OneWheel is a new way to travel. As exciting as an extreme board sport and easier to learn than a bike, the OneWheel has the potential to appeal to a diverse group of people as a recreational activity and a commute option. However, the product has not been able to broaden its appeal to women and urban workers, key demographics for company growth.

To solve this problem, my partner, Sophie Altchek, and I found two major factors that prevented people from wanting the product:
1. People thought it was too risky
2. People thought it was too inconvenient

Therefore, we had two main goals to improve the product's appeal:
1. Decrease customers' perception of risk
2. Increase usability and convenience

OneWheel's marketing campaign emphasized the extreme sport nature of the OneWheel, showing skilled riders in dramatic locations. Skateboarders and snowboarders were thrilled by the videos and eager to try the product. The spectacle was success in drawing early adopters to the product, but to achieve sustainable growth, OneWheel needed to show its product as a transportation option in addition to a recreational tool.

When Sophie and I surveyed people on their reactions to OneWheel's marketing, their first responses included "dangerous", "risky", and obnoxious. The stunts shown in the videos made the product seem more dangerous. Many people refused to try riding the OneWheel, even in a contained area.

To solve this problem, Sophie and I created a marketing campaign that emphasized the ease of riding a OneWheel, inspired partially by Chevy's "Real People, Not Actors" campaign. For the first minute, we asked each person how long it had taken them to learn to ride a bike. The middle portion of the ad showed each person trying the OneWheel for the first time. The video ends with these same individuals comfortably riding the OneWheel after 10 minutes of practice. This marketing campaign demonstrated the safety of the product and compared it favorably to riding a bicycle.

This diagram represents our goals with the new marketing campaign. As shown on the left, the previous ad campaign was pushing away a large portion of potential customers, most notably non-athletes looking for a transportation option. The new ad campaign had the goal of keeping those customers interested in the product.

To come up with ways of improving the OneWheel's usability and convenience, we produced a journey map of a commuter's daily experience with the product. As can be seen above, a notable pattern is that the OneWheel is most inconvenient when it is not being ridden. Its odd shape and notable weight and size make is quite inconvenient to carry or store. Even carrying it for short walking distances is difficult, especially for someone shorter than 5'6".

To solve this problem, we also could not significantly reduce size or weight without compromising the OneWheel's durability. We chose to make two changes:
1. Cut the material from the corners of the board in order to slightly reduce weight and bulk
2. Introduce a hinge that would allow the OneWheel to be folded up and rolled beside the user

Conclusion

Our proposals appeal to key customer demographics by reducing the perception of risk through better marketing and improving the usability of the OneWheel for commuters and women.

To see our full presentation for the founder of OneWheel, click the button below (opens a Google Slides Presentation).