Petminda–always safe, always together
Product Development
Petminda
Petminda–always safe, always together
Product Development
After adopting a golden-haired hound called Bonnie, Blake and Sarah Horstman wanted to maximise time with their pet. That’s when their idea was born: automated pods that allow owners to run errands while pets rest safely and await their return.
Blake and Sarah wanted to develop their vision quickly, and so they were introduced to us by commercial advisor, Joe Barber. He recommended Tekt Industries as a firm that could rapidly provide design, engineering and manufacturing services under one roof.
In less than nine months, our multidisciplinary team, including designers and engineers, worked to create the entire system. This included the housing, electronic control systems, mobile app, and cloud dashboard. We also provided advice on IP protection and product certification.
In July 2021, the first round of Petminda pods were launched at Barkly square in Brunswick, Melbourne. Pods are now being rolled out to further locations across the city.
Client
After adopting a golden-haired hound called Bonnie, Blake and Sarah Horstman wanted to maximise time with their pet. That’s when their idea was born: automated pods that allow owners to run errands while pets rest safely and await their return.
Blake and Sarah wanted to develop their vision quickly, and so they were introduced to us by commercial advisor, Joe Barber. He recommended Tekt Industries as a firm that could rapidly provide design, engineering and manufacturing services under one roof.
In less than nine months, our multidisciplinary team, including designers and engineers, worked to create the entire system. This included the housing, electronic control systems, mobile app, and cloud dashboard. We also provided advice on IP protection and product certification.
In July 2021, the first round of Petminda pods were launched at Barkly square in Brunswick, Melbourne. Pods are now being rolled out to further locations across the city.
The Challenge
Petminda were looking for a design partner that could rapidly deliver a commercially ready Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Ideally, they needed a group that could carry out the engineering side of things but also do the industrial design, UX and App development.
‘I was very impressed with Matthew's (Tekt Industries CEO) knowledge of every aspect of the project; this instilled a lot of confidence in me,’ said Blake.
They wanted to get their idea out to the public quickly to get feedback on it and potentially attract further investment. Their product contained several complex design and engineering challenges to ensure the welfare of the pet inside:
- The pod would need to cope with Melbourne’s broad range of temperatures and adjust the internal pod temperature accordingly.
- The App would need to recognise users and process payments in real time, the way an Airbnb or Uber does.
- The pod would need to monitor pod vacancy and trigger cleaning when required.
- Finally, the system would also record video inside the pod for the owner’s peace of mind.
The process
A key part of the project was the industrial and mechanical design. Petminda were very happy we could preserve the contemporary, curved shape that we put forward to them early on in the project.
‘Often concept designs start out looking beautiful but the look gets whittled down as the product is realised. We’re pleased that the final design adds a certain fun and artiness to the product,’ said Blake.
Because this product was quickly going into the field, it required a level of testing over and above what’s normally applied to an MVP. To enable this, we created a CNC machined plywood prototype. We were able to use this while the final fibreglass pods were being made.
As all the project team members are in the same building and we have a large factory floor, we could do integration testing on our premises. We were then able to quickly make changes to any aspect of the connected system before retesting. As a result there were many opportunities to optimise the user experience.
The solution
From the user’s point of view, the Petminda seems simple but it’s a sophisticated connected system. This is not a typical IoT device but a fully integrated sensor and control based technology. It contains sensors that collect information on temperature and motion, among other things. But it’s also a live system that’s interacting with a user and a pet continuously, ensuring the welfare of the pooch while processing payments, monitoring pod vacancy, and managing the pod’s environment.
This project involved advanced app and Cloud development using Flutter and Google Firebase and the integration of third party apps including Stripe for payment processing.
‘The app is brilliant, the functionality is amazing. It was a very challenging project, and it takes a special team to bring a world-class product like this to life,’ said Blake.
The solution as a whole also contains features that would typically occur in a very mature (non MVP) product. For example, the ability to remotely update the pod’s firmware and the integration of a third party application, Twilio, for sending SMS notifications to pod administrators.
Beyond our core services, we also conducted research on Petminda’s behalf, designed labelling in line with their brand, provided training and were readily available to address any issues after deployment.
The Results
In July 2021, the first round of Petminda pods were successfully launched at Barkly square in Brunswick, Melbourne. Pods are now being rolled out in locations across the city including Highpoint Shopping centre in Maribyrnong and Victoria Gardens, Richmond.
About the client
Petminda are Blake and Sarah Horstman. Prior to Petminda, Sarah was running an online store selling lighting solutions while working as a paramedic. As a couple working together, this is their first big entrepreneurial project.
The idea for Petminda arose because, as busy professionals, they were finding it hard to give their dog the proper care that she needed, including exercise. The original concept was very basic, they imagined something akin to a large parcel locker. However, they quickly realised that they’d need to design a pod that satisfied pet welfare requirements while providing a premium user experience for pet owners. This is when they started their journey with us.
Product Development
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