Case 11 · Marketplace · 2019–2021
KDB.market
I co-founded an EU-funded marketplace for children’s clothes. Video went into the product because we watched parents in Facebook groups filming what they sold.
- Role
- Co-founder, CEO & CTO of KDB.market in Warsaw, running research, four prototype iterations and go-to-market
- Team
- Co-founded with friends
- IDIs and tests with customers
- 22
- Facebook groups analysed
- 10
- prototype iterations focused on trust and usability
- 4
01
The split was the finding
When I pitched the idea, back when it was still called Kidibee, reactions split cleanly: mothers asked “when do you deploy it?” while people without children asked “is it really an issue?” I wasn’t running a survey, but the split told me where the need lived and where it didn’t.
Problem slides from my old case-study page, with a carbon figure and “less waste” up front.
02
We asked, too
We ran six interviews with SMEs, 22 IDIs and tests with customers, and three rounds of business-pitch feedback. The empathy map showed a parent with no time to search and low trust in buyers and sellers.
The original research slide: the counts, then an empathy map and a persona.
03
Nobody asked for video
We analysed ten Facebook groups where parents were already selling children’s clothes to each other. They weren’t photographing the items. They were filming them, walking the camera along a rail, holding things up, talking over the footage. Video went into the product because we watched them do it.
In the prototype, the play button sits over the set photo, above the sizes, seller rating and buyer protection.
04
Same event, two value propositions
At our swap events, the children dug through the piles like it was a treasure hunt. The parents had a glass of wine and a conversation. Nobody would have separated the two in a survey, because you’d never think to ask what the event is for when the answer seems obvious.
The Meetings tab in the prototype, with sample swap events nearby and a button to add your own.
05
Four iterations, then a pivot
Trust and usability ran through all four. We put whole sets first in the feed, had parents set up each child by height and shoe size, and offered newsagent pickup, a parcel locker or a courier at checkout. Then we pivoted and shut KDB.market down.
Looking back
Neither finding came from asking. Both came from watching parents, in Facebook groups and at our swap events. I still plan the interviews, but now I make room to watch next to them and let what people do pick the solution.