ROLE
UX Researcher
Conversation Designer
Bot Builder
Lenny The Pipe Doctor
An AI Chatbot that provides 24/7 assistance via the Home Depot website and app in order to empower the user through the DIYer renovation and research process.
TEAM
Chandler Webb
Lucy Mungo
Charlotte Olmsted
TYPE & TIMELINE
Grad School Project
4 weeks
TOOLS
Figma
ChatFuel
Miro
Facebook Chatbots
Current Landscape
Majority of new home owners end up house broke.
A majority of new home owners (we interviewed) ended up as “house broke” after dealing with unforeseen expenses with their new home. With a limited budget, they were forced to learn and fix certain renovations themselves.
Problem
Tackling a plumbing project is riddled with pain points and leads to frustrations.
New “house broke” homeowners are doing DIY plumbing projects but the process is lengthy and is riddled with pain points. There's too much information, its overwhelming, customers struggle with terminology, and they aren't going to the store prepared.
The Reality
DIYers lack of knowledge leads to their own frustration and future “pain points”
These new DIYers leave the store with the wrong parts or sizes, realize it doesn’t work at home and then it’s back to the store again and again.
This frustrates both the associate and the customer.
Opportunity
Leverage an expert’s plumbing knowledge
The solution already exists with an expert associate at the store. Why not bring Lenny, the expert, and introduce him earlier into the consumer journey?
Solution
Introduce the wisdom of experts to eliminate the 2nd/3rd store visits
Empowering customers with knowledge to make shopping for plumbing efficient and less daunting.
Improve in-store shopping experience for both store associates and upcoming DIYers hence quicker project turnover for DIYers to take up more projects.
LENNY THE PIPE DOCTOR
An AI Chatbot that provides 24/7 assistance via the Home Depot website and app in order to empower the user through the DIYer renovation and research process.
How this works
Building confidence and resources into the Home Depot mobile app
Our primary challenge, beyond developing the conversational flow structure, was determining how to integrate the DIYer user experience with the existing app design. On one hand, we wanted to break the script enough to draw attention to the new feature. But we also wanted to provide the same seamless experience users have come to expect.
We discovered that a solution already exists - a HD Employee named Lenny with 20 + years experience in plumbing.
Both customers and fellow Home Depot employees raved about one man when we approached them with our project. If you have to do anything surrounding the topic of plumbing, Lenny is your guy. And they were right. Despite the existing pain points that both HD employees and DIY customers feel - he has been “the pain reliever", and “the pipe doctor guru” for all.
By prioritizing and solving for this overlooked user: Female Home Owners/DIYers - we increase our solution’s impact.
At first, we had no particular vision for this project. We were assigned the Home Depot plumbing aisle. That’s it. As we conducted our brand research, site visits and interviews, we discovered for ourselves how intimidating and overwhelming it all can be especially for certain groups of people - Single home owners, Women, Introverts and many more. This is “our user” - Gillian.
1. Discovery
Introducing Lenny the pipe doctor within the app
New chat button is located in the bottom right corner to entice customers to chat with the pipe doctor and start making this idea into a reality. The HD list feature was improved slightly to resemble a Pinterest board.
2. WAYFINDING
Empowered users can now find needed items within a shorter time with map feature
This was an intentionally added feature due to users’ previous complaints surrounded around feeling overwhelmed when in the aisle. This results in becoming multiple trips.
For Context: The current plumbing aisle at a Home Depot if you were to search for that part by yourself.
3. QUICK FIX FEATURE
Chatbot provides quick solutions to user
In this flow, you see Gillian experience the same flow, but for a quick fix instead of a long term renovation.
This allows for an AR scanning option for consumers who need their abrupt problem to be diagnosed by a Home Depot professional.
User Feedback
People felt Lenny the Pipe Doctor made plumbing a bit more fun.
In summary, Lenny inserts himself throughout the new consumer journey and so, it only benefits Home Depot overall. It makes it distinct in comparison to competitors and the go-to place for the DIYer.
Less Intimdated
"A bot might change my choice because it is less intimidating than going in the store with questions AND searching online, not knowing exactly what to look for.
I would love a rapid response feature, for example - just yesterday I discovered a clog in the shower/tub. It wasn’t draining. We bought an auger from Ace and watched a Youtube video on how to use it. We realized we bought the wrong type of part and needed to return to the store to start over…The bot would have helped me find the right part the first round.”
— Gillian, 35 (DIYer for 5 years)
Empowered
"I’m single and the idea of tackling bigger projects can be daunting at times.
Having a guy like Lenny to help me navigate the process would be great. He’s very cute and charming. I enjoyed chatting with him.”
— Yvonne, 40 (DIYer for 7 years)
Would Switch Stores
“I go to Lowe’s only because it’s closer, if Home Depot had a helpful chatbot, like this one, I would chose Home Depot over Lowe’s.
I would consider tackling plumbing projects if I had access to a chatbot like this one.
I would find a 24/7 rapid response chatbot useful, because it’s hard to get a plumber to come to the house, especially for minor things."
— Maggie, 39 (DIYer for 15 years)
Design Process
Leveraging Miro's flexibility for all-in-one design fun.
We used a shared Miro project as mission control for our entire conversational design portion post pandemic. Everything from opportunity and mind mapping to conversation flows and responses were built in the tool. Miro handled everything we threw at it. Running a half-way remote Brandcenter project was not easy, but the experience showed us the possibility to do great work at any distance.
The Results
This project presentation earned me a Master’s Degree from VCU Brandcenter.
Lifelong passion for language + chatbots unlocked.
One impressed Lenny (the human).
Reflections
The Pipe Doctor was an amazing project where I got to flex my other skills beyond UX/UI - like: User Research/Testing and Conversation Design.
This project still used the curb-cut effect - we designed for an overlooked user - primarily with female homeowners because we found that this group experienced the most amount of pain points out of others in our user research. By designing with them in mind - this AI ChatBot ultimately benefits any type of DIYer/homeowner.
Besides learning everything about DIY plumbing, I got to truly be an advocate for both the Home Depot consumer and employees through this unique solution and it was so fulfilling!
Want to see more? Check out my team’s full presentation!
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