CUSTOMER STORY • ENTERPRISE
A Home Improvement Retailer With a
Global Reputation for Innovation That
Makes the World a Better Place
THE CHALLENGE
Turn a “big box home improvement
retailer” into a center of excellence for
delivering meaningful innovation.
THE RESULT
Lowe’s has completely embraced
exponential thinking, with results that
go well beyond innovation in its stores,
a motivated and loyal employee base,
and breakthroughs that address global
grand challenges. Lowe’s has innovated
3D printing at the International Space
Station and is pushing the envelope on
robotics and virtual and augmented
reality. Lowe’s is now a sought-after
innovation partner of companies like
Google and Microsoft, as well as start-
up organizations, and Lowe’s has been
recognized by the White House as a
Champion of Change.
COMPANY: Lowe’s
FOUNDED: 1 946
INDUSTRY: Home improvement
RESULTS, OUTCOMES, AND ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Augmented and virtual reality A reputation for practical and
design tools, Lowe’s Vision radical innovation that attracts
and the Holoroom, which help leading technology startups
consumers design, envision, and a brand name with which
and shop for their home of multinationals want to partner.
the future.
 
The first autonomous retail An in-store, 3D printer—that
service robot that speaks had its start in the International
with customers in multiple Space Station—which can build
languages, shows them where any part Lowe’s customers
to find things in the store, bring in for replacement.
and helps employees with
inventory tracking.

“We went from selling sheet rock and
hammers to completely transforming
the entire company. Everyone now
sees what seemed insane at the time
and how this sets us up for the future
in a dramatic way. And it took only
three years to get there.”
— Kyle Nel, Founder and Former Executive Director
of Lowe’s Innovation Labs
How do you go from selling sheet rock and hammers to
transforming Lowe’s, a Fortune 50 home improvement
retailer, through exponential thinking? After launching
augmented- and virtual reality-enhanced stores, the first
autonomous retail service robots, and the first store in
space, it may seem obvious to consider Lowe’s at the
forefront of the corporate innovation discussion, but not
long ago, these ideas seemed crazy.
If it feels like the stuff of science fiction, that’s because it is. Lowe’s has
embraced a narrative-driven approach to innovation that is inspiring
its more than 290,000+ employees to think and behave differently.
Led by Kyle Nel, this journey started in 2013, two years after he joined
the company to run international research. Nel—now Executive
Vice President of Uncommon Partners Lab at SU—founded Lowe’s
Innovation Labs and served as its first Executive Director. While in
this role, he challenged himself to create new ways of approaching
innovation at Lowe’s.
“It wasn’t enough to have great ideas and insights. I
wanted to build stuff, and I was lucky because I was
challenged by a leader who said, ‘Tell me what it would
look like if we were really to create meaningful innovation
inside the company.’”
— Kyle Nel
At the beginning, only Nel had the vision for what was possible at
Lowe’s. How could he parlay that vision into a reality to be shared?
The first step was to find a community of like-minded thinkers who
understood the benefits of using emerging technologies for both
business growth and global good. He started by embedding for a year
at a dedicated Lowe’s Innovation Lab at Singularity University (SU). In
fact, Lowe’s became a founding Corporate Member of SU Labs in 2014.
Nel observed, “What I needed was a network, a community, a team.
I found it at SU. I needed help to refine and scale my vision and to be
surrounded by people who could impact me and help me feel like I was
either on the right track or not, and could explain why. Most innovation
programs or spaces are focused on two-by-two charts and a review of
case studies having nothing to do with the unique challenges I faced at
Lowe’s. People attend these ‘innovation’ programs so they
can check the innovation box by completing the program.
SU is different; everyone that comes in the SU doors is
self-selecting to be oriented towards action. People are
trying to partner, trying to co-create, pushing the
technology frontier, and trying to uplift to create a
world of abundance.”
Kyle Nel is a behavioral scientist, not a technologist. The
structures he and his team have built to effect change at
Lowe’s rely on principles of behavioral change, including
the power of story to engage and inspire, and of neuro-
science to tap into unstated reactions to new experiences.
Through this combination of narrative and neuroscience,
Lowe’s has developed a reputation for leading corporate
innovation using exponential technologies such as artificial
intelligence, robotics, virtual reality, additive manufactur-
ing, and others.
This methodology for understanding the future and
changing the way people think, feel, and act is no longer
solely being used inside Lowe’s Innovation Labs. What was
initially at the edge of the company is now a core strategic
framework for the entire Lowe’s organization, and many
organizations around the world are also using this
approach—including Singularity University.
Over the three years Nel was embedded in his SU Lab, he
and others at Lowe’s participated in virtually all of SU’s
programs. His activities have included sponsoring an
Impact Challenge in San Jose that challenged the SU
community and customers to innovate a solar cooker
and water purifier using materials found at Lowe’s;
participating in a Global Impact Challenge where he
met winning startups Fellow Robots and Made In Space;
keynoting at numerous SU Executive Programs, and SU’s
Exponential Finance and Exponential Manufacturing Sum-
mits; and joining the SU faculty to share his expertise on
behavioral science as a cornerstone for innovation.
“What I needed was a network, a community,
a team. I found it at SU. I needed help to refine
and scale my vision and to be surrounded by
people who could impact me and help me feel
like I was either on the right track or not, and
could explain why.”
— Kyle Nel
Science Fiction Design Initiative
The first challenge Nel faced was to get everyone at the
company on the same page about the new future for Lowe’s
and everyone’s role in helping to bring it about. After many
seemingly successful presentations, that ultimately didn’t
result in action, Nel decided to use a narrative-driven
approach to innovation.
Lowe’s provided science fiction writers with current trend
and aggregated customer data and asked them to project
out five to ten years to describe what the retail store and
the home of the future would look like. The writers creat-
ed stories of individual characters representing different
lifestyles and socioeconomic strata who would live in the
world they had imagined, which simplified and made
obvious the impact Lowe’s could have.
This early effort resulted in a series of comic books that
was presented to the executive team as the strategic plan
for innovation. Among other scenarios, one comic book
focused on a family renovating their home with the use of
augmented and virtual reality. Presented just prior to the
launch of the Oculus Rift Kickstarter campaign, these tech-
nologies were far from the minds of Lowe’s executives at
the time. But the story made this future tangible, and their
reaction was to say, “Go build it!” Since then, the Labs team
has worked backwards to bring these and more stories to
life in a repeatable, proven process.
SU has since developed the methodology and tools
developed by Lowe’s Innovation Labs into Science Fiction
Design Intelligence (SciFi D.I.), a program that helps
companies turn science fiction into science fact. A key
differentiator for SU, SciFi D.I. helps companies project
current trends and exponential technologies out 15-20
years, in order to plan prototypes of new solutions. SciFi
D.I. is the ultimate in out-of-the-box thinking found at SU.

