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Trex

Deck Builder Product Strategy

  • Trex

  • Challenge

    Decking manufacturer Trex was interested in creating a new software product offering, but wanted to find out what their customers wanted and needed before starting to build it.

  • Solution

    An in-depth user research engagement leveraging moderated testing sessions to validate the idea behind the potential new product.

  • Results

    A consolidated research findings deliverable, including insights, competitive analysis, and feature recommendations for an interactive deck builder tool.

Building a case for building software. Leading decking company Trex knew that some of their competitors offered interactive deck building software to customers. But would Trex’s customers find a tool like this useful? How similar or different should Trex’s offering be? What specific features would give Trex’s product an edge? Viget worked with the Trex team as product co-strategists to analyze the variety of tools on the market. We also asked real customers and contractors what they need when designing, and used our insights to make recommendations for developing a new software product.

Our final deliverable included research findings and product strategy recommendations.

User Research

Concept Validation

Some companies jump straight into software development upon discovering a competitor’s offering. Trex wanted to start by finding out whether the idea of 3D design software was, in fact, in demand by users and worth their investment. We came up with a research plan that would rely on feedback from users to gut-check the concept, while also discovering what specific needs customers have when designing their decks.
Trex's goals for their new product offering.

User Testing

Connecting with Contractors

We used a large survey (about 1,000 people) and a smaller group of one-on-one remote interviews with customers and contractors to identify a user hierarchy of needs. We then tested that hierarchy by having users try both Trex’s design tools and their competitors’ while sharing their screens with us via GoToMeeting. Based on these tests, we were able to rule out including a simple, high-level estimator tool — as it turned out, customers were most interested in relatively robust design functionality.
Conducting remote interviews with Trex customers.

Product Strategy

Insights and Investment

With a number of potential variables in play for a future product from Trex, we wanted our recommendations to zero-in on the sweet spot between users’ desired software complexity and the expense that solution would require. Our final strategic recommendations included our competitive analysis, findings from our survey and user tests, and specific insights on the features and differentiators that would be the most useful for customers — and therefore the best investment for Trex.
Our final, proposed software solution.

Summary

We worked with decking manufacturer Trex to determine the validity of a plan to develop a new software product offering for customers. Through moderated user tests and interviews, we gathered feedback on the features that customers found most useful, and delivered a set of recommendations to help Trex decide how much of an investment they should make in a 3D modeling tool.