Vivint 2022

Unlocking an Ecosystem: Discovery Research that led to 6 Patents

Vivint’s in-house, industry-leading cameras, sensors, thermostats, and security panels work together to create a seamless smart home experience.... with the exception of smart locks. Vivint bundles Kwikset brand smart locks to sell alongside their proprietary products. This enables users to have a convenient, automated entry experience, but it was far from seamless. This gap left the opportunity for a the holistic security experience on the table, along with business revenue.

Vivint’s in-house, industry-leading cameras, sensors, thermostats, and security panels work together to create a seamless smart home experience.... with the exception of smart locks. Vivint bundles Kwikset brand smart locks to sell alongside their proprietary products. This enables users to have a convenient, automated entry experience, but it was far from seamless. This gap left the opportunity for a the holistic security experience on the table, along with business revenue.

My role

Product Designer & Researcher

Project type

Discovery research

Product Strategy

Product Design

Which of these does not belong?

Problem

Vivint’s reliance on third-party locks limited the ability to create end-to-end smart home experiences and left both user value and revenue untapped

Proposal

Design a proprietary smart lock that integrates with Vivint’s ecosystem, unlocking smart home experiences and capturing new revenue opportunities

Existing experience

Hardware

App (2022)

❌ Granting access

❌ Granting access

The only way to grant access was creating a new user with full access, or to share your personal PIN

The only way to grant access was creating a new user with full access, or to share your personal PIN

❌ Whole-system view

❌ Whole-system view

Unable to see individual locks

Unable to see individual locks

In-home user research

Broadening User Understanding

Locks are used differently in different climates, home types, and socioeconomic backgrounds.


To get a full understanding of user needs, we travelled to Chicago and Austin for in-home interviews.

Developing a discussion guide

Consulting with our Research and Insights teams, we developed a guide to lead open-ended conversations around accessing the home.

Conducting interviews

In-home interviews gave us a candid view into customer’s access routines.

Synthesis & Analysis

Coding transcriptions

Our team coded transcripts of each interview in order to find patterns. This work was done in 2022 (Pre-AI), so coding was done manually by our product trio.

Insights: 5 User stories

We found 5 major themes in what customers were looking for in their ideal access experience.

As a user, I want my lock experience to be...

Complete

I want to be aware of and have control over ALL entry points to my home

Convenient

I want to easily lock all of my doors before leaving or going to bed

Smart

I want my access points to link with the rest of my smart home

Shareable

I want to grant permanent, temporary, and recurring access to my home

Seamless

I want my entry and exit routines to have as few touch points as possible

Product development

Exploring physical and digital concepts

Referencing insights from our research, our team illustrated a variety of physical and digital experiences and interviewed customers to understand which resonated as helpful solutions.

Physical Product: Primary & Secondary locks

Customers wanted their whole home secured with smart locks, but it felt like “overkill” for them to have an expensive, full-feature lock on every door. The primary & secondary lock bundle allows for a fully secured smart-home while keeping it affordable for customers.

Complete

Convenient

Whole-home visibility & control

Secondary, more affordable locks allow for every access point to be secured and integrated into the smart home.


Lighting on the lock face represent locked states of secondary locks.

Seamless

Auto-lock & Auto-disarm

Wifi & bluetooth authentication allows for automated unlocked and disarming.

Shareable

NFC unlocking

NFC capability allows visitors to enter the home with the simple tap of a smart phone.

Industrial design by Cecilee Petersen

App experience

The ability to see and control all locks alongside the context of other devices was important to customers. They also valued the ability to share access for a temporary timeframe rather than having to create a new user or share their personal PIN.

Complete

Smart

Home overview

Keeps

*This project was de-funded, but our team referenced findings from this research in our new home page redesign

Shareable

Shareable access

Shareable access

The need for shareable access

Impact

6 patents

Filed with the USPTO

Despite this project being paused after Vivint was acquired by NRG in December 2022, we were able to file 6 patents related to integrating the smart lock and armed security system, which is novel in the smart home space.

Reflections

What I learned

This project felt like having a 4-month job as a full-time UX Researcher. I was creating testing plans, recruiting and screening participants, and getting comfortable with both leading and note-taking during user interviews. This was also the first time I worked in parallel with an Industrial Designer to craft a holistic experience, including hardware.

What I would do differently

Back when this work was done in 2022, we manually read and coded each finding, which took dozens of hours. If I was doing this project today, I would use Claude to upload transcripts and find patterns across transcripts, saving us weeks of time manually coding.