PROJECT OVERVIEW

At Media Junction, I worked with stakeholders from an established furniture manufacturing brand that were developing and selling a new standing desk product. While their original product line served a B2B audience, this new line targeted consumers directly through an eCommerce channel. The first step in creating the strategy for the site was development of a comprehensive buyer profile.

Some details of this project are excluded due to an NDA.

THE APPROACH

Interviews

The persona work started with a round of interviews. Interviewees included consumers who had purchased desks for themselves, business owners who had purchased multiple desks for their teams, and facilities staff who were tasked with outfitting entire office floors with ergonomic furniture.

For the initial round, I spoke with three client-provided customer contacts. In the second round, I opened up the interview process to self-identified volunteers from LinkedIn who had no prior experience with the brand.

Buyer Personas

Based on our discovery work during the research phase, we developed three target personas for the standing desk product.

GOALS

• Furnish new space after a large buildout or updating an existing space
• Design an attractive workspace
• Support a culture of health and wellness in their business

CHALLENGES

• Staying on budget for building project
• Needs a solution that works with existing cubicles
• Managing logistics of scaling furniture assembly

STORY

• Company/client is building out a large new corporate space. They are replacing the office furniture and want to move to standing desks for the entire company (perhaps by recommendation of HR that it could help attract talent or by Risk Management to reduce injuries and improve employee health)
• Tasked with sourcing the supplies and furnishing for the new space before bringing to C-level team for approval
• Might not be able to justify the cost of standing desks for everyone, but wants to offer them to certain competitive departments (sales, engineering, design, etc.), perhaps as an option available through an employee self-service portal
• Wants to try out a sample desk before committing to a large purchase

GOALS

• Support a culture of health and wellness in their business
• Attract new employees; distinguish their company in a competitive job market
• Design an attractive workspace

CHALLENGES

• Staying on budget
• Space constraints
• Staffing high-demand positions

STORY

• Owns a small business in a high-tech field (boutique agency, software startup, etc.)
• Office has an open design concept; wants flexibility in how workstations are configured
• Needs a solution that will scale; wants to offer this benefit to all employees as her business grows but it needs to be affordable
• Would love to try a desk out before purchasing it; might order one for herself first before committing to more for her employees
• Sees standing desks as an attractive employee benefit, one that might entice job applicants in her competitive industry
• Asks her Office Manager to do the legwork on researching options before making a decision

GOALS

• Improve fitness (burn more calories, rack up more steps, or increase energy)
• Alleviate pain from a back injury
• Add variety to daily work routine

CHALLENGES

• Limited budget
• Sick of sitting at their desk all day
• Convincing their employer to reimburse them for a new desk
  

STORY

• Works in an industry where he spends most of the day at a computer (software/tech, design, sales, etc.)
• Highly tech-savvy. He conducts most of his product research online, most often through a Google search
• Needs some variety in his work day. Likes the idea of having flexibility and movement built into his workstation
• Especially appreciates consumer reviews, both written and video
• Wants a more ergonomic home office setup (for personal or work use) or a replacement workstation for his office
  
• Wants to demonstrate the health and productivity benefits of a standing desk to his boss to justify reimbursement
• Used a standing desk in a previous job and just can’t imagine switching back to sitting all day
• Spends a decent amount of personal time at a computer (PC gaming, editing photos/video, etc.)

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The lessons gleaned in our user reasearch process and persona development informed the rest of the project deliverables for the manufacturer’s new eCommerce site, including website architecture, wireframes, and interface design.