Why You’re Better Off Not Doing It Alone
The desire to make things that help people solve problems and help express themselves is a strong motivation for many designers, but how do you do that when you’re building something for the opposite sex?
The Perfect Marriage For Launching A Unisex Line
When Belgian-Rwandan pop star Stromae, né Paul van Haver decided to start his own brand he approached his personal stylist and now wife Coralie Barbier. Together they launched their line called Mosaert which just released it’s third capsule collection in April. Paul in his own words, was jealous of the diversity offered by women’s wardrobe. With the help of Coralie expertise and visual eye Mosaert borrow features from women’s clothing to build unisex fashion line that represents the best of both worlds.
Paul knew that he wanted to design a fashion line to give men more diversity in their clothes, but he needed Coralie’s point of view and help to really bring his vision into reality. She was able to integrate the best of both world’s into a product line that would appeal to both sexes, Mosaert needed a team made of each opposite sex to actually work.
Exercising Empathy Only Goes So Far
When business partners Matthew Gross and Mark Ainsworth noticed so many women were using the camera on their phones to fix up their makeup they knew there had to be a better way to solve the problem. They decided to build Mirra Mirra a sleek phone case with a built in mirror and light for illumination. The case is thin, and available in different colors that appeal to the female demographic whilst also providing protection for the user’s phone. The main feature though is the lighting element, powered through the torch function of the phone so it doesn’t require charging. It is the perfect case for applying makeup when there’s not enough light, say at the cinema or to take a selfie in the dark.
The design team at Mirra Mirra interviewed many women and both partners received plenty of input from their girlfriends, but the team knew they needed a more hands on approach when building their marketing strategy for their crowdfunding campaign on IndieGoGo. For both Mark and Matthew, stepping into the shoes of their target market, women aged between 16-35 was not enough, so they reached out to Shine PR. Co-founders Emily Ward and Jess Hunichen specialize in working with with lifestyle brands, leveraging their network of social media influencers to better connect with their audience. They decided to use social media talent in their IndieGoGo video in order to connect with women in the beauty and lifestyle space from day one.
They also provided valuable input on how to better position Mirra Mirra and helped the team come up with some creative ways to attract women who could use their case. Adding the perspective of the opposite sex really helped the Mirra Mirra team understand the need for more color options, so girls could accessorize their phone case, which led them to introduce colors such as Rose Gold and Marble. Shine PR have an ongoing relationship with the brand and provide support on all branding, media relations, social media and influencer relations.
As a team in the beginning we were just two guys designing a product to help solve a problem for young women. We quickly learned that what our team lacked was diversity, our attempts at empthasizing could only take us so far. By recruiting women to our team we found they not only had first hand experience with the problem we were attempting to solve, but their knowledge of our target market was invaluable in refining the Mirra Mirra phone case design. We were also able to improve our messaging to help us better connect with potential customers. - Matthew Gross, Co-Founder Mirra Mirra
Build Gender Diversity Into Your Product Teams
Whether you are building a product or developing a service, building a gender diverse team provides the advantage of capturing not just the different perspectives but also discovering ways to refine and improve what you’re offering so it appeals to wider audience in a more personalized and effective way.
Video courtesy of Now Creative Group