Finding the viable market for a new device

Research pointed to a niche no one had hypothesised.

What they were up against

Wibrazz is a vibrating signalling device built to help people with hearing loss. The team had a working prototype and a few early use cases, but the real question was market feasibility: whether there was a viable direction, and if yes, where?

What we did

We ran desk research to understand the market top-down, then interviewed various experts and potential buyers across deaf sport and special education, the two directions on the table. We built a database of European and American stakeholders and reached out, warm and cold. Along the way we handled the real challenges of communicating with deaf and hard-of-hearing communities online, and of finding a way into groups that are often closed to outsiders. We organised the findings into a Problem-Solution Fit canvas covering the segments, the ideal target, the pain points, the emotions around inclusivity, the current alternatives, and the barriers to adoption for each group.

What came of it

Two more groups with strong unmet needs emerged beyond the original deaf-sport focus: in the workplace and in everyday life.
For both deaf-sport players and special-education children, the device's slightly invasive nature could work against it, and needs shifted across sports and geographies. Which refuted the original business hypotheses.
Special-education teachers wanted not just a device but a tested, quality-assured methodology to go with it.
The most viable niche turned out to be workplace use, a direction that had not even been on the table at the start. Wibrazz also received the full database and the warm leads from the research.