The launch of the Smart Thermometer in 2020 established Yummly’s foothold in the IoT connected-cooking space and helped accelerate Whirlpool’s strategic vision of a building a fully-connected digital kitchen
Background
Whirlpool’s acquisition of Yummly enabled the company to expand its product offerings beyond digital platforms into IoT kitchen appliances.
Identifying a niche but rapidly growing market, the first product developed was a smart meat thermometer that connected via the Yummly app to allow home cooks to monitor internal cooking temperatures remotely.
Upon joining Yummly in 2019 as VP of Design, my immediate task was to lead the design team in bringing the product up to full production specification and lead the go-to-market activities ahead of its scheduled Q1 2020 launch date.
This work spanned several critical areas across the entire customer journey, from building online awareness and product marketing, through to the unboxing, setup, and first-time user experience.
Full Design Specification
I led the product design process to deliver full production specifications; streamlining the core cooking UX/UI, producing onboarding flows and instructional animations, and working with a technical photography team to deliver all in-app product photography.
Supporting the Product Launch
Beyond product design, I led the strategy and design production workstreams for the product launch – devising the overarching creative strategy while directing the various teams responsible for producing the packaging design, all necessary advertising and marketing materials, and custom merchandising displays for major retail partners.
Packaging Design
The packaging uses a dual-layer approach: An outer sleeve features product imagery and communicates key features and core value proposition, but removing the sleeve reveals a durable box that features a blast of Yummly’s signature brand color along with a clean, simple device illustration and brand logo.
This approach allowed us to balance the promotional needs of converting sales at the point of purchase with the goal of providing a delightful unboxing experience while making a bold and impressionable brand statement.
Product Photography
A photographic series was created to showcase the smart thermometer as an essential tool for serious home cooks. Positioning the thermometer as a natural extension of culinary craft, we developed a series of lifestyle scenarios to capture real cooking moments that featured the hero device, connected app experience, and perfectly seared meat that make viewers’ mouths water.
Sizzle Reel – To accompany the photographic assets, we also created a ‘sizzle reel’ (no pun intended) to be used on marketing channels such as our own D2C website and sales and marketing channels, such as Amazon and Best Buy.
Edited into 15/30/45-second variants, the reel forms a strong visual storytelling asset to build excitement and curiosity around the Smart Thermometer, and features real user scenarios with user experience demonstrations – and perfectly cooked results.
Online Advertising – Working with production partners Caveat, we developed a cheeky advertising campaign with the tagline “It’s like insurance, for your meat” – playfully emphasizing how the product improves cooking results while preventing food waste.
The campaign included a series of 15-second ad spots and over 50 static variants developed for multiple platforms, including IAB standard formats (leaderboards, rectangles, skyscrapers) and tailored executions for Pinterest, Google, Facebook, and Instagram.
What happened next?
Launching at CES 2020, the Smart Thermometer received extensive media coverage and positive reviews from major publications including the Wall Street Journal and Business Insider, with The New York Post calling it “quite literally, one of the best kitchen gadgets to come on the market.”
This critical acclaim translated into measurable commercial success, resulting in a 5x year-over-year increase in company revenues in its first year.
Over the following three years, I led the design team in expanding the product experience through the innovation of a series of new features and user experience improvements based on customer feedback and user testing.
These enhancements drove sustained growth delivering an average 20% year-over-year revenue increase, opened up new market segments and made substantial ground towards delivering Whirlpool’s strategic goal of building the digitally-connected kitchen of the future.
Connected Cooking – Connectivity between the thermometer and Whirlpool ovens, enabling automated control based on real-time food temperature data.
Expert Mode – A sophisticated graphing UI for BBQ enthusiasts to manage technical techniques like stalling and temperature control over extended periods.
Multiple Probes – Increases the capabilities of the thermometer (and drives increased sales) by enabling multiple probes to be used during a single cook session.
Broadcast Mode – Enables users to infinitely extend the range of the thermometer while simultaneously allowing multiple users to monitor cook sessions.
By 2023, work was underway to produce a new version of the product, with better range, USB charging capabilities, and restyled industrial design.
To further expand market reach, Whirlpool decided to develop this new version of the product under the KitchenAid brand, which I facilitated by working with the Whirlpool Industrial Design and KitchenAid brand teams to oversee the redesign of the physical device and product UI in line with the KitchenAid global design language.
Using Yummly’s Pasta design system, we were able to develop the new UI quickly and efficiently, and used the initiative as an opportunity (through pseduolocalization) to expand the design system’s capabilities to support full internationalization.
