why wearing a helmet becomes a lesser, forgettable priority.
UNCOMFORTABLE
Helmets aren't comfortable to wear and aren't always easy to put on
BULKY
Helmets are difficult to bring around on the go, and they don't fit in bags or backpacks
INCONVENIENT
Helmets put constraints on attire and packing and aren't accessible for e-bike riders
MAINTENANCE
From keeping the helmet clean and dry to ensuring it still holds durable protection is a nuisance
Krystal feels many of these pain points during her daily commute. While she feels hesitant and concerned while riding her bike throughout the day, she also feels that the discomfort and inconvenience of carry a helmet is sometimes too much of a cost. It makes head safety an unfortunate afterthought.
SO...HOW DO WE ADDRESS THESE PAIN POINTS?
INTRODUCING BENEFITS TO OUR PROBLEM SPACE
Based on the pain points we identified, we honed in on the following benefits we wanted to ensure our solution focused on:
COMFORT
Breathable, pleasant for everyday wear, and adaptable fit
Because bike riders currently feel discomfort wearing a helmet at least x2 day for 15-30 minutes at a time.
PORTABLE
Compact, light weight, easy to pack, and not a hassle to carry
So common commuters can get from place to place without having to worry about carrying a bulky helmet.
CONVENIENT
Easily accessible, securable to either a bike or belonging
Preventing people from forgetting their helmet at home or allowing it to be available on public e-bikes.
MAINTAInABLE
Easy to clean, durable, easy to install and reinforces safety
So that people are incentivized to use it and it doesn't get in the way of their busy routines.
KEY FACTORS WE ARE CONSIDERING
Beyond these benefits, we also recognize a number of key factors we need to consider as we begin conceptualizing and designing our solutions.
User Experience
USERS: Students who have to travel from one place to another daily, people who commute with their bike day to day, city share bicycle and scooter users, and general bicycle and scooter users.
As the concept of green travel becomes more popular, micro-mobility is adopted highly across global. Especially in urban areas, the use of shared bikes and scooters is increasing every year. While reducing traffic emissions, new problems have arisen, the safety of riding the micro-mobility. In the U.S. nearly 1,000 people died from injuries caused by bicycle rashes and 550,000 persons are treated in emergency departments for injuries related to bicycle riding. Head injuries account for 62% of bicycle-related deaths, 33% of bicycle-related emergency department visits, and for 67% of bicycle-related hospital admissions (Injury-control recommendations: Bicycle Helmets). Although the rate of injuries caused by micro-mobility is increasing every year, the awareness of its safety is not. According to statistics, only 18 percent of people wear helmets when riding a bike, and wearing a helmet can reduce serious head injury by nearly 70% (2016). Solving the problem of difficult-to-use protective gear for micro-mobility users becomes urgent. Solving the problem of difficult-to-use protective gear for micro-mobility users becomes urgent.
From our survey results, it appears that most people are conscious of the safety of micro-mobility travel, but are willing to take the risk of using micro-mobility because of the difficulty of carrying and design, as well as aesthetic flaws of protective gear.
Business
We will set up a company to systematically manage our products, including marketing, production, sales and distributors sales, after-sales, etc. In the initial stage of sales, the purchasers of our products can be users. In the long run, combined with the market prospect, I think our products can become a popular trend. At that time, the buyer of our products can be any kind of people.
Social
Our helmets not only reduce the injury of non-users family members, but at the same time, our helmets will give priority to the use of sustainable materials or renewable materials. To ensure that when manufacturing helmets, the least amount of environmental energy can be used, and after the helmet is scrapped, the helmet can be disposed of in the least polluted environment.
Ecosystem/ Environment
The whole process of our products will be centered on environmental protection. The use of bicycles and electric scooters can reduce vehicle emissions and achieve zero emissions. Addressing the security concerns of people using micro-mobility is our main goal. Our helmets can address the safety concerns of people using micro-mobility and make people feel confident about micro-mobility.
Regulatory
United State: CPSC
Australia/Standards New Zealand: AS/NZS 2512.1:1996
United Kingdom: BS 6863:1987
Canada: CSA-D113. 2
European: EN1078& CEN/TC 158/ WG 4 N YY
Swedish: KOVFS 1985:6
Japanese: JIS T 8134-1982
Professional
We have a total of four members from the group with backgrounds in business, mechanical engineering, architecture, and communications; we came together for this project. We want to use the design knowledge we have learned to translate our theories into a physical product that will serve society without reservation.
Personal Value
Our value is to enable more people to choose the way they want to travel freely and safely.
Global
In the long run, we want to expand the market so that our products can have an impact on the global market and play a role in healthy competition, in order to stimulate more similar products to emerge and improve the awkward experience of using micro-mobility current protective gear with the ultimate goal of making micro-mobility available to more people safely.
