Baby sized changes can make big gains on these popular baby products
An analysis of user personas, ease of use and ergonomics
Even though my daughter is only 3 months old and about 12 pounds small, it feels like she has a minimum of 3 products per pound: diapers, wipes, bottles, bassinet, crib, pacifiers, clothes, swaddles, stroller, car seat, toys, etc…. There are so many baby products! As a product manager, I can’t help but to analyze them. Here is a mini analysis of 3 products that just missed being amazing because they over emphasized user personas, lacked focus on “ease of use”, or didn’t incorporate ergonomic designs into the solution.
Disclaimer: I have no personal connection to any of these products other than being a consumer. I intentionally omitted the brand names as my intention is to not leave bad reviews but rather analyze their solution from a product perspective.
Bassinet: User personas
I hate user personas! The bassinet I purchased is the exact reason why creating and relying on user personas are limiting the success of your product. I image that the bassinet product team created something like this:
Jessica: “A new mom who wants to do what is best for her baby”
Age: 30
Height: 5’ 4”
Education: MBA
Family: Married and expecting first baby
Summary: Jessica is a 30 year old working professional who is nervous about having her first child. She wants to do what is best for her baby and has read a lot of articles about the benefits of sleeping near her baby. Her husband’s work requires frequent travel so as the primary caretaker, she wants a flexible solution. Jessica wants to do what is best for her baby while maximizing sleep for the baby and her.
So what did I get? Honestly, I got a pretty good bassinet. It can either be used as a bedside sleeper or a standalone bassinet that has wheels to be pushed around the apartment. So why is this bassinet not great? It’s not great because it wasn’t designed at all for tall individuals. The maximum height can extend to only 21” (less than 2 feet), which works well for Jessica who is the average height of a US female. Yet, the average height of an American man is about 5’10” and at 6’1”, my back aches every time I have to push the bassinet from one room to the next. It’s certainly a small price to pay for not having to physically bear a child but instead of relying on user personas to design a product, they should rely on specific user behaviors:
- As a parent, I want to side-sleep with my baby so I can easily take care of my baby in the middle of the night to maximize my sleep
- As a parent, I want to be able to easily move my baby from one room to the next so I can let my partner have quiet time
- As a parent, I want to be able to easily adjust the height of the bassinet so its more comfortable for me to move around the house and align with my bed
These user behaviors are gender neutral and solve real pain points. User personas describe your average customer and when you design for the average, you end up with an average product.
Thermometer: Ease of use
When my wife and I first brought our newborn daughter home, we were very paranoid about our daughter getting sick. One of my first worldly father acts was to go to Target and buy a bunch of baby supplies like a thermometer. I thought to myself, I got this! A thermometer is simple, how hard could this be? Little did I know many different thermometer options there would be but I opted for the version that promoted temperature accuracy. A few nights later, our baby was crying in the middle of the night and we were having trouble calming her down. “Maybe she has a fever. Where is the thermometer” said my wife. As a proud father, I retrieved the thermometer and then proceeded to watch the volcano explode. It started with the inability to open the packaging — it seemed to be super glued shut. Eventually the package was ripped open but the thermometer and its supporting pieces went flying across the room, including the battery. Next, the battery had to be inserted into the back panel by unscrewing a super tiny screw — screw driver not included. All of this is still happening with a screaming baby and increasingly frantic parents. Needless to say, the thermometer’s lifespan did not last long. The next night, I was back at the store buying another thermometer but this time I selected the one promoting speed, “Results provided in under 8 seconds”. Peace & harmony at last! What went wrong for the first thermometer?
- Products for parents should be designed for one handed use — including the packaging. It shouldn’t require 4 sets of hands, a scissor, box cutter and screwdriver to open, prepare and use the product. Whoever is using the product is probably holding a baby in one arm leaving only one hand free for use.
- If it’s a consumer product, very rarely will accuracy outweigh ease of use. We are not in a laboratory and it most likely won’t matter if the temperature is 99.3 or 99.7 degrees fahrenheit. Consumers care about ease of use as they want something that is enjoyable, reliable and stress free.
Car seat: Ergonomics
The car seat is one of the most important baby products and it screams safety and reliability. The car seat I purchased was super easy to install which checks the box for ease of use. I also don’t see any user persona errors, so why isn’t the car seat amazing? It’s because there was a complete neglect for ergonomics.
The carrier alone weighs 9.5 pounds! A 9.5 pound weight at the gym is probably not that strenuous but it is to a woman recovering from childbirth. Now add your baby to the seat and it quickly doubles in weight. A 20 pound weight at the gym is doable but depending on the motion/duration of your exercise, it’s a bit strenuous. Now picture this, instead of holding a 20 pound kettlebell, try holding a 20 pound box as large as 27.5" x 17" x 24", the dimensions of the car seat. What are your options?
Holding this seat directly in front of you is not a good long term solution as your arms will tire very quickly. It requires two hands and your back is either going to arch forward or backward. However, holding the 20 pound seat on your side creates an unbalanced center of gravity. I actually had to youtube the best way to carry a car seat. The whole purpose of the car seat is that you can carry it around, yet, I needed to search the web for a solution to my pain.
I know very little about the rules/regulations about what actually makes a car seat safe but as a parent, I would pay extra for a car seat that is lightweight and easy to carry. Here are some possible ergonomic car seat solutions:
- New materials like carbon, graphite or titanium that are both durable yet lightweight. Without changing the dimensions of the seat, a non-plastic solution can greatly reduce the overall weight.
- Design the handle to support the “reach through” approach suggested in the video. This would mean creating a side handle near the base and curving the handlebar in a way that sits nicely in the nook of your elbow/arm. Perhaps there should be padding along the arm handle to increase comfort.
- Finally, re-design the car seat completely. Maybe there is a lighter internal part that can detach from the base to make carrying easier without sacrificing safety. Perhaps the seat can have wheels that can allow you to pull the car seat like luggage at the airport avoiding the problem of lifting all together.
I realize that my needs/wants do not reflect the entire parenting population. I also realize that these companies may have intentionally made these trade-off decisions. It’s easy for me to sit here and critique products when I don’t know what their budget, timeline or product strategy is. However, all of these products nearly missed being absolutely amazing and as a product manager, it’s hard to let them go unnoticed.
