Case Studies

Google Design

Background

Google Design is a cooperative group within Google comprised of designers, writers, and developers working across teams to conceive and implement tools, resources, events, and publications that “support and further design and technology both inside and outside of Google.”

Problem

In 2016, Google Ventures shared its sprint process with the publication of the book Sprint: How to solve big problems and test new ideas in just five days. Sprinting is a work process that grew out of Agile software development techniques which seeks to solve, build, and test a solution in a finite amount of time (typically under one week).

While Google Ventures won plaudits for its book, sprinting is the go-to tool for many Google teams, including Google Design and each group has put its own stamp on the sprint process. Google Design wanted to share their take on sprinting.

Goal

Kai Haley, Interaction Designer, Sprint Master and lead of Design Relations at Google, wanted to build a website that explained the particulars of the Google Design Sprint process and give people the tools to run their own Design Sprints. We called it the Google Design Sprint Kit.

Working hand in hand with Kai and her team of designers, I researched, wrote, and edited the content for the site, explaining the process and techniques that go into running a successful Design Sprint. I also conducted interviews with Google partners who had teamed up with Sprint Masters to run successful sprints. Those interviews turned into five case studies that cover the challenges, the specifics of the sprint experience, and the results of the individual sprints.

Finally, we developed a playing card deck to be used as leave-behinds with future partners so they could have a Design Sprint resource on hand to run their own internal sprints.

Results

The website launched in early April, 2017 and was immediately promoted to the front page of Muzli, the Chrome extension that highlights inspiring content for designers.

As of this writing the cards are being printed. Other efforts, including a few articles about the Google Dimensions Sprint, are ongoing.

Skinnygirl

Background

Bethenny Frankel hit it big on the show Real Housewives of New York. She then parlayed her reality television fame into the best selling book Naturally Thin: Unleash Your SkinnyGirl and Free Yourself from a Lifetime of Dieting.

The book's success proved the SkinnyGirl concept had legs. She wrote a cookbook an discovered fans were particularly interested in her margarita recipe. Frankel—with the help of David Kanbar—decided to launch a pre-mixed margarita cocktail as the spearhead for the SkinnyGirl product line.

Problem

Frankel and David Kanbar recognized that, while she had a tremendous platform to sell her margaritas, the market was extremely saturated. In order to create a truly successful company, she needed expert help developing a unique brand and savvy marketing strategies.

Frankel turned to the team at Moxie Method because of our past success with Skyy Vodka, Pete’s Wicked Ale, and a host of other alcohol brands.

Goal

Initially, the intent was to simply market her margarita recipe as a ready-to-drink cocktail for off-premise sales, primarily to women ages 21-40. We researched the space, developed a brand platform, logo and bottle design, and built an initial print and outdoor advertising campaign that capitalized on Frankel’s honesty, directness, and quick NY tongue. While we recognized that Frankel was a more than capable spokesperson, we built the brand to stand on its own.

Results

Skinnygirl Margarita was an immediate success, selling a million cases in just nine months. In fact, it was so popular we had to craft messaging apologizing for its lack of availability, as demand exceeded supply. Frankel leveraged the brand to launch multiple SKUs, building a successful family of Skinnygirl products, using the original margarita brand as the springboard.

Eventually, Frankel sold the brand rights alone for more than $8 million to Beam Global. The total deal was reportedly worth somewhere between $25-$39 million, contingent on future sales thresholds.

Powermat

Background

Founded in 2006, Powermat Technologies Ltd. is a developer of wireless power solutions for consumers, OEM, and public spaces. The company licenses IP and sells charging spots to public venues as well as the software to support their maintenance, management, and consumer interaction.

Retail products are sold globally under the brand Duracell Powermat. The company's inductive charging technology has been adopted by the Power Matters Alliance (PMA) and is the platform adopted by Duracell, General Motors, Starbucks, AT&T, and others.

Problem

Fundamentally, Powermat is a service (like wifi) so it needed a large consumer partner to make inroads with its target. The company built a relationship with Starbucks and began planning a nationwide roll out of its charging spot technology.

Powermat turned to Moxie to act as its primary liaison with Starbucks corporate and to develop the brand’s look, feel, and voice in such a way that it expressed its own identity while still conforming to the strict rules of the Starbucks brand.

Additionally, we were tasked with managing the needs of Duracell Powermat (P&G) and with keeping all partners engaged, happy, and willing to move forward.

