Service experience vision for the world’s smartest toothbrush
Made by Many partnered with Colgate’s Strategic Innovation team to research and design a set of hero service experiences and companion apps for a family of the world’s smartest toothbrushes.
We used primary research to understand consumer behaviours and needs around daily oral hygiene, as well as the contexts and needs of dental surgeries, we created a comprehensive service vision that shaped Colgate’s D2C strategy and spurred the development of four innovative and multi-award-winning new products over five years.
Cross-disciplinary collaboration fuels innovation at pace
We didn't work in isolation; our team worked with data, hardware, and manufacturing experts. This cross-disciplinary effort ensured a rich, informed and highly cost-effective design process.
We co-designed with dentists
Working with dentists and dental practices enabled us to explore how connected oral health-tech and data could reimagine patient relationships, lead to better health outcomes, and benefit dentists as well as consumers.
Primary research led to foundational insights & breakthrough innovation
It turns out that no-one really knows whether they’ve cleaned their teeth properly, everyone worries about it. We also learnt how weird some people find it to stick a brush packed with sensors inside your mouth and share that data automatically with their dentists. We could not have gained these directional insights in any other way.
Fake it until you make it
None of the tech actually existed, so we used proxies: fake connected prototypes and apps that allowed us to explore realistic reactions and understand potential future habits.
Accelerating a revolution in oral healthcare
The work we did with Colgate led to the creation of the Colgate® Plaqless Pro, a groundbreaking toothbrush with plaque-detecting optics, and the Colgate Smart E1, which used Apple’s ResearchKit to crowdsource data from over 1 million at-home brushings.
Project Impact
4
Connected IoT devices taken to market follow our engagement
4
Connected IoT devices taken to market follow our engagement
"The quality of that team was fantastic, they gave us the fundamental learnings that directed our development programme for the years following. The things I appreciated the most about Made by Manny was the really small, tight dedicated team, who spoke to everyone, developed every idea, and took time to understand us and our existing knowledge. They were focussed and made progress rapidly.”
Jennifer Gomez
Worldwide Director, Strategic Innovation & Technology Alliances
"The quality of that team was fantastic, they gave us the fundamental learnings that directed our development programme for the years following. The things I appreciated the most about Made by Manny was the really small, tight dedicated team, who spoke to everyone, developed every idea, and took time to understand us and our existing knowledge. They were focussed and made progress rapidly.”
Jennifer Gomez
Worldwide Director, Strategic Innovation & Technology Alliances
Images © 2023 Colgate & Made by Many All Rights Reserved
Image credit Nathan Ingraham @ Engadget
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