NoiseAware created the noise monitoring category for the short-term rental industry, and now protects over 10,000 rental properties from parties and noise complaints.
NoiseAware is a privacy-safe IoT solution including Indoor and Outdoor noise sensors, a mobile application for setup and management, and a web application designed for the needs of enterprise accounts.
|| Background
I first met NoiseAware’s team at a startup event in late 2016 while I was representing my agency, Yell Hello. The then small startup was equally divided into business and engineering roles, they had successfully raised seed funding, and had brought the first functional noise-monitoring solution to the short-term rental (STR) market. This early iteration of the product was not without it’s short-comings, consisting of a single hardware SKU dependent on high-cost off-the-shelf plastics and a generally unreliable and unscalable supply chain, accompanied by a web application that presented many UX challenges and was unsuitable for sale beyond early adopters. As they say, hardware is hard. Though this product accomplished the primary goal of validating both the need and business model, without a dedicated product management or design role the company was stuck infighting over product priorities. My first engagement was to facilitate a customer persona workshop for the entire company, during which we began to bridge gaps between sales/marketing and engineering and produced the company’s first set of four key user personas that would form the foundation of their future product strategy. At the time and with my background in industrial design, I was frustrated with the lack of companies in Yell Hello’s roster of clients building physical products, and so when I was approached about a full-time position I eagerly accepted and joined as NoiseAware’s 8th employee, taking on full responsibility for both product management and product design.
NoiseAware’s product in 2017
Excerpts of the original NoiseAware customer personas from 2017
|| Product Operations
My first priority after joining NoiseAware was to establish dependable and repeatable product operations with the goal of maximizing value to customers while providing transparency to both internal and external stakeholders. In my first several months, I interviewed the majority of our early customers, established operational processes, and produced many standard artifacts such as a roadmap/backlog, user journeys, process documentation including intentional feedback loops, functional requirements, and design documentation, wireframes, and prototyping. We established a customer advisory group we called the Sounding Board, which we would continue to leverage for user insights and testing over my tenure with the company.
The team had already been discussing their progress on the next generation of the product when I joined the company, but it became clear to me that there was not company-wide alignment on the spec/requirements/features for this product. So one fateful morning I came to the office early and hung several concept sketches of noise sensors on the wall, gathered the company in the conference room, and asked “Which one of these is the product we’re building?” The ensuing debate is when I feel we officially began development of what would become our next generation noise-monitoring solution.
Selection of early product concept renderings and sketches, example process documentation and user journey exercise.
|| Product Development
NoiseAware’s next generation product, including the later international model
Over the course of the next few years, I worked tirelessly to develop the product and holistic user-experience that NoiseAware is still providing its customers today. My contributions included but were not limited to:
Customer development and user research
Requirements gathering and documentation
Product strategy and visioning, including all of the company’s pitch decks
Industrial and mechanical design for two hardware SKUs including a new battery-powered outdoor noise sensor
UI/UX design, prototyping, and testing for both a web application and a new mobile application
Writing RFPs and sourcing and managing vendors, suppliers, and manufacturers
Recruiting, hiring, and managing a growing team of full-time engineers
Managing our supply-chain, cost, and bill of materials
Designing and documenting assembly and test procedures
Designing print materials such as labeling, packaging, and user manuals
Development of product marketing messaging and assets
|| Process
Sketching
Small sample of sketch ideation with my contributions as well as those from designers at M3 Design in Austin, TX
Rapid Prototyping
Collection of 3D printed prototypes produced M3 Design and on my own printer, plus silicone molds I made and used for small-scale prototype runs of product (featured by Ultimaker)
CAD & DFM
Sample CAD and mechanical drawings I produced and managed for sourcing, quoting, and manufacturing
Sourcing & Manufacturing
Visiting manufacturers (Hong Kong, China, & Vietnam), inspecting tooling & first-shots, custom-designed program/test fixtures, and assembly documentation and training
UI/UX Design
Full mobile app design and prototype in Sketch, flows printed and presented for stakeholder feedback, sample web application screen
Product Testing
Usability testing with application prototypes, emissions testing at MET Labs, and posing proudly with granted FCC and MET safety certifications
Packaging & Print Design
Sample of print assets I designed including Indoor and Outdoors sensor boxes and product manual
