The greatest IT success stories over the past decade come from companies working hard to make sense of the ever-expanding stores of data, publicly available over the internet. It turns out, capturing data is far simpler than providing an elegant environment for interacting and organizing the mountains of information. Google made search simple and relational to attract users, but really packs their punch through the service-based tools they provide for free. Facebook is evolving more and more into a mirror of one’s daily life, from up-to-the-second musical tastes to wedding announcements to photos of the newborn. Online engagement is moving away from text-heavy environments to more visually-based experiences. The age of text-based secondary memory storage is nearing an end– images are the future. Pinterest is a rapidly growing startup working towards this future.

photo credit: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pinterest/id429047995?mt=8
photo credit: http://www.pinterest.com

In October of 2011, Pinterest secured $27 million in funding from Andreessen Horowitz and was valued at $200 million (Swisher, 2011). In the words of Pinterest cofounder, Ben Silbermann, the company is setting out to “connect people all over the world through common interest” (Kincaid, 2011). People use this pinboard service to, “show off things that interest them offline (in other words, it’s sort of like an online bridge between the web and the real world)" (Kincaid). The platform itself allows users to pin items to personal pinboards, which can be made public, collaborative, or kept private. According to TIME magazine, which named the site one of the 50 best websites of 2011, "Perusing other folks' boards, featuring everything from picturesque travel scenes to oddly beautiful bacteria, is as enjoyable as building your own" (McCracken, 2011).

Unlike many startups, the site has a “clear path to revenue —  a lot of the use-cases Pinterest users are coming up with have potential commercial intent (say, a list of things they want for their wedding). And there will certainly be business models that can be built around them" (Kincaid).

Perhaps Pinterest’s strongest draw lies in the unconventional, web-based traffic it attracts. "It's a visual bookmarking site used primarily by women" (Kirkpatrick, 2011). And, "the site is getting a lot of traction outside of the tech bubble" (Kincaid). There is even buzz stating that Pinterest may help support relationships by allowing friends, families, and couples to genuinely learn more about one another. According to Katherine Rosman, writing for The Wall Street Journal, "It hadn't occurred to me that such an online service also would be a window into me for my husband who sees me every day" (Rosman, 2011).

photo credit: http://www.pinterest.com/rachelsimrell

A prime example of the leading challenge facing Pinterest is evident through the following customer testimonial statements: "When I tell people about my new romance with Pinterest they just don't seem to get it. Sure I know of a few dedicated fans here and there, but a lot of those who I recommend it to, see it as a bit too ‘crafty,’ full of fluff, animals and wedding planning" (Caddy, 2011). This described reaction to a direct customer recommendation threatens to marginalize the potential utility of Pinterest to a niche by limiting penetration to a wider consumer base. Regardless of this challenge, Caddy is confident that once a user understands Pinterest’s true utility through direct interaction with the product, these inaccurate assumptions will vanish:

Yes Pinterest does lend itself to that kind of content, but it doesn't have to ALL of the time. The content you see and photos you re-pin totally depend on who you follow and how you use the platform yourself. It can be a really useful tool for all kinds of things, selling your products, how-tos, personal bookmarking and even a place to share your photos if you're working for a brand (Caddy).

Clearly communicating Pinterest’s true value to the uninitiated consumer requires careful consideration. The benefits of a successfully applied strategy will place Pinterest ahead of the pack in both engineered product and user engagement within this emerging category. Silicon Valley consultant, Semil Shah, says Pinterest captures what will become a big trend in the future, "discovery's primacy over search.” Shah argues this has huge commercial potential, “people are asked today what they want to search for - in the future they will be aided in their discovery of fabulous things they didn't even know they wanted to buy yet" (Kirkpatrick). Considering the rapid pace of web development, quickly establishing a broad, loyal customer base is critical. After all, Pinterest’s well-established rivals will not be far behind in innovating a competitive product, which they can immediately roll-out to their mature consumer bases. To achieve long-term success, Pinterest must capture and retain these customers before the competition catches up.

According to Pinterest’s customer usage data, customer retention will not be a problem. In fact, the “Customer Loyalty Score [Customer Satisfaction x Customer Retention x Customer Recommendation]” (Best, 2009, p21), of existing users is high. Recently, Pinterest’s founder stated that Andreessen Horowitz is primarily excited about Pinterest since, “the service has very strong user engagement — Jordan [the founder] says the users who are registered often wind up using it 'fairly voraciously'” (Kincaid). Additionally, current growth figures appear positive. “The site is showing very strong growth metrics, despite the fact that it’s still in a semi-private beta” (Kincaid).