Holoroom and Beyond: Using Augmented,
Virtual, and Mixed Reality
The first project that the Labs team launched to bring the
original narrative to life was the Holoroom, an augmented
reality application delivered via an iPad that allowed cus-
tomers to enter a blank room and plan the specs and design
of a home remodel. After testing the experience in Lowe’s
Canada stores, the Holoroom evolved into a more immer-
sive virtual reality experience that allowed customers to
design their space using an iPad, then view it in VR using
Oculus Rift or Google Cardboard devices.
Using the Holoroom, customers can now see and experi-
ence the layout in exquisite detail; they can walk up to
cabinets to see the grain of wood on the various products
they want to try out, and they can look under the cabinets
to see their finishes. This experience takes the uncertainty
out of the vast choice of materials that are available and
enables people to share their vision. Customers can take
a printout of the finished project with them, complete
with pricing for all the elements they explore.
Lowe’s has collaborated with Google to use its Tango
augmented reality platform to launch Lowe’s Vision, a
suite of applications for in-home visualization and in-store
navigation. Beyond visualization, Lowe’s has also created
Holoroom HowTo, a virtual reality clinic for do-it-yourself
home improvement projects such as re-tiling bathrooms.
The modules make it easier for customers to envision the
final result, increase their retention of the steps involved,
and help them feel significantly more confident about
their ability to do a good job.
Throughout this journey, Lowe’s has partnered with
Neurons, an applied neuroscience company, to evaluate
consumers’ unstated reactions to each experience. By
assessing measures like attention, cognition and emotion
using a combination of data from EEG headsets and
eye tracking goggles, scientists can see how the brain is
processing information using highly predictive correlative
models. The technology serves as a diagnostic tool to create
experiences that make life simpler and more intuitive.
Based on this research, the Labs team identified the
Lowe’s Vision experience delivered on the Tango platform
as one of the most intuitive visualization experiences
available today.
LoweBot with Fellow Robots
Lowe’s has entered into productive partnerships with SU
portfolio companies that have taken the retailer in exciting
new directions. “We were introduced to startup Fellow Ro-
bots at SU,” explained Nel. “Working together, we adapted
and extended their robotics to create the first retail robot,
which we originally used at one of our Orchard Supply
Hardware stores in San Jose, California in 2014. The origi-
nal OSHbot served as a store directory that could recognize
natural language and tell or guide customers where to find
what they were looking for in the store. Today, the program
has evolved to include eleven robots in Lowe’s stores, and
they can speak multiple languages. They’ve graduated to
helping employees complete inventory tracking within the
store, in addition to handling customer service.”
Nel continued, “Our work in robotics has now also led
us to building carbon fiber rod exoskeletons with Virginia
Tech that our employees are wearing to help with stocking
shelves. When our employees bend over using the exo-
skeleton, it collects potential energy; when they release it
by standing up, it turns it into kinetic energy for a 2X lift.
There is no jerkiness in the movement because it is not
based on motors. With both of these programs, we’re
showing how innovation not only helps Lowe’s bottom
line, but also benefits our employees.”
3D Printing of Parts at the International Space
Station with Made In Space
Another challenge Lowe’s Innovation Labs tackled was
how to advance real-time, local manufacturing. In an early
pilot conducted in partnership with Authentise, another
SU portfolio company, customers could simply bring in
an object, such as a broken or out of production part,
and Lowe’s could digitally scan it for the customer to create
a 3D model that could be used for printing, among
other applications. Broken parts could even be pieced back
together. Customers could also modify and print objects
designed by Lowe’s, in just about any material they wanted.
Helping to Solve the Safe Drinking Water
Crisis for 660 Million People in the World
By partnering together, SU and Lowe’s developed a
Clean Water Challenge in San Jose, CA in 2015. The
12-week challenge invited Bay Area citizen scientists and
do-it-yourselfers to design and build an affordable water
purification device using common materials found in
Lowe’s home improvement stores. Judges and represen-
tatives from impact partners at Socialab and the Interna-
tional Water and Health Alliance selected one winner from
each of two categories, solutions that cost more than $50
to produce, or less than $50 to produce.

