POCKETLAB

Trailblazing a new business model and rebuilding a brand along the way.

Building A Foundation

PocketLab creates sensors and software for curious STEM students. As Creative Director, I led marketing strategy and design systems during explosive growth, while producing “Science is Cool” conferences that attracts 250,000+ educators worldwide.

  • “This is lightning in a bottle for our company.”

    Dave Bakker - PocketLab CEO

Screenshot of a website titled 'PocketLab' on a laptop and a smartphone, featuring science tools for curious students, with black background, scientific icons, and orange buttons.

Growing Pains

The conference’s huge success with an outdated company website created a critical problem: thousands of passionate fans who didn’t understand what PocketLab was. We needed an urgent brand overhaul while maintaining the lead generation momentum.

Website starting point.

Rapid Transformation

Like building a ship in the middle of an ocean, we completed a redesign of PocketLab’s digital presence in under eight weeks. We integrated HubSpot for its CRM, managing 70,000+ new leads, and designed sales funnels aligned with education’s unique 300-day buying cycle.

A computer monitor displaying a webpage about PocketLab sensors and curriculum for education, with images of various colorful sensor devices and a laptop showing an educational software interface.

First of Its Kind

Combining multiple sensors into one small tool was a groundbreaking innovation within the EdTech industry, which posed a marketing challenge. By giving each sensor a distinct personality that highlighted its unique qualities, they communicated fun classroom gear rather than overwhelming tech.

Computer screen displaying a website for PocketLab Sensors, featuring images of various small, colorful sensor devices, a laptop with a Bluetooth symbol, and a menu with science and education icons.
Computer screen displaying a webpage for the PocketLab Voyager adventure sensor, with an illustration of a hand holding the orange device on the left side and text describing its features on the right.
Computer monitor displaying a webpage about G-Force toy car with a speedometer and a small illustration of the car in hand.
Computer screen displaying a webpage about the PocketLab Air, an earth science sensor device, showing an image of the green device and its features.

Powerful Partnerships

Strategic alliances with science education superstars established through Science is Cool events elevated PocketLab's Notebook software to a classroom staple.

Screenshots of a website called PocketLab on an iMac and MacBook showing educational science content and lessons.
Logo with the word 'STARTALK' featuring missile icons integrated into the lettering
Keshler Science logo with a fish inside a fishing hook illustration around the text
OpenSciEd logo with stylized atom and the words 'OpenSciEd' in blue, green, and orange.
Cartoon logo of two animated characters, one purple and one pink, called the Amoeba Sisters, smiling and holding a banner with their name.
Logo for Conceptual Academy featuring a stylized flower with multi-colored petals and a hand icon pointing upward, with the text "Conceptual Academy" below.
Green stylized text reading "Sci Show" on a white background.

  • PocketLab Notebook users grew by 3,654% within one year.

Lead with Support

We developed lean support pages for busy educators. The highest converting pages were for funding assistance, teacher training programs, and the Science Superstar Series, webinars featuring teachers who go above and beyond in their classrooms and share their innovative processes.

Laptop on a desk in a classroom showing a webpage titled 'Get Funded', with a blue header and white background, surrounded by blurred classroom furniture and children.

Kickstarting Success

A few months after the website redesign, we launched a new product, PocketLab G-Force, a toy-sized sensor car that measures speed and g-force. Our team spread thin, we tested the market by launching it on Kickstarter. The launch exceeded its campaign goal by 156%.

PocketLab G-Force Video

G-Force is basically a Hot Wheels™ car with a speedometer, so we played up the 80s-inspiration for our audience who grew up with those iconic tracks.

The video delivered strong engagement with a 25% conversion rate from page views to video plays, and compelling content that kept 32.55% of viewers watching through to the end.

Circular logo with black background and green outline, text reads 'Project We Love Kickstarter' around a heart icon in the center.

Scalable Strategy

Mass attention and lead generation from Science is Cool events created a unique business model for PocketLab. Positioned for ongoing accelerated growth, I designed a subscription model, “PocketLab Go,” featuring 70% subscription and 30% ecommerce, which transforms one-time purchases into recurring revenue with built-in upgrade paths.

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Hand-drawn diagram on dotted notebook paper illustrating connections between notes, tests, sensors, Green Ninja, and solutions for NGSS, with handwritten notes about middle school science and textbooks.
A hand-drawn sketch of a video content plan includes a timeline at the top labeled "video content" with squares representing videos. Below, a rectangular section labeled "Contacts, icons, eyeballs/list A/Request" is shown. The main section depicts a
A hand-drawn flowchart on dotted paper illustrating the process of content creation and distribution. It includes symbols like nodes, arrows, and blocks labeled with terms such as 'lead', 'content', 'W', 'D', and 'SOCs', showing steps and directions
ScIC Infographic.JPG

Bottom Line

What began as fixing a confused website became about transforming fans into customers and educators into partners.

PocketLab logo with the tagline "Science. Everywhere."

  • “This should be in Fast Company. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

    Ed Metz - Department of Education, Small Business Innovation

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