Prototyper of the Week
OpenBike Gets Rolling
Forging ahead with user testing
Every week, we recognize the Highway1 team that was most active in the lab with the prestigious Prototyper of the Week award.
This week's winner is OpenBike. Here to tell the team's story in their own words is CEO Randall Jacobs:
"We wanted to start user testing as quickly as possible, but our next-gen prototype hardware wasn't ready. In order to get user testing, we built a proof-of-concept hardware kit, including turn signals, brake lights, running lights, a headlight, handlebar controls and a dashboard with phone mount."
"Co-founder Kyle Manna deserves all the credit for putting in several days of work in the shop."
"Marin Bikes provided a Fairfax SC2, their best-selling model, to use as a prototyping platform."
"We had hypotheses for how people would interact with the bike, and now we can validate them. An early example is the turn signals. One tester told us the lights aren't bright enough during the day for the turn signals to be impactful, but at night, cars respond. They actually treat you differently: they give you more room, they allow you to turn -- they treat you like another vehicle. It makes us think differently about what we're building: it's not just lights, it's presence and confidence.
This week's winner is OpenBike. Here to tell the team's story in their own words is CEO Randall Jacobs:
"We wanted to start user testing as quickly as possible, but our next-gen prototype hardware wasn't ready. In order to get user testing, we built a proof-of-concept hardware kit, including turn signals, brake lights, running lights, a headlight, handlebar controls and a dashboard with phone mount."
"Co-founder Kyle Manna deserves all the credit for putting in several days of work in the shop."
"Marin Bikes provided a Fairfax SC2, their best-selling model, to use as a prototyping platform."
"We had hypotheses for how people would interact with the bike, and now we can validate them. An early example is the turn signals. One tester told us the lights aren't bright enough during the day for the turn signals to be impactful, but at night, cars respond. They actually treat you differently: they give you more room, they allow you to turn -- they treat you like another vehicle. It makes us think differently about what we're building: it's not just lights, it's presence and confidence.
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