Interview with Adrian Taylor, Founder, Pushstart creative - Speaker at Global IoT Conference - March 2017 Posted on : Feb 21 - 2017

We feature speakers at Global IoT Conference March 27 - 29, 2017 to catch up and find out what he or she is working on now and what's coming next. This week we're talking to Adrian Taylor, Founder, Pushstart creative.

Interview with Adrian Taylor

Tell us about yourself and your background.
Adrian is an experienced creative director focused on conceiving and executing original interactive solutions that are designed to meet real-world business needs. He has worked with a variety of organizations, including tech start-ups, software development houses, publishers, and advertising agencies. After relocating to Austin in 2003, Adrian settled at Enspire Learning, serving as the Director of Multimedia. At Enspire, Adrian helped build an award-winning multimedia department that produces best-in-class rich-media solutions for dozens of Fortune 500 companies. In 2007 Adrian joined Springbox, an interactive agency focused on creating captivating digital experiences. As the head of the creative department, Adrian was responsible for shaping project direction, training and developing the creative team, and acting as an individual UX or design contributor on select projects. Adrian now helps lead Pushstart Creative, a multidisciplinary product development agency that he co-founded in 2011.

What have you been working on recently?
Our studio is focused on designing exceptional experience for connected devices and services. We've been working on smart home and appliances, wearables, health monitoring, and more recently robotics projects. 

Tell me about the right tool you used recently to solve customer problem?
We focus a lot on rapid prototyping to accelerate design and development. In the industrial design space that may mean 3D printing, CNC, or even carved foam. For digital it's InVIsion, Flinto, or working with a number of frameworks and libraries. For electronics, we've been hooked on Particle lately but have also had success with Arduino.

Where are we now today in terms of the state of IoT, and where do you think we’ll go over the next five years?
For consumer applications, we are still very early on. We have huge interoperability and security challenges to solve to make devices and services simpler and easier for non-technical consumers. Developing business models that support the ongoing costs associated with connected solutions is another area that needs more consideration. Lastly, we need to look for ways to reduce hardware costs, both development and production.

Industrial, back office, or B2B value-add IoT holds a lot of promise. Companies that have a lot of equipment and infrastructure can realize huge value by bringing greater connectivity to their organization. One of the challenges is this area is shifting internal company mindset and getting siloed teams to work in new ways. 

You’ve already hired Y number of  people approximately. What would be your pitch to folks out there to join your Organization? Why does your organization matter in the world?
Simply put, the world of connected devices and services can make for some pretty complex usability and brand challenges. In our highly competitive market, companies that get experience design right are winning. We help innovative companies create meaningful end-user experiences. 

What are some of the best takeaways that the attendees can have from your "The Making Mindset: Prototyping your way to better IoT experiences" talk?
Markets continue to reward brands that focus not only on developing technology but also great user experiences. The complexity of IoT products creates significant design challenges which can derail promising initiatives. In this session, we'll discuss how creating experience artifacts early and often can help focus development while reducing risk. We'll look at a variety of rapid prototyping techniques and process that help teams accelerate design and development. 

What are the top 5 IoT Use cases in enterprises?
In our experience the is no one size fits all approach to IoT. Understanding what an organization does well and where it struggles helps to inform the right IoT strategy. Areas that are often worth exploring include asset management, service and maintenance, supply chain, customer support, and data collection. 

Which company do you think is winning the global IoT race?
I don't think we have any clear winners yet. The attention that Google, Amazon, Samsung, Intel, and other major players are focusing on the space should be a clear indication to anyone sitting on the sidelines that it's time figure out their IoT strategy.