Public Health and Welfare
Every $10 bike helmet saves this country $30 in direct health costs, and an additional $365 in societal costs. In fact, if 85 percent of all child bicyclists wore helmets every time they rode a bicycle for a year, the lifetime medical cost savings would total $109 to $142 million(Bicycle Helmet Key Facts).
Cultural
In developed countries, such as Europe and the US, micro-mobility is an option, but in African countries and other developing counties, micro-mobility is a form of transportation that most people can barely afford. In many developing countries, helmets are not as well defined, and most of them have one helmet for multiple uses. Our helmets will be designed to be expandable so that they can be used in a variety of cultures.
MARKET RESEARCH
In our market research, there were three primary questions we wanted to answer, and based on those questions applied different methods for qualifying and quantifying the problem we wanted to address:
01. Who is our customer?
Here we used observational research and short-form guerilla interviews to explore how commuters live their lives and what matters to them.
02. WHAT ARE PAIN POINTS & WHY?
Here we used surveys and long-form interviews to explore how what pain points and benefits mattered most to everyday bike riders.
03. HOW IS IT BEING SOLVED?
Here we conducted desk research and competitor benchmarking to understand why existing solutions do not solve commuter needs.
01. Who is our customer: OBSERVATIONS & INTERVIEWS
In addition to observing petty nuisances around campus, we conducted 10 interviews with everyday commuters on the go and learned that many are often forgetting simple necessities like staying hydrated, bringing an umbrella, or wearing a helmet.
We noticed that in all of our conversations, people really cared about balancing safety and convenience during their commute, whether that meant staying upright on a crowded bus or avoiding an unexpected crash while zooming around on an e-scooter, people we're still obsessed with getting to their next destination with as little hassle as possible.
But across these responses, we found that some of the frequently mentioned pain points around convenience and safety came from individuals who were commuting via bike. This consequently became our focus area.
02. WhAT ARE PAIN POINTS & WHY: SURVEY & INTERVIEWS
Focusing in on everyday bike riders, we conducted 5 longer-form interviews and deployed a survey with 54 responses. Assessing both the qualitative and quantitative date from these methods allowed us to not only validate the importance of safety and convenience for these users, but also extended our understanding of why those pain points exist and what requirements would be most beneficial.
EXAMPLE EXCERPTS FROM OUR INTERVIEWS
EXHIBIT A
SURVEY RESULTS
Nearly 70% of common commuters rated that safety was the most important consideration for them when riding a bike. Many common commuters recognize that head trauma from a biking accident can be extremely severe from both a health and medical cost perspective, and hope to avoid every encountering such experiences. Second to safety is comfort while riding and ease of use, which validates our understanding of our users' preference for convenience and hassle-free travel during their commutes.
But despite a majority of bike riders ranking safety as their biggest priority, only about 31% of common commuters always wear a helmet when riding their bike. for them when riding a bike (Exhibit B). In our open text responses questioning why riders did not wear a bike, about 38% discussed issues of discomfort, 30% reported often forgetting it, and 27% discussed challenges carrying a helmet with them while on the go. These reinforced which pain points we should target in order to improve helmet adoption and adherence.
EXHIBIT B
EXHIBIT C
We further probed into how satisfied common commuters were with their existing helmets across different dimensions. While many acknowledge that their helmet felt safe and durable, Comfort (5.42 / 10) and Compact/Easy to Store or Carry (6.43 / 10) were the lowest scoring dimensions on average across a total of seven dimensional categories (Exhibit C).
These results further validated the need that existing helmets do not address these pain points for users and that there is opportunity to solve this problem.
Lastly, we wanted to understand if there were particular competitors or alternative solutions that were doing a good job, and we tested this by asking respondents to share how familiar they were with some of the leading helmet brands focused on comfort and portability. To our surprise, over 60% of consumers for every category were unfamiliar with the brand. This reinforced our evaluation of the fragmented market, understanding that no major player has too much power over influencing our customer's purchasing decisions.
EXHIBIT D
03. HOW IS IT BEING SOLVED: DESK RESEARCH & COMPETITOR BENCHMARKING
From conducting a competitor benchmarking exercise and from reading market reports, we realized that many competitors and alternative solutions were not currently addressing the key pain points around comfort, portability, and convenience for everyday commuters. More detail on these competitors and our summary findings can be found in the Competition Analysis section.
MARKET RESEARCH SUMMARY
Starting from a larger problem of addressing petty nuisances of daily commuters, we were able to narrow down on everyday bike riders and the specific pain points they experience around comfort, portability, and convenience. Overall, from talking to potential users to surveying them on their key needs, we learned that while safety is a huge concern for bike riders, this often becomes an afterthought or a deprioritized consideration when commuting everyday. This is because in everday circumstances, common commuters are trying to eliminate any possible hassle that can deter them during their day, and this includes dealing with the discomfort and bulkiness of existing helmets. This research therefore underscores the idea that if a solution were to improve the comfort and portability of helmets, more commuters would adhere to wearing a helmet and consequently feel safe.
