{"id":7717,"date":"2017-03-23T15:54:10","date_gmt":"2017-03-23T15:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marvel7077.wpengine.com\/?p=7717"},"modified":"2020-09-01T09:07:30","modified_gmt":"2020-09-01T08:07:30","slug":"sprint-story-smart-home-sprint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marvelapp.com\/blog\/sprint-story-smart-home-sprint\/","title":{"rendered":"Sprint story: Smart home sprint"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"1-hetg8jxirmvttk29nvzryq\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is a story about a GV style design sprint<\/a>. If you\u2019ve never heard of this, you can learn more <\/em>here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Europe\u2019s leading smart thermostat platform Toon\u00ae just opened up its API on toonapi.com<\/a>. Toon is now accessible to developers, designers, startups, corporates and universities to re-imagine smart home and energy solutions. With this community, Toon wants to create smart home apps, serving its 250.000 (and counting) households of Eneco\u2019s Toon.<\/p>\n

<\/div>
<\/svg><\/div>

\"In one sprint we created a TV prototype which we tested live at a technology conference\"<\/p><\/span><\/blockquote>\n

So a thermostat API; do developers actually care to use this? Eneco asked us to help them reach the tech community; to make developers excited to work with their API. Challenge accepted. In one sprint we created a TV prototype we tested live at a technology conference\u2014 the best critical crowd you could think of.<\/p>\n

The challenge<\/h1>\n

In the ambition to create a vibrant developers community, Toon wants to inspire their growing community with some cool demo apps. As they weren\u2019t closely connected to the tech-community, they came to us and we decided <\/em>to run a Sprint.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Goals of our Smart Home Sprint<\/h3>\n

Our goal was to deliver a proof of concept that would show the value of the Toon API; creating tomorrow\u2019s smart homes. We decided to do this by showcasing the API possibilities through a killer demo app that inspires developers to start creating apps themselves. We would use all the possibilities the smart thermostat had to offer; its heating plan, temperature control, energy data and smart devices such as Philips Hue lights, a smart plug and smoke sensor.<\/p>\n

Target group for demo app<\/h3>\n

When starting this sprint, we knew the TNW Conference Europe 2016<\/a> was coming up, and Eneco planned to set up a stand. TNW Conference attracts a tech savvy and entrepreneurial crowd, that would not be shy to express their opinion. To gather some traction, we prototyped on a TV and decided to conduct some live customer testing at the conference (more on this later). Our primary target group were developers, startups and corporate innovation managers\u2014 highly educated and innovative. As a secondary group we envisioned the actually end-user of the smart home apps, the smart home consumers\u2014 medior\/highly educated, 18\u201349 yrs, 60% male.<\/p>\n

<\/div>
<\/svg><\/div>

\"Our goal was to teach them how to conduct sprints themselves in the future.\"<\/p><\/span><\/blockquote>\n

Sprint team<\/h3>\n

For our sprint we at Go Weekly teamed up with the Eneco team. Our team consisted of Sieuwert van Otterloo, IT expert (Eneco), Juriaan Seveke, Business Development (Eneco), Bianca Anastacia, Proposition Manager (Eneco), Maarten van den Heuvel<\/a>, Head of Arts & Crafts (Go Weekly), and myself, Tim Gouw<\/a>, Head of Tales & Stories (Go Weekly). By having Eneco closely involved, we had access to the right teams and were able to move fast. Also, our goal was to teach them how to conduct sprints themselves in the future.<\/p>\n

Building the prototype<\/h1>\n

\"1-kkpqjpwpxlognsh1-0ojrq\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As always, we used Sketch for the screens and artwork in combination with our favourite prototype app Marvel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The winning concept includes a highly visual app designed for Apple\u2019s tvOS. It functions as a down-to-earth interface for your home, where the temperature is just one of the variables in the setup for the perfect room experience.<\/p>\n

More about the concept can be read <\/em>here.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Customer testing<\/h3>\n

As mentioned, to gather user feedback we displayed the prototypes at the Eneco stand on TNW Conference Europe 2016<\/a> in Amsterdam. Real smartphones were used to allow people to directly interact with the apps. The TNW Conference attracts roughly 20,000 visitors, what gave us a fairly decent test crowd.<\/p>\n