Every product tells the story
of the decisions behind it.
Choosing what to develop is one decision.
Knowing what to do next when initial samples aren’t delivering is another.
Kulima works alongside haircare founders, brand teams, and formulation partners to bring clarity to those moments. We combine consumer research with practitioner expertise and hands-on evaluation to define what a product needs to deliver and turn findings into specific development recommendations.
Support can focus on a single product question or extend across development as the work evolves.
Category Research & Product Brief Design
Decide what to develop and give your lab a clear brief.
We use social listening to identify recurring problems in online haircare conversations. Market research puts those problems in the context of what’s already available. We benchmark relevant products to establish a reference for performance and feel, then use the findings to write a development brief. The brief defines what the product needs to deliver and which qualities your team and lab should protect if formulation trade-offs arise.
Prototype Evaluation & Refinement
Find out what still needs to change and which sample to move forward with.
Licensed cosmetologists evaluate each prototype using a structured protocol. The criteria come from your product brief and any benchmarks you’ve selected. If the brief leaves a requirement open, we define it with your team before testing. We document how each sample performs against those criteria and give your chemist actionable feedback for the next round.
Product Use Evaluation
See how the product performs when customers use it in their own routines.
We design the study to assess how consistently the product delivers the intended result under the conditions that matter to your team. A salon evaluation lets us hold selected conditions steady, while an in-home study documents how participants use the product in their usual routines and what results they report.
Ongoing Development Support
Bring Kulima in as an collaborative partner.
Kulima provides product development leadership from brief through launch or at the stages where your team needs us. We work directly with your team and formulation partners, bringing research and hands-on evaluation into the decisions that shape the product. As the work evolves, we keep the team aligned on what the product needs to deliver and advise on what still needs to be resolved before committing to the next stage.
Understand
Not every perceived opportunity deserves to become a product. Before deciding what to build, it's important to understand what people are actually trying to accomplish, how they're solving it today, and whether an opportunity for meaningful improvement exists.
Define
A promising idea still needs a clear job to do. Before development begins, the product’s role, intended experience, and performance requirements need to be defined so everyone involved is working toward the same outcome.
Evaluate
Performance depends on the conditions in which a product is used. We evaluate products against their intended purpose, examining how application choices and existing routines affect the experience. Consumer research adds insight into what people expect, how they interpret instructions, and the results they report. Together, those findings help teams identify what needs attention and establish priorities for refinement.
Evolve
Findings need to lead somewhere. We recommend how to proceed, whether the next step involves a formula revision or clearer use instructions. As new information emerges, we help the team carry that learning into subsequent decisions and future products.