HELM Boots reposted this
Why do I believe deeply in story-driven product design? Because this mentality... 1. allows you to forego reverse-engineering your brand positioning. 2. animates elements of the materials and process of making your products, with the opportunity to romanticize what can often be seen as simple, or rough, or not fit for exposure. Selfishly, it also elevates each material component itself. 3. enables you to imagine who is experiencing your product and where, and their emotional journey, so you can plan and connect early with the people and places bringing your world to life. 4. aligns your teams faster around world-building, because it provides an opportunity for moldable clay across one another's areas. 5. exposes areas of weakness early, so you're examining costs, and you're also not careening down the path of bad PMF or inexact TAM past the point of no return. Also, most consumers dream about products in an active state, not a dormant one. Pristine is rarely an ideal state. Last October, Justin Delaney and I went to Marfa to meet some interesting folks and introduce some locals to our new boot from HELM Boots of the same name. The city, of course, was our boot's namesake. While there, we stayed at El Cosmico in a trailer, and broke bread with some locals. I'm convinced we saw The Marfa Lights two nights in a row. I'm not convinced that's rare, despite what we were told. For the products, these trips are about whether our shoe fits the location, not the other way around. I won't pretend the existing lore isn't a reason for our naming after a place, and these locations have hosted people and their stories many, many times over. But the time spent in the locations gives you a good sense for whether the energy is good. You can read the stories and watch the videos about our time in Marfa, here: https://lnkd.in/gjxMM7gR Chick Rabourn, the award-winning architect featured in the photo thumbnail, verified the fit, writing to me: “Just a note to let you know how much I love the Marfa boots. I've literally worn them every day since they arrived. I did not expect to like them this much but they are so solid and so soft and so comfortable I want to wear them every day - and I have plenty of other boots that I also love to wear.” That email arrived a week or so ago. The product driving the initial connection is great, but keeping up with people and establishing community is what it's all about.