Oven Inc | Research & Design

Great design needs a solid foundation. Empathy is critical to great experiences.

Oven has expertise in uncovering, analyzing and synthesizing insights to make them both meaningful and actionable. Whether your field is in electronics manufacturing, health care or consumer goods, each problem requires a unique research approach. Ours is not a one-size-fits-all approach when gathering and synthesizing information. We analyze specific changes in markets and cultures to establish grounding context. We interview targeted consumers and stakeholders to understand roles, perceptions, needs and desires. We have deep experience in finding insights from adjacent and analogous markets that are useful and intuitive.

When context is established, knowledge needs to be applied.

We create insights that clearly communicate customers’ perspectives and identify strategies that lead to novel solutions. Whether you’re in need of personas that describe target customers clearly and succinctly, scenario descriptions that aid in the development of requirements, or strategically unique value propositions for market differentiation, Oven delivers actionable knowledge and direction — not just information.

Refinement and alignment ensure best results; focus on the WHY not the WHAT.

We are never lulled into a sense of false security at Oven. We check our designs and concepts with careful evaluation work when necessary. We refine and bring our ideas into closer alignment with customers’ perspectives and needs.
Once we are confident in our approach, we work with our customers to make sure designs are implemented. We assist with final content generation and the development process to ensure high quality results.

Preheat Blog

Here's what we've been thinking about lately.

December 9, 2015December 9, 2015

No More Mickey Mousing Around: Understanding the Design of Disney, Part One

What is about Disney that causes people to love it or hate it? Why is it important to look at Disney from a design research viewpoint? Why is ethnography essential to human-centered design research? An explosion of color and lights from Disneyland’s Fantasmic! spectacle showcases its latest assets and technologies. Disney evokes strong feelings and ...

September 10, 2015September 18, 2015

Health and Fitness Wearables: Finding True Motivations

The market for wearable computing is approaching $1.5 billion, with 80 percent of these devices to be in the form of health and fitness wearables by 2017. In this article, Reece Dano looks the promises of the category, its challenges to adoption, and recommended paths to obtaining more emotionally engaging and empathetic designs.

Our Team

We at Oven come from backgrounds focused on rigorous research and deep customer service. Here are a few of our core members.

Jennifer Keyser

Jennifer Keyser has a background in ethnographic and secondary research for design and public policy development. She has provided research services to a wide range of fields, including health care, software development, consumer products and education programs. She is focused on applying user-centered research to uncover actual needs, identify innovation, and inform future strategies.

Reece Dano

Reece Dano is a design researcher and strategist who has developed market and product strategies, investigated user behaviors and analyzed trends for a broad range of industries and applications. He aligns rigorous research and structured design processes to develop distinctive business strategies and products. His user-centered approach constantly strives to promote understanding and empathy.

We identify and implement the experiences people really want.

At Oven, we believe great product experiences originate from careful research, focused strategy and empathetic design. Based in Portland, Oregon, we practice and implement successful research and design through user-centered, human-focused approaches.

We do this by understanding companies’ objectives, empathizing with their customers, incorporating stakeholder needs and identifying mutually beneficial product strategies.