The Problem

Digital technologies and processes began to disrupt the construction industry long before this challenge, but more specifically, Kingspan wanted to know how to leverage emerging tech trends to break out of their existing business lines while bringing the brand closer to everyday consumers. Building insulation is not a household topic, so neither are the brands that create it. Going into the research, we wanted to put Kingspan's strengths and values towards an area with higher visibility for the general public. 

Research & Synthesis

We scoured the web to learn as much as we could about Kingspan, the construction industry, and building insulation products in general. We visited a construction site with an industry veteran, and then conducted 6 interviews with experts from across the industry to learn about pain points and the most promising trends in construction. Later, we put out a 110-respondent survey to explore the potential for our prototype.
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For synthesis, we coded our interviews and survey to bubble up to the higher level themes. We referred back to the original problem statement ("Technological change and disruption in the construction industry is inevitable, but where is it going to come from and in what form?") to consider those themes in the context of developing a solution.

Prototyping

We created three rough prototypes of potential products: an environmental disaster shelter, a Kingspan modular home, and a garage remodeling kit. Without enough time to test all three prototypes, we decided to move ahead with the garage remodeling kit, considering the United States for the launch market. We made this decision because the U.S. market reflected where we had conducted our research, there was readily available data on the market size, and we could quickly and easily test our solution with U.S. homeowners.

The final prototype we imagined was the Kingspan Garage Conversion Kit. It consisted of a pre-fabricated sandwich of materials including Kingspan Kooltherm K12 insulation, plywood, radiant heating drywall, and a finished interior-facing sheet. The pre-fab boards could be installed DIY, or for an extra fee by certified Kingspan installers in partnership with hardware industry leaders like Lowe's and Home Depot.

Testing

We created a survey (filtering for home-owners with garages) to probe home-owners' thoughts on the potential to convert their haphazard garages into a useable or liveable extension of the home. Out of 110 responses, 76% home-owners reported being Interested or Very Interested in the possibility of converting their garage.

We first tested a product drawing with some potential customers. We learned from our conversations with them that ideally the setup would be possible without an expert, so we imagined a plug-in panel, which would only require a screwdriver to install. The panels would be fully pre-frabricated in a manufacturing plant to reduce installation costs and time for customers, as well as reducing costs and production time for Kingspan.

We then consulted with a couple of our construction experts to create a digital mock-up of our garage conversion kit. Using their feedback on measurements and thermal properties, we adjusted the order of the panels to put the heat directly next to the drywall. We accurately rendered the panel down to the screw placement and existing Kingspan products that would go into the panels.

The Outcome

We pitched our research, process and final product to a panel of five judges including a senior product manager from Kingspan. During our Q+A, the Kingspan judge repeatedly praised the validity of our assumptions and final product, but despite this, we came in second out of the eight teams in our room, so we did not advance to the final round. While we were disappointed not to place in the competition, it was telling that the Kingspan judge was the one most excited about our work, so we were still proud of our efforts.

Questions to Ask Me in Person

How did you get from construction technology to garage renovations?

How did the 3 week timeline play out with this project?

The Team

Christine Alix, Justin Rogers, Alycia Socia, Jerry Wertheim
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