Delve partnered with TIKI Brands to explore entry into the fire pit category and evaluate multiple strategic directions. The objective was to move the brand upmarket, introducing higher price points than TIKI had previously offered. We designed the end-to-end experience—from product interactions to unboxing and assembly. I served as project manager and designer, working with Kyle Neuser as lead designer and Kristen Hagen, who led consumer research.
The physical design of the product wen through many iterations. Thanks to Kyle here for pushing for the wood detail(s), and our awesome intern Matt Lesac worked on the accessories like the fire poker shown here.
The first ideation session with the Tiki Brands team at Delve (2018)
Images Above: Early sketches and CAD studies, we were building around a new pellet/wood burning 'engine' that Tiki Brands had developed. We added the CAD concepts to test preference in VR. This was our first use of VR with a client.
The project started with putting together a quick journey map on the board - this was the example we used. The idea here was to build the the 'dome of awesome'. We were designing for a new category and we asked Tiki Brands to think beyond the product itself: How might we create a new, amazing, direct to consumer experience? What does that look like for MVP, year 2, 3, and so on.
The combined efforts of the Tiki Brands team and Delve lead to an great direct-to-customer experience. Going D2C was a new channel for Tiki, and they had never before sold fire pits. Our collective goal was to go from porch to beautiful fire in a matter of minutes. In the end we succeeded.
