From Workshop Sketch to Patented Product
At Mojio, a connected car company, the PM team and I ran a "working backwards" session inspired by Amazon's product ideation approach. One promising idea emerged: making tire health easier to understand and purchase.
My role as product owner was to explore this direction, moving from rough concept to prototype.
Evolving the Idea into a Scanner
We started with an in-app tire purchasing flow: tracking tire age, predicting wear, and surfacing replacement options. While mapping that flow, I kept pushing on a small add-on idea: what if a driver could simply scan their tires to know if it was time to replace them?
From Sketch to Working Prototype
Through wireframes, prototypes, and user testing, that "tire scanner" concept gained traction. I built higher-fidelity mocks, worked with engineers on feasibility, and eventually created a prototype that showed how computer vision could flag worn treads or damage.
Productizing It
The scanner was well received internally, and our CTO, who also led the patent program, backed us to file. Engineering began training a computer vision model with tire photos (including my own car's tires). The patent was eventually granted, and the technology now exists in market as TireCheck™.
A Patented Feature That Lives On
This project highlighted how persistence on a "side idea" can create real product value. It also showed the power of design-driven iteration: what started as one rectangle in a flow diagram became a patented feature.