Case 04 · Eastman · via Slalom
Core.
Software for paint protection film installers that turned a library of pattern-maker car parts into plotter-ready cut files. It was tied to $30M in first-year revenue and earned two design patents.
- Role
- Led delivery approach · Named inventor
- Program
- Eastman Digital Product Transformation
- Revenue
- $30M first-year, attributed
- IP
- 2 design patents
Problem
Paint protection film is cut to fit each panel of a specific vehicle. Installers needed accurate patterns for thousands of car parts and wanted to waste less expensive film. Most installers cut by hand or paid per cut for templates they didn’t control. Core gave independent shops their own library and their own data.
My role
At Slalom, I led the delivery approach for Eastman’s Digital Product Transformation, which took two products from zero to one. I’m a named inventor on two design patents for the software’s UX.
What I did
- Built the product around a maintained library of car parts, reverse-engineered by pattern makers.
- Generated plotter cut files straight from that library.
- Added nesting algorithms that pack patterns tightly to cut film waste.
- Designed how patterns are presented: a top-down view of the whole vehicle that orients installers to the A-pillar, fenders and every other panel. That orientation is the subject of the two design patents.
Outcome
- $30M in first-year revenue attributed to Core.
- Two design patents, with me as a named inventor.
The product
What I’d do next
Go-to-market is a design problem too. I’d war-game the launch as carefully as the product, because how you enter a market can decide whether you win it.