Challenge
Establishing a new standard for daily brushing experiences
With the rapid advancement of sensor and smart technology in the oral healthcare industry, connected
toothbrushes have been flooding the marketplace. However, the vast majority of these products fail to
provide the actionable, real-time coaching and guidance needed for lasting results.
Philips Oral Healthcare, the leader in consumer oral healthcare products, wanted to create a best-in-class
product that would establish a new bar for daily brushing experiences. With the success of Philips’ Sonicare
for Kids connected toothbrush, there was an opportunity to merge technology with research, insights, and big
data to create an adult-focused Philips Sonicare brush that maintained Philips’ stance as the #1 recommended
brand by dental professionals worldwide.
Approach
Designing through insightful surveys and interviews
Philips prides itself on its rigorous user tests to confirm and quantify the benefits of its product.
Applying best practices of user research, Smashing Ideas, the design and innovation arm of Luxoft, created a
lean, agile testing and validation plan that met the goals of Philips’ high-quality standards. Smashing
aligned to a “North Star” for our collective efforts – creating a complete “dentist clean” at home, based on
real-time, personalized data.
The Research & Strategy team then embarked on an unprecedented testing and validation phase over 16 months
that included 255 1:1 interviews and 75 focus groups, produced 6 high-fidelity prototypes, and had 105
unique users whose daily habits were tracked and analyzed over 117 days. This allowed teams to create a
product development strategy that aligns to user needs.
Solution
A connected experience with real-time guidance
In order to create a stellar customer experience for users, one of the first tasks was to interview
potential
users and create motivational personas based on typical Sonicare users. Forming a product development
strategy,
Smashing & Philips’ development teams worked together to create prototypes and make them available for
testing,
using contextual inquiry to validate assumptions and get unbiased perspectives through surveys, interviews,
and
observation. This helped provide large amounts of consumer product research, as Smashing wanted to know how
users actually used the prototypes in their homes and where and when problems were encountered. This product
research informed application development, adjusting user flow, features, design, and how the application
interacted with the toothbrush handle, delivering first-class product engagement. As a result, Smashing
developed a mobile healthcare app that appeals to users.
Result
Making every brushing session effective
Smashing’s research plan helped create a connected customer experience that is underpinned by extensive data
and user validation, resulting in an industry-leading smart toothbrush that does what it claims – enhancing
product engagement by providing real-time guidance, while coaching users to clean hard-to-reach and missed
areas and focused brushing techniques that are based on each user’s unique needs. Here are some of the
results from intensive product research:
-
90% of patients surveyed said the Philips Sonicare Flexcare Platinum Connected toothbrush’s
real-time
feedback helped them brush with better technique
-
95% of consumers surveyed agreed that the Philips Sonicare Flexcare Platinum Connected
toothbrush
is the most effective product they have used for building healthier brushing techniques
-
77% of users surveyed felt more motivated to brush vs. using a non-connected toothbrush
-
The average brushing duration went up over 6%, from 1.88 minutes to 2.0 minutes once the TouchUp
technology was implemented during prototype testing of the new Philips Sonicare brush,
displaying
customized guidance based on actual brushing data in order to immediately address missed areas
