Design helps technology land million dollar investment
Background
Owlstone has developed a revolutionary device the size of a five
pence piece that can detect a wide range of chemical agents even in
extremely small quantities. Leading-edge micro- and
nano-fabrication techniques make it a hundred times smaller and a
thousand times cheaper than existing technology. There are numerous
applications across different industries and Owlstone is working
with market leaders to integrate detectors into existing
devices.
Problem
Owlstone faced many of the problems common among high technology
start-ups:
- Explaining its technology – particularly challenging as it’s
invisible to the naked eye
- Communicating competitive advantage to a variety of audiences
from technical partners to investors, customers and media
- Attracting investors, partners and high-quality staff
- Choosing the best short-term and long-term applications for the
technology and the right strategy for market entry.
Response
Owlstone joined Designing Demand’s Innovate service, working
with a Design Associate (Oliver King, from design consultancy
Engine) to tackle issues including brand strategy, corporate
culture, the needs of people using potential products, product
development and plans for market entry.
At an early stage, this work alerted the company to the
possibility of broadening its target markets beyond the original
idea of domestic military security. This was important in
generating investor interest. MD Billy Boyle said: ‘The work helped
us identify different opportunities that we hadn’t considered
before and match them to the evolution of the technology.’
The length of time the company needed to bring a product to
market was identified as a risk. The response was to devise
intermediate products and services to generate income earlier and
build the confidence of investors. ‘Investors are keen to make
returns fast so we had to work to match the product and technology
roadmaps,’ says Boyle.
To aid this process, with King’s help Owlstone sourced
post-graduate design students to help generate new application
ideas for the technology by building simple product models. The
students created non-functional objects that illustrated the
technology’s potential applications clearly.
In parallel, Owlstone worked with design consultancies to define
a corporate identity and build a website. Boyle says: ‘It was a
very important part of establishing credibility with investors and
potential partners. We had technology and we had a team but we had
to present ourselves in a way that made people take the proposition
seriously.’
Impact
As Owlstone joined Designing Demand Innovate soon after
launching in 2004, the design input came early enough to ensure
that brand, market and product strategy evolved together. Barely
two years later, the work led directly to Owlstone developing a
revenue generating product.
Tourist, launched in May 2006, allows would-be customers in
different sectors to sample the technology and assess how it could
be incorporated most effectively into their work. Boyle explains:
‘For clients it’s a low-risk way to evaluate the technology.
Meanwhile for us the advantage is that we’ve done 80 per cent of
the development up front and it’s just a question of making
modifications to suit different applications. So we spread risk
too.’
There was more good news for Owlstone September 2006 in the
shape of $2.3m of fresh investment in addition to previous
investment of $3m.
A powerful legacy
Participation in Designing Demand Innovate has left a powerful
legacy for the business to exploit. Design has not only defined
product and brand development, but become part of core strategic
thinking. Visualisation activities are now used as a key part of
the decision making process, even by non-designers.
Model building was entirely new to the company but it has proved
to be important in making its advanced technology intelligible to a
wider audience from potential partners to national and trade press.
Boyle says: ‘When you’re speaking to people from a non-scientific
background it’s hard to articulate things like principles of
operation. Visualisation has had a dramatic impact in helping us
get the technology across. It’s part of everything we do. Aside
from that we have a solid brand that will grow over time and that
makes people sit up and realise we’re serious.
‘If we hadn’t taken part in Designing Demand we would have
missed a big opportunity. It exposed us to new ideas we could use
straight away and which gave us shape and direction. Without it, we
would have been a lot slower in getting to where we have.’