After years of building apps, I began to question the business value of Design. I would ask critical questions like, “why does this matter?” But this was not supposed to be my focal point. Instead, I started asking questions such as, “Does this make a meaningful difference?” “Does this make a business impact?”
I stopped making screens and nice websites. I decided to start a business with my wife, because I wanted to validate why this UX stuff is super important. So, we started Laundro in an attempt to achieve 3 goals:
This meant we really needed to pay attention to our users.
We needed to find a huge problem and build a Digital Product. This didn't take long. We knew (based on our own experience) that we hated doing our own laundry. The industry lacked a solution robust enough for our fast-paced lifestyles. Plus we needed something that would feel like it was built for a specific audience.
Over time and iteration - and lots of laundry - we decided we'd keep things super simple. For one fixed fee of R829pm, we'd collect, wash, iron and deliver your laundry anywhere in Johannesburg, South Africa. We agreed - validation mattered most, not a solution predefined into an app or website.
Most businesses fail to answer this important question - What are our user & customer behaviours that drive business? And how can we get them to take more of that?
Then we decided to build an app, as this would automate our workflow and allow customers to place an order with a few clicks, without hassle. However, before we did this, we needed to deeply understand our business model and why users make certain decisions- so we spent months washing, drying and delivering the laundry ourselves.
Key Outcomes After 15-18 Months :