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Lenovo TrackPoint

reintroducing iconic feature to next gen — adopted into product roadmap

Role
Product Lead & Designer
Team
6 core · 6 associates
DFA Studio
Timeline
2026 · 12 wks
Tools & skills
  • Figma
  • Claude Code
  • Premiere Pro
  • Data Analytics
  • User Testing
Under NDAdetails are redacted

Brief

I owned product and design of the discovery / awareness intervention phase, and led the opening research that flipped the project’s entire direction.

  • 91

    users tested across a 2×2 persona matrix

  • 9

    interactive prototypes → 1 prioritized stack

  • +48%

    first-time user confidence (p<0.001)

  • Shipped

    adopted to 2027 ThinkPad product roadmap

Lenovo brought the studio a next-generation ThinkPad and one question: what would make the next generation of owners use the TrackPoint rather than only recognise it?

The problem

TrackPoint is increasingly overlooked by the generation entering today’s workforce.

TrackPoint is aging out of relevance with the generation now entering the workforce: nothing introduces it, so new users never discover what it's for.

No onboarding, No tutorial, and No marketing: new users can't discover it → can't use it without frustration → never come back.

A ThinkPad keyboard, close in on the TrackPoint between the G, H and B keys

Market research

Ten interviews including the TrackPoint's inventor, a hundred posts of user sentiment, and a teardown of three input interactions that shipped without onboarding.

I conducted 10 expert interviews with IT leaders and TrackPoint’s inventor

to understand the initial top-down question: does the TrackPoint shape how companies and schools buy laptops?

A video call with Ted Selker, the TrackPoint's inventor
Inventor of TrackPoint

Scraped and analyzed 100+ Reddit, YouTube, X, and forums posts to surface positive and negative sentimental themes

Competitor teardown — why other input interactions failed

Apple Touch Bar

  • tutorial
  • onboarding
  • clear user value

removed in 2022

Valve Steam Controller

  • built-in tutorial
  • onboarding
  • value only when customized

only power users stayed

Meta Quest

  • gamified tutorial
  • in-headset onboarding
  • clear user value

learn by doing, impossible to miss

User testing

A 2×2 of today's users and tomorrow's, then 40 usability tests to find exactly where adoption breaks — it reads as decoration, nothing teaches it, and what it's good at stays hidden.

We split the market into 2×2 persona matrix representative of the present and future market

Persona matrix used to balance user testing
Persona matrix used to balance user testing

We ran 40 usability tests to find where adoption breaks and where to intervene

  1. People skip it entirely, assuming the red dot is just branding.

  2. Settings are buried and nothing nudges you to learn, so most give up and don't return.

    “How do I even click?”Cursor control improved within minutes of first trying.

  3. It looks redundant next to modern trackpads, but hides real strengths.

Prototyping

Nine high-fi prototypes in a week, three per stage, validated on 51 users in a study balanced across the persona matrix with randomised interventions.

I led the Discovery team to design, film, and code mixed-media interventions to make people notice

I contributed across the other stages; together the team developed 9 high-fi prototypes in 1 week, three per stage.

A three-by-three grid of the nine prototypes, blurred to respect the NDA
Redacted under NDA

We iterated and validated our prototypes with a non-confounding study of 51 users

  • Balanced across the matrix personas
  • Randomized stage interventions
  • One standardized testing protocol
A participant at a ThinkPad during a moderated session
A session in progress

Outcome

+48% first-time confidence, 25% faster, and 70% reaching for the TrackPoint unprompted — adopted into the 2027 roadmap and presented to twelve VPs at Lenovo HQ.

Outcome

We prioritized nine concepts into one high feasibility stack Lenovo could ship

  • +48%

    first-time confidence

  • 25%

    faster with the new product

  • 70%

    tried the TrackPoint unprompted

Adopted into the 2027 product roadmap

Presented to 12 VPs & execs at Lenovo HQ

Words from Lenovo’s team

Angela Martin's LinkedIn photo

Angela Martin

User Experience Designer, Lenovo

As a UX designer and mentor, I was especially impressed by how they:
– Treated an ambiguous problem space like an opportunity, not a roadblock
– Moved fluidly between Figma, code, and physical devices
– Grounded “blue sky” interaction ideas in real user needs and behaviors
Read on LinkedIn
Dilip Bhatia's LinkedIn photo

Dilip Bhatia

VP, Chief Experience Officer, Lenovo

Through extensive research, prototyping, and user testing, they delivered recommendations spanning across the entire customer journey, from awareness to unboxing — all grounded in real user insights. It was refreshing to see new perspectives applied to an iconic product like ThinkPad.
Read on LinkedIn
DFA Studio's LinkedIn photo

DFA Studio

Design for America, Yale

We did it 🚀 DFA ProStudio’s very first client project with Lenovo is officially (& successfully) in the books! We created 9 novel human-computer interaction prototypes for Lenovo’s ThinkPad, the #1 business laptop in the world.
Read on LinkedIn