To secure strong customer loyalty and strong growth in the long term, Pinterest should look to emulate other companies that have successfully mitigated a potential gender-bias to their product or service. Victoria’s Secret represents a perfect example. The founder of the lingerie power-house, Roy Raymond, identified an opportunity to attract both genders to shop in an industry with historically single-gender patronage. Raymond reported feeling “embarrassed trying to purchase lingerie for his wife in a department store environment” (Wikipedia, 2011). So, his stores were designed with the male customer in mind:

The stores were meant to create a comfortable environment for men, with wood-paneled walls, Victorian details and helpful sales staff. Instead of racks of bras and panties in every size, there were single styles, paired together and mounted on the wall in frames. Men could browse for styles for women and sales staff would help estimate the appropriate size, pulling from inventory in the back rooms (Wikipedia).

At the end of their fifth year in operation, Victoria’s Secret sold $6M per year across six stores. Less than a decade later, following nationwide expansion, the company became America’s largest lingerie retailer generating $1 Billion in annual sales. (Wikipedia). Rather than marginalizing half of their “new potentials,” Victoria’s Secret took advantage of a previously untapped customer segment. Pinterest would be wise to follow suit.

Considering the inherent differences between consumer engagement within the physical and digital marketplaces as well as Pinterest’s stated platform utility across non-gender specific consumer segments, the issue really comes down to communication. To establish a healthy conversation with the “new potentials,” Pinterest should implement a clear and effective customer education campaign. The campaign should be gender specific and seek to open up a dialogue with at least the following three consumer segments:

1. Underrepresented Male Population – This campaign should focus on how Pinterest can support the “male” experience. The primary challenge here will be establishing credibility with a wide enough variety of male-specific consumer segments; therefore, this should be a campaign of highly focused mini-campaigns.
2. Uninitiated Female Population – Develop a campaign that concentrates on Pinterest’s utility as a daily product. Focus on personal relationship-driven experiences, framing Pinterest’s potential to positively support the daily– and spark the extraordinary– moments in our lives.
3. Existing Loyal Customer Base – Demonstrate continued dedication to innovating around the existing Pinterest platform while encouraging the use of “Customer Recommendations” with family and friends. The campaign should provide examples demonstrating Pinterest’s utility by both male and female customers.

Inviting these customers to engage in the actual Pinterest experience will lead to positive incremental growth and a strong, dedicated user base. Moving forward, Pinterest’s success will ultimately depend on their ability to face the inevitable innovation onslaught from their mature competitors.

Bibliography

Caddy, Becca (09.16.2011). Pinterest: Is it just full of crafts, cookies and kittens? Shiny Shiny. Retrieved October 16, 2011, from http://www.shinyshiny.tv/2011/09/is-pinterest-just-crafts-and-kittens.html.

Dennis, E. E., & Vanden Heuvel, J. (1991). Emerging voices: East European media in transition: A report of the Gannett Foundation Task Force on Press Freedom in Eastern Europe (2nd ed.). New York: Gannett Foundation Media Center.

Best, Roger. (2009). Market-Based Management: Strategies for Growing Customer Value and Profitability (5th ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.

Kincaid, Jason (10.07.2011). Confirmed: Pinterest Raises $27 Million Round Led By Andressen Horowitz. TechCrunch. Retrieved October 16, 2011, from http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/07/confirmed-pinterest-raises-27-million-round-led-by-andreessen-horowitz/.

Kirkpatrick, Marshall (09.16.2011). If You've Never Heard of Pinterest, You're a Big Dork. ReadWriteWeb. Retrieved October 16, 2011, from http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/if_youve_never_heard_of_pinterest_youre_a_big_dork.php.

McCracken, Harry (08.16.2011). The 50 Best Websites of 2011. TIME. Retrieved October 16, 2011, from http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2087815_2088159_2088155,00.html.

Rosman, Katherine (09.25.2011). Technology: My Marriage's Secret Glue. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 16, 2011, from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903703604576591272533051998.html.

Swisher, Kara (10.07.2011). Exclusive: Pinterest Closes New $27M Round with Adreessen Horowitz Valuing Start-Up at $200M. All Things D. Retrieved October 16, 2011, from http://allthingsd.com/20111007/exclusive-pinterest-set-to-close-a-new-round-with-andreessen-horowitz-valuing-start-up-at-200m/.

Wikipedia: Pinterest. (n.d.). Retrieved October 15, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinterest.

Wikipedia: Victoria's Secret. (n.d.). Retrieved October 16, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria's_Secret.

May 3rd, Portfolio and Process - Initial conceptual sketch for site specific design. The portfolio is the focus of the site, placed dead center. Comprehensive contact information and a listing of recent process blog posts act as a permanent footer. Bridging the gap between the "finished" portfolio and "work-in-progress" process becomes an important focus of the site with complete and seamless integration of my online identity developing as the long-term goal.