PRODUCT DEFINITION
In the process of defining the product, the 56 respondents were asked about their experiences of riding a bike on a regular basis. Based on responses, we found 16 stakeholder requirements and included our own business requirements. As per these requirements, we have given customer importance weights and found that the relative weight for the same. We have captured these stakeholder requirements in detail below.
After doing a technical analysis and reading headgear safety standards we found that there are 10 functional specifications, namely size, weight, shock absorption, thermal conductivity, lifetime aesthetic look, strength, peripheral vision, material and projections. We have captured these functional specifications in detail below.
To prioritize our target characteristics, we created a quality function deployment matrix (QFD). For every stakeholder requirement across every functional specification we have given a weight with scale ranging from 1,3 and 9 (1 shows weak relation and 9 implies strong relation and 3 lies in between). An empty cell in the matrix implies that there is no relationship between the customer need and technical requirements.
We benchmarked and gave weights to stakeholder requirements for competitors such as Fend, Closca and Bern.
At the end we have given an importance weighting and relative weighting for our product. We also compared technical specifications for competitors and have given them weights accordingly to arrive at our target requirements.
OUR TARGET REQUIREMENTS
Comfort: Lightweight, Ergonomic, Airflow **
Portable: Size, Weight, Material **
Easy to Maintain: Materials, Lifetime
Reinforces Safety: Durability, Strength, Shock Absorption, Secure
**Priority Against Competitors / Alternatives
STANDARDS WE MUST MEET
Our solution must allow existing helmets to meet Helmet Standard Performance Tests, which include:
Impact Attenuation Test
Penetration Test
Retention System Standards
Configuration Standards
FUNCTIONAL TRADEOFFS TO CONSIDER
Weight ↔ Strength
Comfort ↔ Durability
Shock Absorption ↔ Thermal Conductivity
VIEW STAKEHOLDER REQUIREMENTS DETAILS
Easily Portable - It should be hassle free to carry it in a bag or should have a provision for it to attach it to the bike. That way it is not cumbersome to take it around.
Durable - The structure should be strong enough to bear accidental impacts and protect the user.
Maintainable - Material should be such that it can be easily cleaned without compromising on hygiene.
Aerodynamic - Thoughtfully designed shape should be sleek and slender to not cause obstruction while riding.
Airflow - It should allow airflow streamline through it to avoid perspiration.
Ergonomic Design - Form should allow the user to easily use it - putting it on and taking it off.
Securable on Head or Helmet - The fit should be firm at the same time it should be comfortable.
Fits in an Average Size Bag - The form should be such that it fit in a medium size backpack easily.
Biodegradable - The materials used in it should be renewable and should have minimum to no carbon footprint.
Lightweight - The weight should be optimum, the user should not feel bogged down by its weight.
Price Point - Its price in the market should be competitive to encourage users to buy.
Short Setup Time - Its fastening should be quick and easy without much hassle.
Available in Sizes - The product should come in sizes to accommodate people with different needs.
Safety - With all the above mentioned requirements, there should be no compromise on safety.
Aesthetically Appealing - Its design and form should fascinate users to buy and use it.
Price - To meet business requirements, the solution must be priced high enough to cover the cost of materials but low enough that it is adoptable and accessible to everday common commuters. We will measure this through willingness to pay via a conjoint analysis.
VIEW FUNCTIONAL SPECIFICATIONS DETAILS
Size - The technical specification comes from ANSI Z90.4 test standard that describes the appropriate size for an average size human.
Weight - Referred to the ANSI standard to derive the specifications. The design should meet these requirements. It correlates strongly with material
Shock Absorption - The product should withstand Impact testing criteria in order to be safe to use and comes under requirements.
Thermal Conductivity - Heat dissipation is another important functional requirement of a headgear as it allows the user to use it for a longer time with ease.
Lifetime - The product should withstand a crash and should be durable to save the customer at the time of accident.
Aesthetic Look - The product should be appealing and attractive to the customer to have a greater market share.
Strength - The strength requirement comes from the impact attenuation test analysis, penetration test and retention system as per the standards. It correlates strongly with material, lifetime and shock absorption.
Peripheral Vision - This metric too comes from ANSI Z90 standard that states importance to visibility of rider at bike.
Material - It is an important feature that correlates strongly with weight, thermal conductivity, Lifetime, strength.
Projections - These are the constructional requirements that are driven from ANSI standards.
