Extol
Built to scale—down! Extol’s Nanostake morphs their industry favorite machine into smaller applications for a big impact.
The
Challenge
For nearly 20 years, Extol has manufactured a best-in-market staking tool (used in welding plastics parts) called “InfraStake.” However, its large diameter posed a barrier to applying their tool in certain applications. Extol believed that a significantly smaller staking tool (about the size of a no. 2 pencil eraser) that joins small components together, in tight spaces, using rapid high heat and cooling, could be their next generation of products. We set out to explore what details would make this valuable to Extol’s customers, and test viability in current and untapped markets.
Work Summary
In the toolbox:
Stakeholder Research & Analysis
Technical Feasibility Assessment
Businesses Viability Evaluation
In advance of a major industry trade show, we talked directly with Extol’s customers and employed a VRT VISUAL RESEARCH TOOL™ that involves ethnographic research and extracts qualitative data from interviews with customers and subject matter experts.
We found that our most viable product would include:
- Excellent, hands-on service support
- Visual cues to the product’s sophistication and ROI
- A simple user interface to operate the stake and providing monitoring data
The
impact
NanoSTAKE has expanded Extol’s staking technology product offerings to win projects that they were missing out on before. With this new product added to their portfolio they are able to win business where their other product wasn’t feasible. By retrofitting their tech into a 60% smaller application, Extol has seen sales 50% above target for nanoSTAKE.
Positively
quotable.
“The market is screaming for nanoSTAKE. The high demand is the result of designing a desirable product. We learned how to do that through Twisthink and their HCD process.”
Get
started.
Digital transformation,
with a twist.
