Case Study 01
Smart Home Orchestration App
The promise of a smart home — delivered.
Industry: Consumer Software / IoT
Stage: Early
Engagement: Launch-Readiness → Targeted Sprints
The Challenge
Smart devices filled the home — lights, plugs, TVs, speakers, cameras — but the experience remained fragmented. Setup was slow, trust in automation was low, and adoption had stalled.
For Hearth’s founders, the risk was clear: without a simpler, more reliable way to orchestrate the home, smart home technology would remain a novelty rather than a trusted system.
Spark’s Approach
Spark partnered with Hearth to focus the vision and accelerate adoption by:
Listening deeply to users’ frustrations and aspirations.
Framing the problem not as “control” but as trust, clarity, and emotional resonance.
Designing orchestration that was quiet, reliable, and transparent — not another “assistant.”
Delivering clarity through a prototype and design system that gave founders and investors a tangible, credible view of the product’s future.
Strategic Decisions
We helped Hearth make key trade-offs that moved the product forward:
Prioritized easy setup and clear visibility over flashy features that risked confusion.
Shifted focus from device control to household routines that build trust.
Removed personality layers in favor of an orchestration system users could rely on and shape themselves.
What Spark Did
Mapped user pain points across setup, control, and trust to reframe the core problem.
Created a decision framework for prioritizing clarity-building features.
Redesigned onboarding → setup time dropped from ~25 minutes to ~3 minutes.
Shifted focus to routines → 2× routine adoption in week one of pilot testing.
Developed a scalable design system with tokens, components, and flows.
Built a prototype to validate with users and demonstrate traction to investors.
Aligned stakeholders around a clear product vision and roadmap.
Outomes
Setup time ↓ ~25 min → 3 min
Routine adoption ↑ 2× in week one
Vision and roadmap alignment across team + investors
Tangible prototype boosted confidence and positioned the product for funding
NDA & Compliance Notes
Client identity and vendor names removed.
Metrics are directional/pilot-based; no PII disclosed.
All visuals depict generic UI; no confidential source assets included.
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