Simplifying the smart home experience

Project introduction

Solving the smart home puzzle through internal collaboration and innovation

We are at the cusp of mass adoption of smart home technology. Connected home products in the US are projected to be in 63 million homes by 2022. This would result in a market value of almost $53.5 billion. Even more, 91% of those who currently use smart home products would recommend this technology to others.

The problem? There is no standard platform for IoT technology, including hardware and software designed for home automation. In today’s world, each device manufacturer builds its app. Hence, users are forced to open and operate a different app for each connected device in their home.

This notion bothered Mutual Mobile’s strategists, program managers, designers, and developers. As a result, they found themselves thinking about what could be done to improve the clunky state of smart home affairs. Thus, the idea for Beam was born.

Our experts researched first-hand experiences with consumers, compared compatible HomeKit-enabled products, dissected APIs, and spent hours iterating on the possibilities of a truly smart home. Based on findings from this exercise, we built high-fidelity prototypes that were tested and improved to create the best smart home app possible.

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Approach and solution

Beam provides framework for company innovation and client insights

Beam is a beautiful and intuitive product that solves a significant problem in the smart home market. It is also a purposeful innovation framework that provides learnings for future IoT projects and partnerships. This endeavor provided the Mutual Mobile team with an avenue to practice new prototyping methods, explore animations and illustrations, and better understand client needs by serving as our own project stakeholder.

Our team implemented comprehensive design capabilities from a design standpoint, including product definition, brand standards, and visual identity. Throughout product development, we applied Agile software methodologies with supporting documentation. This process allowed us to analyze existing processes and make improvements. This analysis helped create internal best practices and increase efficiencies for client work.

Most importantly, creating Beam gave our team a deeper understanding of our client partnerships. We served as the client and product owner, which provided valuable insights. It helped us understand the importance of being empathetic to our clients’ needs and tailoring solutions to deliver value along the way.

"We put ourselves in our clients’ shoes to create Beam. Not only did this endeavor give us a deeper understand of our partnerships, it further sharpened our ability to guide clients through obstacles presented from a business strategy, design, and technical perspective."

Mickey Ristroph - Founder & Co-Chief Executive Officer Mutual Mobile