In my last post, I stated that one of the main issues to be solved for my mother is carrying heavy baking machinery around the kitchen. As a result, I designed a baking storage ecosystem that features a rotating electric platform along with a detachable counter for easy maneuvering. Now that the design is complete and peer-reviewed by my classmates, it’s time to see how the product fairs with my mother and if indeed she sees it as a problem that my design can solve for her.
To get started I needed to find a way to spring up a conversation with her without making her feel like I’m fishing for something. I didn’t want the questions to come out of the blue either, so I waited one evening until she wandered into my room as she always does for a quick chitchat before heading to bed. She sat at the far corner of my bed and asked me about my day. I engaged with few responses and seemingly asked her about hers. She mentioned she was tired from running errands all day and that her back was in a little pain. I used that response as the perfect opportunity to ask the questions I needed. “Last time we cooked together, I noticed you had similar pain issues after making that cake. What do you think is causing you all that pain?” I asked. “Well you know,” she said, “you remember how heavy the cooking machines were that you could not move them around yourself. It’s not easy you know.” They were quite heavy. “What do you think is the hardest part of moving them around for you?” I continued. “I use these things often but trying to lift them out the storage shelves and onto the kitchen counter is complicated and at times I hurt my fingers.”
– Why don’t you tell me this!
– Cause I’m not going to call you guys in the house for every little thing. You know I cook all the time and most of y’all are busy.
– Well when I’m around feel free to ask me for help. I enjoyed helping you last time we cooked.
“Yea right,” she said sarcastically. We both laughed.
– I didn’t see you have any issues today, when was the last time you struggled?
– Why you ask? Is not like this is something new.
– I know, but I just wanted to see if I can find a way to help you.
– Yea, but for me is not that big of a deal, you know I like baking and cooking. Like the Lava Cake I made two days, you enjoyed it didn’t you? I had Jianna (my sister) help me with it. I had to put on my wrist thingy cause my wrist was hurting after a while.
– What wrist thingy? I’ve never seen you with one.
– It’s to support my wrist from all the lifting and turns while using the red stand mixer. I don’t know why they make that shit so heavy.
– Why don’t you just keep it in one place?
My mother took a deep breath, clutched her legs and grunted, “I kept it at the kitchen counter before, but then it takes away counter space and I hate not having enough space while I’m cooking. I did have a mat at one point which I used to slide the mixer with it. That was annoying too cause the mat was collecting dust underneath. Eventually, I bought that wooden island downstairs but I still end up using the storage shelves cause now I’m afraid of putting heaving things on the island and then dragging the island around and scratching the floor.”
Seems like my mother has tried making things more efficient for herself in the kitchen but ended up overcrowding the kitchen space instead. “Listen,” I said, “the reason why I ask is cause my friend is creating this baking ecosystem for his bakery and I think it may be useful for you.” She folded her arms. “Since when you have friends that have a bakery? You see me struggling over here trying to learn how to open my bakery, damn give me that connect!” I laughed hysterically. “I know, it’s a new friend I met at school and we were talking about the different things he bakes, and I mentioned how you love to bake as well. He then mentioned a friend of his who designed the baking storage for him which is being constructed in his bakery. He sent me a link to the 3D model so I could show you.” “Carlito,” she said in a concerned voice, “do you think I have money to be installing anything in the kitchen? You know all the shit I have in there.” “Yea I know, but it’s not that expensive and I can help with that so don’t worry about that. Just take a look at it.
She looked at the Tinkercard 3D model and I showed her all the features and how everything works. She immediately liked it. Why doesn’t the chair have wheels? She wondered. I laughed loudly and agreed that the chair should have wheels. “I love the rotating thingy, how does it work?” She said. I explained that It’s like a Ferris Wheel for heavy cooking machines.
– You press a button for the one you need and it brings it to the counter.
– I love that shit. You sure is not very expensive?
– Yea, don’t worry about it. My friend says is also customizable, do you think this one works for you or no?
– I don’t like the color… I really love the removable counter though, but it seems small. I need a larger working station. And why is the desk station right next to the baking station? Baking is such a messy process so all kinds of things can splash onto the computer. That’s why I don’t have my computer desk in the kitchen. I don’t know how that would work in your friend’s bakery. Maybe he needs to put some divider or something. “So you prefer without the desk?” I asked. Yea I don’t like where I prep things to be right next to my desk station at all. I want more counter space. I love that I can detach it and wheel it around, but I want a bigger counter for baking. Everything else seems good. I like the storage spaces on the side and the bowls below. I don’t know if I have the space for this though. “Well we would get rid of your current storage place and put this one instead,” I said. Ah ok, if you can get the counter bigger and no desk station it would make things easier for me in the kitchen. How much did it cost your friend?
– I’m not sure, I’ll let you know when I get an estimate…
I think I may have gotten my mother a bit too excited about a product that doesn’t exist…but who knows maybe I can build it for her one day. She seems really into the moving counter and rotating platform. I video-called my sister who lives in the Bronx and has three kids. I told her about what I was working on and how I lied about it being my friend’s design to my mother. “She’s gonna kick your ass,” she said. I asked my sister what she thought about the design. I explained how the entire design works and its features. She thinks it can be useful for her baby milk dispenser Baby Brezza. It seems like a good solution because you don’t need to move the items around. But she emphasized that she doesn’t need it because she doesn’t have that many things to cook with like mom. She did enjoy the rotating platform and the detachable counter and how the desk station moves up and down. But for her personally she said she doesn’t really need it.
After gathering all the feedback from my mom and sister I realized a few interesting things about the overall problem-solution design. First, I believe I did identify a problem for my mother regarding lifting heavy cooking tools. During our conversation, she wasn’t just complaining about the difficulties of moving the tools around, but also mentioned ways in which she tried making it easier for herself. She tried keeping it on the counter, having a mat under for sliding, using a wrist strap to avoid harm, and buying a wooden island counter. Yet she still ended up carrying these tools to the kitchen counter because she wants to keep them separate from the counter as she prefers space. No wonder why she places everything in the storage corner and keeps the kitchen counter clean. I also learned that what I thought was an adequate solution for all her needs as described in the previous post are not really additional issues. They are more nuances if anything. For example, I thought having the desk station as part of the baking ecosystem would be more convenient for her to avoid trips to the living room. Yet she disliked the idea and pointed out how messy baking is and she would not want things splashing over her computer and recipe paperwork, making it difficult to clean and maintain. On the other side, my sister didn’t find much use for the product. She does cook but at a much less demanding level. She only really liked the rotating platform to place some baby tools.
This got me thinking that if I wanted to push this product commercially I would need to target people more like my mom and actual businesses like bakeries. I think my overall experience with this design has been quite insightful about the way things are designed in the real world. My biggest challenge was validating if the problem is indeed an issue. It’s easy to complain about an inconvenience but in the case of my mother, she didn’t really complain until I fished it out of her. I guess she was trying to make it seem like it wasn’t a problem for her. Perhaps it’s because she already tried other solutions and didn’t think we would figure out a way. Regardless, It takes a lot of research, thinking, and strategizing to create the right product for a real problem.