Enabling precision
for home cooks
Samsung and McLaren Applied partnered to uncover how together they could exploit a growing trend of accuracy and precision in home cooking. The goal was to find a proposition that utilised McLaren technology and Samsung brand in a partnership.
McLaren was responsible for identifying the proposition and developing the core technology. Samsung was our go to market partner.
Innovation
Responsible for user experience
Established ideas and tested them to meet the goals & expectations of users
Facilitate insight process
Managed teams of different disciplines & established effective working environments
Precision cooking concepts
Merged science, tech & user insights to create opportunities for revolutionary concepts
01 My role
Defined innovation strategies that met McLaren Applied and Samsung goals within time, budget and resource
02 What we delivered
A disruptive home extraction unit driven by user insight.
It eliminates compromised cooking outputs such as not cooking fish in a pan because of the smell, being irritated by smoke setting off fire alarm, extra cleaning from grease splashing out of the pan and extraction noise ruining ambience.
A proof of concept that is the basis of ongoing partnership through to commercialisation.
/ a laboratory test-rig to evaluate the feasibility of the push-pull principle
/ CFD model development to validate the push-pull principle
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/ Design studies to inform the design of key system elements and understand environmental influences
We learned that consumers were unemotional about buying extractors, they rarely used them and bought them as a necessity. So we designed an extraction unit that consumers would be excited about and see the benefits to their cooking and environment. We created a paradigm shift by being the first extractor to propel smoke, steam & smells away, thus increasing system efficiency and removing the negative effects of traditional extraction.
Disruptive home extraction unit:
Automatic, smart, extraction:
Extraction and hob control:
Proof of concept
03 Approach
We facilitated a range of research activities including in-home interviews across the UK and Germany, focus groups, we observed luxury cooking shows and observed shoppers. The aim was to uncover the emotional and functional unmet needs of home cooks. From this we uncovered home cook archetypes and opportunities to improve precision in home cooking.
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Samsung and McLaren were involved in the full insight process; from finding clues in field research to uncovering opportunities, concept definition, testing, developing etc. We worked in the same office during the project, which lay strong foundations to find and build exciting unmet needs that McLaren and Samsung could work together on.
McLaren Applied then took ownership to develop a working proof of concept that we used to test and develop the proposition.
04 Process highlights
1. Discovery & definition phase
Product and service ideas were developed from user insight and synthesised through a series of workshops. Twelve ideas were then developed further with our target market in a series of focus groups. The output was five desirable ideas with ideal features and functionality.
2. Business and technology collaboration
Each idea was mapped with the core technology required to make it work, estimated time to market, a competitor analysis, viability, brand relevance and team excitement
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These activities supported the selection of two concepts that we felt should be developed into a proof of concept. The two ideas were;
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A home extraction unit that eliminated smells, smoke, extra cleaning etc.
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An oven that revealed to consumers how cooked their food was without the need to open the door.
3. Final idea & proof of concept
The home extraction idea was then chosen based on the success for the developed technology to achieve user goals and deliver an experience that met the needs and expectations of the consumer. We evaluated this during repeat studies during the development of the proof of concept.
©Melissa Butterworth 2022