Small fish in a big pond: Product longevity design strategies for smart speakers

Extending the lifetime of the product, as one of the strategies for design for sustainability, may increase the value of the product in use, repair, recycle and disposal phases for a longer lifetime thereby decreasing demand for new manufacturing. However, employing these perspectives may be challenging and requires long development processes. In the current structure, small scale companies have a potential to be a significant actor in transition for sustainable manufacturing and design due to their agile development skills. We will present empirical data collected from eight participants regarding five small scale companies who design and manufacture long-lasting connected smart speakers. Key findings and implications highlight that small scale smart product producers strive to maintain control over design decisions in order to enhance the potential for long-lasting products; such companies thus need to be empowered towards distribution and decentralisation of design and manufacturing. To do so, (1) local manufacturing of the hardware is needed; (2) distributed and decentralised repair services need to be available to distribute the responsibility and increase the resilience of the product; (3) new types of intermediary relationships such as collaborating with local incubation centres and local initiatives should be encouraged; and (4) future designers may also need to practise their production skills and include open-source hardware and software development in their projects.