Making the switch to electric cars easier

How we helped transform one electric vehicle owner’s pain into a new EV venture

Client

ECO

Industry

Electric Vehicle Retail / Services

Year

2021

Founder's Challenge

Steve, a serial founder, annoyed with the scarcity of support after he purchased his first electric vehicle, and encouraged by the systemic acceleration of EV adoption, approached us to research and identify key obstacles and problems in front of new and prospective EV customers. The founder wanted to tap into the opportunity of the 'EV revolution' - the shift to electric cars, which is thought to be the biggest change to UK society will see in the next 10 years.

The founder's ask of d.labs was to explore the wide range of problems EV owners still face and identify the most viable tech venture opportunity in this space.

Scope of Work

Step 1

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Research

B2C Problem interviews

Competition analysis

Market research

Step 2

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Design

Design prototype

Landing page design

Minimum Viable Brand

Step 3

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Strategy

Minimum Viable Business Model

Value Proposition

Investment deck

Discovery Process

The founder has used d.labs' Discovery service for a deep dive into the problem space, assess different opportunities, design the business model and value proposition and get first customer insights. Since the primary goal was to raise a seed investment, we decided on validating promise-market fit and the vision of the company, rather than the usability of the product itself. With this no-product approach, we delivered the value proposition and the promise through a strong brand, an investment deck, a company landing page and a clickable app prototype.

> What is promise-market fit?

Key Insights

"EV ownership is a bit like being in a club at the moment. Like with motorcyclists. /.../ You end up having chats with them (other EV owners). You are the pioneers."
"I hate not knowing whether a charger is going to work/be available when you get there."
"I get overwhelmed with the myriad of chargers."

Design Highlights

Research

We started with an opportunity, a rough idea of a solution and an estimated market size. The way forward was to first understand the problems of our customer segment. We recruited and interviewed a number of new electric car owners from the UK, which gave us authentic insights into the pains and challenges facing existing and potential new electric car owners. In addition to primary customer research, we looked at online communities (discussion forums and social media) to identify patterns in the kind of information users are looking for, what types of questions they ask and their overall experiences with owning an electric car.

In the next step, we did an in-depth competitor analysis to find out who the key players in the field are and assess their threat level. By utilising the Strategy canvas framework we were able to better understand which are the competing factors and find a unique value proposition for our potential customers.

> Find your Unique Value Proposition by using the Strategy Canvas

Armed with all the learnings combined, we prepared an investment deck that summarised the product promise of an all-in-one solution for EV ownership, with key revenue-driving pillars (Rent, Charge, Insure, Sell and Community).

Design

Customer research helped us gain understanding for whom we are building the final solution, which enabled us to conduct a branding sprint to create a unique brand system that supported our marketing and prototyping efforts.  

We were able to translate the value proposition into a landing page to test the response form potential customers, a clickable high fidelity prototype to understand and see if our solutions resonate with the potential customers.

The Outcome

In 8 weeks after the first touchpoint, we have invalidated an initial solution and provided enough insight to co-create a secondary business model to solve a discovered customer need. The brand we created and the key vision-promise made the venture tangible and provided the founder with an arsenal to start summoning an operating team and preparing for investor’s meetings. Soon after the beginning of exploration, the venture was  incorporated and launched ready to attract early customers and investors.

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