At the beginning of this project, we defined our problem area as a team. Then we did user interviews with multi-family home residents, landlords, and contractors to understand individual perceptions on EE programs, and energy in general. About a third of the way through the project, we pivoted from our initial problem scope (which was to improve EE by residents) to improve landlord and property manager adoption of EE programs.
More in-depth research was conducted with our key stakeholders before we moved into the ideation phase where we generated multiple ideas that incorporated new technologies outside the client’s current portfolio. A prototype was then created and tested before presenting the final solution to the client.