Goal

To develop a service brand that inspired adoption by smartphone users nationwide and worked seamlessly with multiple international B2C brands.

I worked in tandem with designers to develop the Powermat identity and brand language, website, outdoor, radio and television advertising, as well as a social media campaign to help educate, engage, and inspire a broad audience.

We also developed the in-store messaging for “Powermat at Starbucks” with the intent of inspiring adoption by Starbucks customers.

Results

First, we launched a whisper campaign including an animated short that built excitement and curiosity during the installation process and pre-launch while measuring customer awareness and calls to action. Results showed 80% of customers noticed wireless charging in the store, 73% understood the value proposition, and 85% expressed intent to use the service.

A splash customer survey found the pre-launch campaign showed very positive results with over 88% likely to use service and 83% likely to recommend. 73% indicated Powermat improved their perspective of Starbucks.

Analysis of social media showed 95% positive or neutral posts indicative of interest in the coming service.

TOA Technologies

Background

Founded by Yuval Brisker, TOA provides SaaS-based field service management software and customer appointment scheduling solutions and services to enterprises worldwide.

Headquartered in Beachwood, Ohio, the company developed a web-based applications solution that provides advanced tools for companies with small, medium, and large mobile workforces to automate and optimize planning, scheduling, appointment booking, as well as routing and job allocation and real-time management of any type of field service event. The service enables enterprises to shrink wait time windows from the standard four hours (“We’ll be there between 8AM and 12PM”) to under one hour.

Problem

Because of its location in a suburb of Cleveland, TOA was an outsider in the Silicon Valley/NYC start-up universe. And, because the nature of its target audience was mobile workforces (traditional services like FedEx and local cable companies) it was having a hard time being recognized as an truly innovative tech company.

We were hired to put TOA on the map and garner acquisition interest from top tech companies in Silicon Valley.

Goal

As CEO, Brisker devoted his in-house hiring almost exclusively to product development and sales. He called on Moxie to be his full service marketing department, in part because of our deep connections and understanding of Silicon Valley. We were tasked with building brand awareness and attracting enterprise companies dependent on a mobile workforce.

We developed the voice, look and feel, and delivered on all brand communications from sell sheets to web to trade shows with the intent of getting the attention and respect of Silicon Valley and Wall Street.

Results

We worked to build and nurture the TOA brand for over seven years. In 2012 & 2013, Gartner recognized TOA Technologies as a Leader in the Magic Quadrant for Field Service Management for the first time. In July 2013, we made a huge impression at Dreamforce (Salesforce’s annual conference) and TOA was named one of America's Most Promising Companies by Forbes Magazine.

On July 31, 2014, Oracle Corporation announced that it was buying TOA Technologies. The transaction closed in mid-September, 2014.

Grok & Numenta

Background

Jeff Hawkins and Donna Dubinsky launched Numenta eleven years ago, intent on creating software modeled after the way the human brain processes information. Hawkins, the creator of the original Palm Pilot, is a brain expert and co-author of the 2004 book On Intelligence.

Numenta built its architecture using Hawkins’ theory of Hierarchical Temporal Memory (HTM), which posits that the brain has layers of memory that store data in time sequences. This is why, for instance, it’s easier to remember a song word for word than a conversation. HTM became the foundation for Numenta’s code, what Numenta called the Cortical Learning Algorithm (CLA).

Problem

After years of development, Numenta had a market ready CLA. What it didn’t have, necessarily, was a product. With the growing usage of big data, Numenta decided to concentrate on a pattern recognition product which it dubbed Grok.

What Grok needed was to make complex concepts like temporal memory and cortical learning digestible, comprehensible, and attractive to the business community. It needed its abstruse science to be consumable.

Goal

Numenta had already settled on a market niche and a name. The first application of their product would be to perform pattern recognition for companies dealing with streams of big data and the product would be called Grok (meaning “intuitive understanding”) from Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land.

Our job was to develop a cohesive brand for the product that would be instantly accessible without minimizing the scientific complexity of its origin.

Results

We performed a competitor audit, developed a creative strategy, built a comprehensive brand platform, designed a logo and website, and created an introduction video.

Numenta has continued releasing new product applications based on its core CLA technology and has expanded into stocks, IT analytics, rogue behavior detection, and geospatial tracking.