Raydiant: Bringing Solar Technology to Market

Raydiant Solar Tech provides beautiful, clean, and powerful residential solar solutions.

Collaborators: Bjorn Brandtzaeg, Danielle Levin, Anj Fayemi, Richard Swartwout

The aim of Raydiant, a start-up utilizing Perovskite solar cells for residential solar solutions, is to create a business solution that satisfies the needs of its customers and elevates their experience. With a focus on filling the market gap and resolving the challenges faced by solar clients, Raydiant proposes a solution that offers aesthetically pleasing, cost-effective, and user-friendly solar panels.

Context:

The demand within the high-end residential market is driven by a focus on aesthetics and cost-effectiveness. The practical limitations within residential markets, such as limited space and structural stability to support panels, are also major considerations. Additionally, there is a widespread dissatisfaction with the level of service and implementation provided by existing solar solutions.

Objectives

Our goal is to develop an MVBP to conduct the ultimate customer test and establish a customer feedback loop to fully iterate on the product and our assumptions. The objectives of this MVBP include:

Identifying our target customer and determining what we can do to meet their needs.
Establishing a strategy for acquiring the product and design product cycle.
Collecting customer feedback to drive continuous improvement.

Who is our customer, and what can we do for them?

Primary market research: narrowing down the target market.

Brainstorming Target Markets +
Determining Beachhead Markets

Initially, we set out to identify our target market by exploring a range of market opportunities using the solar technology at our disposal. This involved conducting a thorough analysis of the market and performing 30 in-depth interviews with potential end users and customers. During these interviews, we documented key information such as the individual's name and company, how we found them, why they are relevant to our market, and any assumptions that were either validated or invalidated.

Through this process, we were able to gain valuable insights and validate our assumptions about our target market. This information helped us to make an informed decision about our beachhead market and enabled us to focus our efforts on providing value to a targeted end user, in this case the high-income homeowner.

Determining target markets.

Setting Residential Solar as Target Market

Ultimately settled on the residential market for key reasons:

Space and reliability issues in the residential market.
Predictable sales cycle and value for new products.
Receptiveness to new products and reliance on word of mouth.
Potential for disruption and dominance in the U.S. residential solar market

High-income residential was determined to be the most suitable beachhead market after target market interviews and analysis.

✅ Validated Hypothesis:

Demand within the high-end residential market is centered around aesthetics and cost.
Practical constraints within residential markets concern space and structural stability.
The military/disaster response market has a demand for lightweight, flexible, durable products to recharge field electronics.

❎ Invalidated Hypothesis:

Desire to be green drives residential purchases.
Agriculture market has high demand.
Solar is well suited to local ammonia fuel generation.

End User

In-Depth End User Analysis:

After conducting a market analysis, we determined the size of our Total Addressable Market (TAM) within our beachhead market. This involved using both bottom-up and top-down analysis to gain a comprehensive understanding of our end-user profile.

We carefully crafted a comprehensive end-user profile by conducting a life cycle use case analysis, which revealed key information about how our product is used, the reasons for using it, and potential barriers. This allowed us to better understand the diverse range of end target users, each with their own unique goals, aspirations, and fears.

End user profile for the beachhead market.

Persona

We developed a Persona using our end-user profile. The Persona we created was a person who best represents the primary customer for our beachhead market.

Business Model

Quantified value prop and must-have features.

Must-Have Features

With a deeper understanding of the end user and their needs, we created a high-level product specification that emphasized aesthetics, ease of construction, and cost efficiency. These values were translated into quantified value propositions that align with the customer priorities, ensuring that our product met the needs and expectations of our target customers.

Full life cycle use case.

Testing: Will the dog eat the dog food?

We developed a MVBP focusing on three core elements:

Ensuring that our customers receive maximum value from our products and services.
Receiving payment for that value
Establishing a customer feedback loop

... and a plan for further implementation. This plan outlines the steps we need to take to achieve our goals and the resources and support we will need along the way.

So What?

Our goal was to find the right market and product for our solar technology.

Conducted market analysis, that led us to focus on high-income residential solar tailored to an end user Persona. With this persona in mind, we designed a Solar product that is specifically tailored to meet the needs of our target end users.
Gained a deeper understanding of our customer journey, we created a Full Life Cycle Use case. This helped us to map out the various stages of product acquisition, from initial consideration to post-purchase evaluation.
Ensured our product's success, by developing a Minimum Viable Business Plan (MVBP) and devised a strategy for gathering customer data. This will allow us to continually refine and improve our product offering, as well as explore new market opportunities for possible expansion.