D-Ford
After graduating college in 2019, I joined D-Ford, Ford's human-centered innovation studio built with IDEO (formerly Greenfield Labs).
- Projects
- 3
- Main practice
- Field research
Context
Most of my work at Ford sits under an NDA. I can't show the work itself, but I can talk about the process and share a few select slides. I worked on three projects, and two of them shipped:
- A moonshot project delivering conceptual roadmaps around brand communities.
- The D-Ford recruitment website; designed, built, and in use until D-Ford was eventually dissolved.
- Concept work delivered to Spin for future implementation. Now live as Spin Access, which means we can finally talk about it.
Spin Access
After Ford bought Spin in 2018, D-Ford was pulled in to answer one question: how do people without smartphones, credit cards, or spare income get access to electric scooters?
We spent six weeks in the field with Gehl, a leading urban strategy consultancy, riding along with ops teams, interviewing riders and non-riders, and testing paper prototypes with members of the community.
Ten prototypes came out of it: app flows, pricing models, physical hardware.
Impact
We handed Spin ten tested prototypes and an action plan. Some of it actually shipped: the SMS unlock, cash payments, and the Access card are still on their site today. Most of them didn't make it however, and that's the trade off with concept work.
The most valuable thing I developed at D-Ford was the research practice. Field observation, prototype testing in the real world, conducting interviews in communities. Those methods carried into everything I've designed since.