Protecting packages from porch pirates

Boxlock

Product Design + Engineering
New Ventures

We tackled this project using an agile and iterative process. Work was done in sprints, starting with technical prototyping, enclosure and lock design, and testing to determine improvements. By combining design, engineering, and strategy in parallel, we developed a desirable and technically feasible solution in a very short time.

Prototyping began by using off-the-shelf components to quickly build the functionality and test as soon as possible. From this, we fleshed out the desired interactions for BoxLock, and refined the technical package and enclosure.

Once we had a standalone functional prototype, we shifted our focus to optimizing and refining the electronics and mechanics. We explored the aesthetic design and balanced the appearance with technical constraints in order to achieve a version that was both user-friendly and feasible.

At this point, we settled on the triangular form of BoxLock and developed a package that could be reproduced for testing.

Before investing in mass manufacturing, we wanted to test the product and gather learnings to improve it. We produced twenty BoxLocks using rapid prototyping processes and sent them to users for a limited pilot test.

We validated the user experience of the BoxLock and app, and determined improvements to the design, technical package, and software. With these improvements, we were ready to share it with the world through crowdfunding platforms.

We tested the consumer market using crowdfunding platforms. BoxLock was launched first on Kickstarter, and then on Indiegogo, gathering $78K of support and indicating a clear value to homeowners. This also helped us identify additional B2B and B2C use cases for BoxLock, outside of the initial challenge.