PROTOLAB

A new business unit of a Point of purchase advertisement company

The challenge Use the innovation model of a company dedicated to producing POPA (point of purchase advertising), to generate new revenues.

The outcome PROTOLAB a new business unit that had 17 customers after 2 years.

The team This project was carried out by a multidisciplinary team of: industrial designers, graphic designers, carpenters, metalworking operators, engineers and administrators. I was the design researcher

The context Solutions Group is a company dedicated to the production of POPA, such as screens, banners, signs, pendants, hangers, countertop and floor stand displays that are placed in retail stores to attract customer’s attention. In 2008, the company purchased several technological equipment to control the entire production chain in-house and provide a faster response to its customers. However, after a few years, an economic crisis caused big brands to reduce their advertising budget, and as a result there was a reduction in the operational capacity of the acquired technologies as well as the creative capacities of its employees. Looking for new opportunities to thrive in the midst of the crisis and face the challenges of the market, in 2014 the owners of the company: an industrial engineer and an industrial designer, decided to create with COLCIENCIAS (Department of Science, Technology and Innovation of Colombia) an innovation model that would allow them to find new sources of income, using all technological, creative and intellectual capacities of Solutions Group.

The process First we discovered all technological, knowledge based and commercial skills of the company, we realized the company was both a production factory and a design studio, it had the best of both worlds. We also discovered that because of the demands of its customers, the company had developed the ability to perform organically and without awareness, the intuitive processes of design thinking (empathize, define, devise, prototype, test). We observed that unlike its competitors, the company had a wide network of contacts in other sectors that are not related to the core of the business, and involved innovation, design, engineering and manufacturing (this was the result of the participation of a company in different projects with the Government, academic sectors, and international organizations).

We analyzed the usage times of the machines and how other industries used the same technologies we had. In that process we found out that a new wave of makerspaces and coworking spaces in Bogotá was booming; we were able to talk with a maker movement activist and helped him organize the first version of the Mini Maker Faire Bogotá, in order to understand the behavior of this new market.

The solution A new business unit called ProtoLab; a space in which new products are conceptualized, designed and developed, including a prototype manufacturing and validation services. After 2 years ProtoLab now has 17 clients from different industries such as 3M, OCENSA, Siegwerk and Coca-Cola

The tools To understand and capture the information we did mystery shoppers, a day in life, interviews, ethnography, white spots matrix, and technological surveillance. To generate ideas we used brainstorming, and to bring ideas to life we prototyped and did a business model canvas.