COMPETITION ANALYSIS
In our analysis, were determined that the market is highly fragmented. With over 29 helmet brands alone and a few alternative accessories that bring comfort and portability to helmets, many of solutions are ones that consumers don’t fully recognize or are at least dissatisfied with. Below is a summary of our key findings.
KEY COMPETITIVE FINDINGS
Major players focused mainly on sports and recreational helmets, not everyday comfort
More portable helmets have a nascent presence in the market
Helmets that are portable mostly fold into 50% their size, but are still bulky and far from comfortable
Other portable helmets have not achieve safety standards
KEY RISKS & CONSIDERATIONS
Major players have a large market share, partnerships with other sports and biking related vendors, and massive manufacturer capabilities to quickly develop or reverse engineer better helmets that exist in the market
Despite there being a number of players emerging in the comfort space, many have very little market share and hold very little presence and brand recognition with consumers. This potentially demonstrates that comfort isn't always the first consideration on users minds when they are making their first helmet purchase - but will recognize the need for comfort retroactively.
Because the market is highly saturated, building a helmet-based solution may not be the best approach. Therefore, there may be more opportunity to develop a solution that becomes an accessory to bike helmets, and therefore conducive to partnering with other major players.
POSITIONING MAP
Our positioning map focuses on comfort and portability, where comfort encompasses ease of wearing, air flow, and general fit, while portability represents adaptability compatibility functions. Using customer reviews, product descriptions, and revenue estimates for each competitor, we were able to generate this positioning map, which reveals a large concentration of players in the low portability space.
While there may be a reason for this, namely building a lightweight, compactible helmet presents engineering tradeoffs with safety, there are a couple brands in the high portability space that highlight the fact that there are several proof of concepts in the market that have been able to achieve both portability and durability. Despite this however, many still fair to meet customers' comfort needs.
This presents a unique opportunity for our solution, Zephyr, to develop a solution that brings more comfort and portability to existing protective headgear for bikers. Therefore comfort and portability will be our two driving factors defining our product requirements.
MARKET VALUE PROPOSITION
MARKET SIZE AND OPPORTUNITY
In 2021, the bike helmet market size was valued at $980.85 million, with an expected CAGR of 5.67% within the next five years as more urban centers are beginning to invest in bike sharing and micro-mobility programs.
As of currently, about 47 million people in the US ride a bike, but only about 872,000 people ride a bike to work and/or school everyday.
Bicycle-related head injuries are the most severe and can endure throughout a person’s lifetime. For instance, It is estimated that for every $10 bike helmet worn, $30 can be saved in direct health costs related to injury in the US.
Together this market size represents a sizable opportunity for Zephyr to introduce a new solution, especially knowing that many market forecasts expect an increase in the number of people who will begin choosing to ride a bike as their primary mode of transportation.
TARGET CUSTOMER SEGMENT
Our customer segment consists of common commuters, urban working professionals and students between the ages of 18-35 that have to get from one place to another on a day to day basis, whether that is work or school. We are specifically targeting commuters who take many of their trips on a bike, that being a bike they own or one provided for public use through a bike sharing program. These bike riders specifically are people that are constantly on the go, taking at least two 10-30 minute trips on a bike in any given week on average, and therefore must wear their bike helmet often enough that it's something they carry with them from place to place. But we know that for a helmet to be worn almost every day that takes such an integral role in our commute and transient lives, it has to be comfortable and convenient to travel with, and this is where we hope to position ourselves–the comfortable and compact helmet fit for everyday use.
Design Problems and Product Considerations
Existing helmets are sturdy and durable, but many are poorly designed to fit the needs of everyday users to rely on helmets on the go, whether that’s traveling from home or via a public bike. Here is a list of existing problems we know exist. While this list is not exhaustive, we hope to anchor on improving and/or addressing a few of these factors to make bike commuting more effortless:
Helmets are often bulky and heavy, difficult to store in a backpack or handbag, but also a hassle to carry around
Helmets have to be brought with the user and cannot be left with the bike, otherwise it will be at risk of being stolen
Helmets can be uncomfortable because finding the right fit can be hard
Helmets that are lightweight and compact are still difficult to travel with and do not give people a sense of perceived safety and thus are not popular in the market
Helmets have straps that can be confining and uncomfortable for people to put on or keep on for longer periods of time
Helmets trap heat and sweat around a person's head, and existing airflow features are insufficient for improving this
Many users do not know how to properly place a helmet on their head or maintain the health of their helmet
Many bike helmets do not act as functional aids for riders to indicate their presence to other people on the road
Existing bike helmets are not designed with style in mind, and most are geared towards men
VALUE PROPOSITION
Our solution brings comfort, portability, and convenience to riders on the go, lifting the weight off their shoulders through a lightweight and compact design that makes traveling place to place hassle free while keeping them safe everyday.
VIEW REFERENCES & Citations
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