One project, start to finish

Metsämaa is a sample project we ran through the Concierge Service. Everything on this page is what a client gets, in the order we make it.

Start Concierge Intake Jump to the screens

The brief

Metsämaa makes solid-wood furniture in Finland. Its line: furniture for life. It wants to sell high-end dining sets to restaurant owners through an app.

The question we were asked: will restaurant owners buy furniture this expensive on their phone, and what would they need to trust it?

Client
Metsämaa (sample)
Makes
Solid-wood furniture
Selling to
Restaurant owners
Through
A mobile app
Metsämaa app opening screen: the name and 'furniture for life' above a wooden chair and desk
Metsämaa, furniture for life

What we assumed going in

We write down what we think is true before we talk to anyone. Research with nothing to test turns into a pile of opinions. With a hypothesis, every interview either backs an assumption up or knocks it down, and the ones that fall are often where the best ideas come from.

Restaurant owners furnishing a new room will order custom, high-end dining sets online if they can see the work up close and talk to a person before they pay.

Three assumptions to test:

  • Price isn't the main barrier. Confidence is.
  • Buyers want to set size, wood and colour themselves.
  • A workshop visit or a call is what closes the sale.

Who we're designing for

Rauno, 34, Finland. Opening his first restaurant.

A persona is one person standing in for everyone we interviewed. We talk to real buyers first, then sort what they told us: the goals that came up again and again, the things that stopped them buying, and the habits behind both. Rauno is that pattern with a name, a budget and an opening date.

He's there so every later decision has someone to answer to. "Would Rauno trust this screen?" is a question the team can settle. "Would users like it?" isn't. The journey map, the recommendations and the screens below are all built around him.

Persona card for Rauno Virtanen, 34, a chef opening a 42-seat restaurant in Tampere: his backstory, education, traits, sliders for price sensitivity, deadline pressure and research habits, and his goals, pain points and product actions
Rauno, the Metsämaa personaOpen full size

His path from search to sitting down

Seven moments, from Rauno's first search to a full dining room. The curve tracks how he feels at each one.

A journey map follows one person through every step of buying, not just the part that happens in the app. Most products are designed screen by screen, which hides where people give up. Laying the whole path out in a line shows the moment that matters most, and here it happened outside the app entirely.

Metsämaa journey map: Rauno's seven steps from searching online to using the furniture, with his feelings, actions and Metsämaa's opportunities at each step
Metsämaa journey mapOpen full size

What it showed

Confidence dips while he compares manufacturers, and peaks after he sees the furniture in person. The visit is the turning point, so the app has to get him there.

Who else he's looking at

Four companies Rauno would compare Metsämaa against, side by side on range, price, channels, customer experience and sustainability.

Metsämaa competitor analysis comparing IKEA, Ashley, Wayfair and Crate and Barrel on product range, pricing strategy, sales channels, customer experience and sustainability, with insights below
Metsämaa competitor analysisOpen full size

What it showed

All four sell to homes. None speaks to someone furnishing a whole restaurant, and only Crate & Barrel offers design consultations. That gap is Metsämaa's opening.

What we recommended

Every recommendation here traces back to something the research turned up. Some confirmed what we assumed going in: buyers do want to choose size, wood and colour themselves. The journey map showed the sale is won at the workshop, not in the app, so the app's job is to get Rauno there. The competitor analysis showed that none of the big names sells to restaurants, which is why long life, not price, runs through every screen.

  1. Lead with custom.

    Size, wood and colour chosen up front, in one form.From the interviews: confirmed assumption 2

    See the custom form

  2. Put a person in the loop.

    Book a workshop tour or a call before paying.From the journey map

    See the booking screen

  3. Show the real material.

    Large photos, every colourway, reviews from other buyers.From the persona: photos flatten the grain

    See the product screen

  4. Make the order feel certain.

    One clear total, then a confirmed order you can track.From the persona: “4–10 weeks” is useless to him

    See the cart

  5. Sell the long life, not the price.

    That's the ground IKEA and Wayfair can't take.From the competitor analysis

    Runs through every screen

The screens

Each screen carries out one recommendation above. We build them in Screen Builder, our own tool for the first version of a screen, when the question is whether it works at all. What you get is iteration one: mid-fidelity screens, as finished as the photos and content we have allow. You see them in days, and changes are cheap until the flow is right.

  • Metsämaa app home screen: furniture categories and a grid of products

    Home

    Browse by type

  • Custom furniture form: choose furniture type, colour, wood type and size

    Custom furniture form

    Recommendation 1

  • Book an appointment: a March calendar and a grid of time slots

    Book an appointment

    Recommendation 2

  • Product detail for the Exclusive Sofa: large photo, colour options, rating and Add to cart

    Product detail

    Recommendation 3

  • Cart with three chairs and a grand total of $697

    Cart

    Recommendation 4

  • Order accepted confirmation with Track my Order and Back to Home

    Order accepted

    Recommendation 4

Two to three weeks

  1. Week 1

    Intake, the brief, hypothesis, competitor analysis

  2. Week 2

    Interviews, persona, journey map

  3. Week 3

    Recommendations, six screens from Screen Builder

Your part: the intake conversation, one kickoff call, answers when we have questions, a review at the end.

Starting at $2,800

Research report, persona, journey map, competitor analysis, and six screen mocks from Screen Builder.

Start Concierge Intake Rather do it yourself?
Experience Builder is $6 a month.

Metsämaa is a sample project made to show the process.