In another partnership, Lowe’s exemplified moonshot

thinking. “We learned a lot from partnering in 3D printing
with Made In Space, a connection we made at SU,” noted
Nel. “We essentially put a Lowe’s store in space at the
International Space Station! We figured it would be a
good test: if 3D printing could work flawlessly in the
extreme conditions in space to produce parts that wear
out or break, then it could also work in our stores.”

Lowe’s and Made In Space have also brought forward a

more holistic view of additive manufacturing that include
applications like recycling. The two companies created a
prototype demonstration of technology that would allow
customers to bring in plastic bags or anything else made
of plastic they’re ready to discard, and recycle it into 3D
printing filament to be used over and over and over again
for products like Lowe’s buckets. “We see things in a
constant state of transition, which helps the planet by
reducing unnecessary waste,” said Nel. In 2016, the Obama
administration recognized Lowe’s and Made In Space as
Champions of Change for this effort.
Kyle Nel on the
Critical Need to Be
Exponential and the
Value of Partnering
With SU
“A big part of working with SU and
its global community is being able
to share your own experiences,
as well as understand others’
learnings and frameworks. At SU,
I know I’m with people who are
part of my tribe, and know that
we are learning and growing and
challenging each other for better
results.”
“You don’t see a lot of disruptive innovation from big companies.
That’s why I want to share what we did at Lowe’s. We created a
proven framework for how to do it and make an impact. We had a
purpose for doing things like additive manufacturing, like putting
a store into space and robots into our stores, as well as working with
big companies like Google and Microsoft.
I feel the challenge to be exponential extends beyond the
organization to me personally. Ultimately organizations are made
up of people, so I asked myself why I couldn’t be one of those
people that is driving change, and helping Lowe’s have a positive
impact in the world?
What’s great about SU is that it exposes you to new things that
cause you to think and react in a different way. SU is a melting pot
of faculty, alumni, and other corporations who are all fighting the
same fights you are—all swirling together and offering you new
opportunities that could dramatically change your business in
the short-, medium-, and long-term.
A big part of working with SU and its global community is being
able to share your own experiences, as well as understand others’
learnings and frameworks. At SU, I know I’m with people who are
part of my tribe, and know that we are learning and growing and
challenging each other for better results.”
SU and Lowe’s At-a-Glance

SU PROGRAMS EXPONENTIAL TECHNOLOGIES

Lowe’s Lab at SU Labs Virtual Reality
Global Impact Challenge 2014 Augmented Reality
Science Fiction Design Intelligence Robotics
Lowe’s Clean Water Challenge 3D Printing
Exponential Finance Summit 2014 Keynote Speaker Solar
Exponential Manufacturing Summit 2015, 2017 Synthetic Biology
Keynote Speaker Biomimicry
Webinar: Leveraging SciFi and Exponential Technology Behavioral Science
Horizon Mapping to Navigate an Uncertain Future
Neuroscience
Executive Program: attendee and speaker
Quantum Computing
Startup Network (Made In Space, Fellow Robots, Authentise)
Artificial Intelligence
Innovation Lab, Prototyping Sprints, Accelerator, and SU Labs
Global Solutions Program 2012 GLOBAL GRAND CHALLENGES
Kyle Nel, Member, SU Faculty Water
Space
Environment

About Singularity University

Singularity University (SU) is a global learning and innovation community using exponential technologies to tackle the world’s biggest
challenges and build an abundant future for all. SU’s collaborative platform empowers individuals and organizations across the globe
to learn, connect, and innovate breakthrough solutions using accelerating technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, and digital
biology. A certified benefit corporation headquartered at NASA Research Park in Silicon Valley, SU was founded in 2008 by renowned
innovators Ray Kurzweil and Peter H. Diamandis with program funding from leading organizations including Google, Deloitte, and
UNICEF. To learn more, visit SU.org, join us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter @SingularityU, and download the SU App.

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