Entrepreneurship
Design Research
Iterative Prototyping
IP Protection
Team
Hanna Lauterbach, Chris Spaulding & Christy Zhang, project manager
Faculty Advisors
Dan Brown, Mike Marasco
This was an entrepreneurial endeavor to use human-centered design to develop products that lower the barriers to adoption for menstrual cups.
March 2019 - Current
okaCup: okakopi menstrual cup
23% of women over all age ranges are interested in switching to a more sustainable period protection option, but a multitude of experiential barriers make menstrual cups a tough sell for women used to traditional solutions. The market for menstrual cups is nearly $1B and growing at a 4.6% annual rate. In comparison, organic products are relative newcomers to the feminine hygiene space but the market is expected to grow at a 7% annual rate. This discrepancy highlights both the slow growth of the cup market due to undesirable solutions and the general interest in the marketplace for a solution that is sustainable, healthy, and easy to use.
Problem Definition & Opportunities
This project started when Hanna convinced me to try a cup, and I had the bloodiest experience removing it in the bathroom at a restaurant. When we looked online, we found hundreds of functionally identical cups and recognized an opportunity to improve the current menstrual cup experience.
We talked to over 200 potential & experienced cup users, conducted over 20 in-person interviews, and asked a handful of women to keep a diary for their first period using a cup. We heard so many horror stories and found that women didn’t trust menstrual cups to give them a stress-free first experience.
Proper insertion and sealing is paramount to ensure first-timers have leak-free experiences. Leaks & spills quickly discourage repeat usage.
We headed into brainstorming with the goal of developing a product that facilitated a mess-free menstrual cup experience.
Concept Generation, Prototyping, Testing, and Iteration
We recognized the opportunity to have 2 components to our solution:
a menstrual cup design that encouraged it to open and seal as well as be easy to remove
an accompanying app that tracks and predicts when the cup is full and should be emptied
We quickly started sketching & making physical prototypes using 3D printed molds and liquid silicone, testing them in plastic tubes to compare against existing cups.
We also conducted quick market research on our design by posting a video in a menstrual cup specific Facebook group & learning and iterating based on their feedback.
Solution & Next Steps
The okaCup has inner rings that ensure the cup opens fully once inserted while maintaining the softness of the cup & patent-pending outer vertical ribs that make it easy to break the seal from the base of the cup, eliminating the need to reach to the rim preventing spillage during removal.
The okaTrack app alerts menstrual cup users to empty their cup before it overflows, removing the potential stress and embarrassment of a leak. It can also predict & analyze a users flow, helping its users to understand their periods and bodies better.
We currently have a provisional patent for our cup and are working on a utility patent application. We hope to license our design because we believe that our work can make it easier for users to adopt a menstrual cup.
The team (plus a fourth member, Aakanksha Ardhapurkar) are working on developing the the app in Product Management with Birju Shah.
Awards & Recognition
Honorable Mention, Fast Company World Changing Ideas 2020 Student Division
3rd Place, Design Management Institute, Design Value Awards 2019 (news article)
Semi-finalist, Northwestern University, VentureCat 2019
1st Place, Product Development & Management Association, White Space Design Challenge 2019