Discover Pedestal’s journey from a niche idea to a premium brand. Follow my perspective from both a consumer and product manager position as we explore this transformation, delve into UX analysis, and discuss possible product improvement and growth strategies for the future.
Background
For a long time I’ve had this idea of adding wheels to my TV bench so I can easily move it between the living room and bedroom in my medium-sized apartment.
The idea so brilliant that my girlfriend hated it the moment I said it out loud. She’d imagined our TV drawer, with industry-style added wheels, distorting our classic Barcelonian apartment. That’s basically what she imagined (no offence to the designers):
However, a few months later I noticed this ad while scrolling my Instagram stories:
And a few minutes after that I was sold, or actually one of Pedestal stands was sold and shipped to us. In the end, we’ve decided to pass on wheels that weren’t as appealing as the rest of the design and ordered Bendy Tall Stand in an amazing Dusty Rose color.
Personal Experience
I will not lie if I say that I did zero research prior to ordering my stand. I loved the design, I loved the colors and I loved the Scandinavian roots. That was enough to make the decision. And that’s also why my whole product experience was mostly free of any bias:
USER JOURNEY: 10/10
Ordering and shipping went smoothly. Website experience with zero roadblocks, quick and intuitive.
ASSEMBLY: 7/10
Assembly was a bit harder than expected and could cause problems for someone without a technical background. Even though the manual is complete and 100% Ikea-style, some technical solutions are not very user-friendly. For example, if you want to increase the height of your TV after assembling, it requires disassembling half of the stand- not so cool. And in general assembling solo is rather hard, 2 people are recommended which is quite surprising for such a small furniture element.
USER EXPERIENCE: 10/10
Finally, after almost one year of using the stand, there is nothing I can complain about. The stand is very stable so the chances of knocking it over are close to zero Paintwork is top quality, there are zero signs of wear despite occasional bumps while vacuuming. Cable masking works great and I’m still able to move my stand from one room to another even though it doesn’t have wheels since it’s not very heavy.
Competitors and Product Positioning
I’ve not checked any alternatives to Pedestal, unless you count my own idea of adding wheels to the TV drawer on my own. But for the purpose of this article, I did some research.
TV stands, especially very aesthetic ones, were a great niche that probably helped Pedestal quickly become one of the market leaders. Basically Blue Ocean Strategy in full force. There are not many players in this market but a few worth mentioning are:
All of them have distinguishable designs, unique marketing strategies, and different sales approaches. However, all of them operate within the same tiny niche category and might be considered premium products compared to standard off-the-shelf TV stands or mounts. And although Pedestal’s pricing is slightly higher than competitors, the difference is rather insignificant for someone looking at the premium product category.
UX Research
For the purpose of this article, and to find out what customers really think about Pedestal products, I’ve committed a detailed analysis of their reviews.
TrustPilot stands with 153 reviews (one is hidden) and an average of 4.3 stars out of 5 possible. Not bad but that wasn’t enough for me. I’ve scrapped and data-enhanced all of their reviews, something that a good product manager would do in the first place. All that just to be able to identify issues and positive experiences that users faced and valued the most.
Not surprisingly the amazing PRODUCT DESIGN was something mentioned the most by them. Second to that was FAST SHIPPING, and the third was QUALITY. Then very close to each other: USER JOURNEY, CUSTOMER SUPPORT, EASY ASSEMBLY, ASSEMBLY MANUAL and PACKAGING. And finally, the CONSTRUCTION STABILITY was admired by just 2 out of 153 reviewers.
However, to me, the more interesting were disappointments, things that users complained about in their reviews:
Clearly, ASSEMBLY PROBLEMS were the most frequently mentioned issues. Accompanied by: poor CUSTOMER SUPPORT, DESIGN / CONSTRUCTION, and QUALITY.
However, I’ve decided to recalculate negative mentions and implement the WEIGHTED DISAPPOINTMENTS metric, according to the number of stars given by users: the fewer stars were given, the proportionally more weight was attached to the issue. The logic was that some issues left users more disappointed than others, and some were just mentioned but not critical.
CUSTOMER SUPPORT turned out to be the most important one which is not really surprising since (although there were many positive comments about this area) not being able to resolve problems very often leaves users frustrated or helpless, and forces them to write reviews.
Then, according to the implemented metric, the second most voiced issue is the stand’s DESIGN or CONSTRUCTION which generated different types of problems for customers.
And the third most burning dissatisfaction is QUALITY. Since Pedestal is a rather expensive product, random manufacturing errors are not widely accepted by customers- understandable. When something is cheap users can accept imperfections, but not for a premium product. Those are also connected to the 6th position which is PRICE:QUALITY RATIO.
Possible improvements and issues mitigation
To mitigate those user disappointments, we have to dig deeper into their reviews to find out the details. Duplicate opinions have been omitted.
The analysis above is just a first step to increase customer satisfaction and should be continued with further feasibility studies and prioritization, both managed by the product manager or product team.
What Went Right — Product Success Analysis
“Even if your product doesn’t change the whole world, even if it has a modest scope and a smaller audience, it can still change an industry. Do something different. Shift customer expectations. Set the standard higher. It can make a market, a whole ecosystem, better. “— Tony Fadell
The words above come from the personal Product Management hero of mine Tony Fadell, and perfectly illustrate what Pedestal accomplished with their stands.
First of all, Pedestal found its niche or we can even say it created a niche of its own. Even though TV stands existed before, you could mostly find them in office spaces, and rather functional but not aesthetic. At the same time, homeowners could choose from wall mounts and TV cabinets/benches.
Pedestal decided to merge the functionality of TV stands with top-notch minimalist Scandinavian design, creating a new product group: home TV stands. Still functional but aesthetic, addressing a completely new customer group.
Then they managed to pair amazing design with great marketing, flawless customer journey, and direct online sales. And although at the beginning their customer success seemed not to keep up with all the rest, they managed to improve it and create an amazing overall user experience.
What’s next and how to scale?
There are clearly two things that Pedestal has to address at this stage of their development. First is how to improve the current product line and user experience, second is if they want to scale their business horizontally and how to do it.
The former sounds much easier. There’s clearly a vision and great product line behind Pedestal, accompanied later by complementary accessories oriented around TV stands. Right now users are offered a whole package: stands, matching cables, soundbar brackets etc. However, there are still some issues affecting their user experience. But having those well-identified above, Pedestal can focus on mitigation and making their product and user experience absolutely perfect.
The latter is much harder. Firstly because the product team has to answer if they even want to scale. Secondly because if they want to scale, then they have to do it horizontally into other categories. And their company branding is rooted in TV stands, not any other product category. In this case, any decision should be supported by extensive market and product research.
However, looking at how well Pedestal has grown in the past 3 years, I’m comfortable saying that they have all the skills and corresponding human resources required to scale effectively: designers, marketers, supply-chain experts, customer satisfaction specialists etc.
Closing Remarks
Even though the piece above was oriented around Pedestal, I genuinely believe that presented concepts are universal for someone willing to build an amazing hardware product. Studying Pedestal’s journey and learning how to respond to customer feedback, may highly increase your chances of building an amazing product that people will love. Because at the end of the day, it’s only the final user’s experience that matters.
If you have more questions, need product consulting hours or would like to discuss presented ideas further, here’s where you can find me:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bkordzinski/
Mail: bkordzinski@gmail.com
Disclaimer: The article above is only my own opinion and should impact one’s purchasing decisions. I am also not associated with Pedestal or any of their competitors, and I wasn’t paid to write the piece above.
