Traeger Grills
My role
Lead design. Recruit and nurture a team. Elevate Traeger to the premium position and fastest growing brand in outdoor cooking through product excellence.
Industrial Design
User Experience
Roadmapping
Connected Ecosystem Experience
Concept design-to-production
Accomplishments
Best in class
From 20% out-of-box failures to best-in-class by Consumer Reports in 1 product cycle by focusing on craftsmanship and performance.
Growth
Launched more than 14 durable SKUs over 5 years, resulting in ecstatic consumer engagement and love for the product with an increased LTV.
Accessory attachment rate growth from <10% to >40%.
Contributed to revenue growth from $75mm to $650mm in 8 years through innovation and product excellence.
Built a kick ass team
Recruited and nurtured a multi-disciplinary design and development team focusing on the user experience across the connected ecosystem and throughout the cooking journey.
"In The Barbecue Battle, Traeger Is The ‘Apple’ Brand in Outdoor Cooking."
August 21, 2022
July 25, 2022
Products Launched
Physical products
Digital products
Connected products
“Platform design and systems thinking drive common components across grill models and thus lower cost.”
Timberline launched with the first full-color touch screen, first certified outdoor induction cooktop in the US, integrated Bluetooth meat probes, and industry-first combined grease and ash collection system.
Touch screen controller
Induction cooktop
Traeger x Meater thermometer
Grease & ash collection system
“Discovery demonstrated that users will find work-arounds or employ products not designed for outdoor spaces to arrange their grills space as they need it.”
Pop and Lock (P.A.L) Rail System
Aesthetically the PAL rail adds a belt-line to the products to break up the mass of the grill body. Providing users the ability to set up their grill as they want, and increased productivity of each accessory for retailers from the cross-platform integration.
timberline xl
ironwood xl
flatrock
cup holder
roll rack
front shelf
storage bin
utility hooks
“Traeger Experience Strategy: Break the threshold to everyday Traegering by engaging the user throughout the cooking journey and across the connected ecosystem, from novice to master chef and from brisket to broccoli.”
The Cooking Journey
Every cooking experience, whether planned or spontaneous, can be broken down into a variation of this journey.
User data indicated if we can educate consumers on product capacities through onboarding and over the first 60 days we could greatly reduce service calls, see greater longterm use and LTV.
Onboarding and first-use experience exploration that included gamification through challenges and cook data.
“Always be user centered.”
Research based decision making
hypothesis
Visualize
prototype
test
Discovery
Qualitative and quantitative methods used to build user and market intelligence and establish hypothesis of needs and opportunities.
Validation
Qualitative and quantitative methods used to determine overall value of a feature, design, or experience.
Usability
Task-based, observational method used to determine the intuitiveness of a feature or experience.
Validation
Care & maintenance
ethnography
usability
“Through development of strategies, principles will start to take form. These principles guide us in how we approach and ultimately solve problems, building depth to our brand.”
Design Principles
Attract
Traeger’s iconic stance is uniquely visible in a sea of grills, attracting users from a distance and setting us apart from the crowd.
Engage
When cooking with Traeger it’s clear users are placed at the center of the design process. We anticipate the users needs to develop engaging experiences.
Delight
It’s the little things that add up. From tactile touchpoints to animations, the smallest details are thoughtfully considered bringing joy to the cooking process.
