A Stress-Free Solution to Mail Security

When it comes to creating a product, I currently have a few areas that I am interested in.

My areas of interest:

• Postal Services
• Medical
• Aviation

This time, I wish to tackle a problem in the area of Postal Services.

The problem

I live in a small town, roughly one thousand residents. It is safe to say that everybody knows everybody. Crime is usually not much of a problem in my town, but that has recently changed. In the recent weeks, there have been reports after reports of people getting their mail stolen. This was not just happening to one or two people, this was affecting the whole town. This of course led to many questions. Who is doing this? Is it one person? How can we stop this from happening?

In its current state, only gated communities in our area have locked mail boxes. As for everyone else, they are left to fend for themselves. Mail getting stolen on a recurring basis is a serious problem, and something must be done about it.

First, some background regarding the postal service…

Q: What was the last big paradigm shift in this industry or domain?

A: Right now, the USPS is facing multiple lawsuits from multiple states on issues regarding how they will handle mail-in voting. This is leading to a questionable future for the USPS and could change the way mail works/gets delivered forever.

Q: Who are the biggest influencers or powers in this area?

A: The U.S government plays a massive role in this area with the USPS. Additionally, companies like UPS, FedEx, and Amazon are all big companies that deliver packages across the world.

Is the time right?

They key to successful product is timing. One could have a great product and a great team behind them, but if the market does not want the product, they are not going to buy it, no matter how good the said product may be. Because of this, it is important to perform an analysis on the industry/domain of the product before bringing it to fruition. The following PEST analysis of the postal industry will help me determine whether or not this industry is ready and will be accepting of my solution to one of its problems in the form of a product.

Political — Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, in-person voting could soon be a thing of the past. What is the alternative to in-person voting? The answer is mail-in voting. Mail-in voting provides a relatively contactless way of voting, a very important trait in today’s world. This is great and all, but such a voting method will obviously put a fairly large burden on the USPS. And just like with anything political, they are bound to get shown in a negative light. It seems as though that such a thing has already begun to happen as just recently, the USPS has announced many various policy changes. These changes have been slowing down mail delivery in some parts of the country. This has caused many to become worried about what such a thing means for the November presidential election. People are speculating that these changes that slow down the mail delivery system will negativley impact the accuracy of the election. This has caused several states to file lawsuits against the USPS, claiming that the policy changes are unconstitutional ect. This marks a potential turning point for how mailing will work in the future, and shows how much the American people value security not only when it comes to elections, but mailing in general.

Economic — The mailing industry is worth over a trillion dollars. With an increasing amount of people staying inside nowadays, things being delivered to people’s door is in high demand, meaning that it is pretty safe to say that there will be no shortage of work in this industry for some time.

Sociological — Mail service is something that most people need. Many get bills, medication, and other very important items in the mail. It is very unlikely that one day, people will prefer something other than getting it delivered directly to their house. It is as easy as it gets, and moving forward, it’s only aimed to be easier. There will always be a need for a mail service of some kind.

Technological — As mail delivery is vastly different from what it was hundreds of years ago, it is evident that this industry is capable of undergoing big shifts in the technological department. Especially now, with everyone at home, many would jump at any opportunity to make the process both faster and/or more secure.

The Competition

Although there has yet to be an app that is specifically designed to stop mail thieves, there are plenty of home security and neighborhood watch apps on the market .

Most of these apps are great in regard to their own purpose, but very few of them would be quite as both simple and integrated as my solution would be. Instead of an app that relies on the participation of neighbors, or a pre-existing home security suite to work, what about an app that gets straight to the point and solves only the problem it was designed to tackle, simply and elegantly with very few steps?

User Interviews

User interviews are a key element in a products potential success. When conduction user interviews in this domain, these are some of the starter/qualifying questions that I most commonly used

• Do you own a home?
• Do you receive physical mail?
• How is mail delivered in your area/How do you most people receive mail in your area?

If the interview is going well after some of these questions, then I am comfortable with moving forward and asking more open-ended questions like these.

• Are the things you get in the mail typically of high importance?
• Is the security of your mail ever a concern to you, or anyone in your neighborhood?
• Do you like the way you currently receive your mail?

Throughout the entire user interview, it is imperative that no bias is given on my end. To ensure this, all of my questions, even the deep diving specific ones, will never make any suggestions that may sway the interviewee’s thinking. For example, my question “Do you like the way you currently receive your mail?” above could have had “, or do you think that it needs to be improved?” tacked onto the end of it. I want to avoid suggestions like this, and let the interviewee think for themselves in order to get the most benefit out of this. To be clear, asking one to go into more detail about a specific question is great, suggesting what their answer might be first is not. This is the thinking that has shaped my user interview questions.