July 2nd, Philosophy - The permanent footer receives a second blog listing addition, which contains writings pertaining to the philosophy behind my work. The initial essays included were previously written as application essays for my MBA program, which focuses on Sustainable Business Practices.

August 2nd, Augmented Reality - Efforts to more actively integrate my online identity lead to the addition of social media tools directly on the site. Google +1, Facebook Recommend, and Twitter Tweet & Follow buttons are all included. This development point marks the site's layout transition from fixed to dynamically scalable. My sights are set on full-bleed portfolio imagery, not to mention the complete banishment of flash, as the site matures.

The full-screen view below was captured using @GoogleChrome in Max OS X Lion. At this point, the site is cross-browser compliant; however, due to the continued use of flash, dynamic scaling behaves differently depending upon browser and operating system.

August 26th, Business Card - Credit for the minimalist design surrounding the email address on the front of the card goes to @borismus. For this version, I have added my site logo to Boris' original conceptual design.

The back of the card presents a minorly abstracted QR-Code containing basic vCard information as well as my mobile number. I have embedded a more thorough vCard at the end of my résumé. Moving forward, I will include digital pointers such as these within any material work. For example, a QR-Code on a project detail page within a printed portfolio that sends the reader directly to the project's specific page on the site. The opportunity to blur the lines between the physical and digital is quite intriguing. Reversing that thought process, I am also interested in creating each individual QR-Code from physical models and/or original imagery as independent design projects.

Next up... mobile compliance, replacing all remaining flash components with HTML5 & CSS3. The writing of accompanying text for each portfolio piece will also be included during this phase– at this point, the portfolio exists in perpetual tweak mode.

Below are samples of the final photography for the finished piece.

Thank you to Rachel Simrell for completing the photography. Also, thank you to Sara Huston and Sawyer Christianson for their guidance throughout the term. This post concludes my furniture design studio, "Challenging Expectations." Please visit my design website, www.blakecscott.com to view the comprehensive portfolio for this work, which will be posted within the next few days.

Stay tuned for the next project...

It all comes down to a man, a drill, and the product of ten weeks of work-- NO mistakes permitted! The drilling phase of the construction process was both exhilarating and terrifying. Prior to the drilling phase, the highest pressure point occurred while inserting the cabinet into the core. Both pieces were "finished" and the joints were so tight that four heavy-duty clamps, innumerable towels and a glass of wine were all required to bring things together. The glue timer was nerve-wracking – fifteen minutes to get things together or bust. As the clamps were slowly tightened, the wood creaked like the hull of a ship in a storm. Thankfully, everything worked out beautifully.

The pictures above and below were taken during the drilling phase and highlight the jig constructed and used for drilling evenly from corners at a 90º angle without the use of a drill press. The final hardware is also featured within the images. Stainless steel rods were cut to length by Justin at Coyote Steel and the precision custom threading was completed by Ken at Welch's Machine Works. A special thanks to Ken for rushing this job and taking the extra time to make sure the flange/weld nuts and the threaded rods fit together seemlessly. Other than the six screws securing the horizontal and vertical pieces of the MDF core, the exposed hardware is the only hardware used in the entire piece. All flange/weld nuts were pressure fit.

Note the photograph above where 1/32" spacers were added to one side of the jig for drilling the shallow holes on the bottom of the keystone. These were added because the width of the keystone and cabinet differed by 1/16". Also shown below, is the drill bit banded with green tape. The tape indicates the limited depth to drill on the keystone since the holes could not puncture through the wood.

Really starting to feel the pressure as assembly approaches. Here is the collection of "finished" pieces before assembly.

The painted MDF core piece.

The "finished" cabinet. Notice the unfinished end-grain left for glue application.

The "finished" keystone. The natural finish makes the walnut sing.

Throughout the project, I was concerned with hardwood respect. As a beginning woodworker, I was especially concerned with making a mistake or using more of the material than necessary. The project was completed without the use of safety pieces or a reserve stock of wood. This approach racheted up the pressure considerably as "forward progress" and the "potential for catastrophic failure" maintained a direct relationship. Below are images of two cutting boards made from the scraps of the project.

This cutting board took advantage of end piece scrap, both from the initial milling phase as well as after the Making Bigger Boards glue-up.

The striped board above used the long grain scrap pieces shaved from the sides of boards during "final cuts." To bring order to the pattern, a "bookmatch" approach was used here by slicing the longer boards in half after the glue-up, turning one piece around and matching the two together.

The remaining scrap, which will be used for future projects.