I was able to interview a number of people from different backgrounds and living areas, learning great amounts along the way. First off, I have learned that many people living in big cities rarely encounter mail theft, as their mail is not delivered in a traditional side of the road mailbox, therefore making it much harder for their mail to be stolen. This takes them out of my target audience. Additionally, even some people I interviewed that live in smaller communities claim that mail theft is never a worry, but I have also been told the exact opposite by others, even outside of my community where it is a widely known problem. This leads me to believe that although mail theft is something many people in America face, it is nowhere near a nationwide issue plaguing every American. This does not mean that this problem need not be solved, rather, it just means that it is important to take into account who needs this problem solved, and where the time and energy should be devoted for this product. It is evident that a community that does not regularly deal with mail theft may not even bat an eye to such a product, but one that does deal with such a problem would be more than happy to purchase if the price was right. Junk mail or not, people want to protect their things.

The Product

So, after all this time, what is this product that I plan on building? Put simply, I plan to help homeowners achieve worry-free mail security through a smart lock on their roadside mailbox. Although one may be able to rig up a lock to their mailbox, there does not exist one as seamless and easy as this. With multiple ways to use the lock, it is a perfect buy for any homeowner that wishes to beef up their mail security.

Here is how it works:

Once the user buys and sets up the lock on their mailbox from the quick-start guide provided, the lock can now be paired to the mobile app. Although the lock can be unlocked through a backup key, the main way of locking and unlocking the mailbox will be done through the app. Now, you may be asking yourself “How will the mail person deliver my mail if the mailbox is locked? Wouldn’t I have to unlock it every time?”. Well, to that, the answer is no! There are a few different ways one could go about this. The first is to set the unlocking and locking sequence on a schedule. The homeowner would enter the timeframe that the mail usually comes on each day, and the lock will unlock itself and keep itself unlocked throughout that timeframe. If one wishes for even more enhanced security, they could ask their mail delivery driver to download the app on their phone as well. Once the driver has declared that they are on-duty through the app, any equipped mailbox in close vicinity of the driver will unlock. This effectively allows only the mail person and the homeowner access to the mailbox at all times, preventing the quick, drive-by mail theft that commonly takes places in many neighborhoods and communities.

How I Got Here

Before finalizing this product, it first went through many iterations. Below is the mind map for this problem, containing all of the possible ways I thought up to solve this problem.

After finding the flaws in the previous designs, I decided that I just needed to simply take a step back and rethink what it was I wanted to achieve. Soon after, the idea hit me. I had always planned on this locked being connected to an app, why not have the app lock and unlock it? This solution had been starting me in the face for the longest time, however, I was just so blinded by all of the other possibilities that I never even considered such a thing. Once I was in the mindset of having the app control all functions of the lock, the rest came easy. It provided an easy way for both the homeowner and the mail delivery person to open the mailbox. And, the best part is, since it is all controlled through the app, there is a great amount of room for tweaks and improvement since, in many cases, there would be no need to tweak any hardware to change how the lock is managed.

What I Want it to Look Like

While on the topic of design, now would be a good time to talk about some of the wire-framing, or initial sketching, done for this product. Below is one of my hand-drawn wire-frames:

This specific wire-frame mainly focused on the layout/design aspect. This is an idea of what I hope the first complete version of the app will roughly look like. Although it may not look like much, these series of drawing help me immensely moving forward. First off, designing something is much easier when ones thoughts are allowed to freely flow on a piece of paper, rather than trying to code what I want right off the bat. This allows me to design what I truly want with zero compromises and additionally have something to reference when it actually comes time to build the app. Ideally, from here, any note-able changes will come after initial release, when feedback can be received from the users.

User Journey

The following is a user journey for my product from the perspective of both a mail delivery person and a homeowner:

“I’m Mark the mailman and one of the residents recently asked me to download the SecureMail app. All I have to do is tell the app when I am on duty delivering mail, and any SecureMail equipped mailbox will unlock for me whenever I am in the vicinity of it. It is nice to give the residents of my town peace of mind when it comes to mail security.”

“I’m Harold the homeowner and I have recently been faced with getting my mail stolen from my mailbox. I often get medication and other important things through the mail, so this is a big problem. One of my friends told me about SecureMail, a lock that I could put on my roadside mailbox. It sounded like exactly what I needed so I went ahead and bought and installed it. All I have to do to unlock my mailbox is simply press a button in the app. I now no longer have to worry about my mail getting stolen.”

These user journeys are important for me in creating this product because, for one, it keeps me on track. The user journey should sound like something a person in that position would realistically do. Additionally, it gives a very crystal clear idea of the purpose of this product and how it would be used, making it easier for me to visualize and make the needed changes.

Moving Forward

As the journey continues, I hope that properly utilizing all of these tools at my disposal will make for a great product. Nothing can guarantee a product’s success, but careful planning and smart management can sure raise the odds. Until next time!