The Blackwire 400 is a corded headset specifically for the office space. Targeted to appeal to the younger millennial work force who dislike wearing large headsets at work and prefer a corded solution similar to what they listen to music with at home or while traveling. The challenge for Plantronics was to create an earbud solution that still has superior audio quality. The mic had to be good enough to function within an ANC spectrum. Being an at-work device it still needed to have a small yet lite inline controller attached. By platforming this product was able to borrow the majority of the ear capsule architecture from the Voyager 400 neckband. Thus it delivered the same ergonomic performance as the Voyager 400. My involvement was mid cycle and quickly realizing the program lacked focus or adequate attention I injected some much needed impetus to move the program development forwards. To much angst I helped force a program reset as the needs of the business and customer were not being met. After collaborating with the Acoustic engineers we were better able to create a mic array that was smaller to package around. I developed the product from concept to final direction and developed the soft goods casing options for it also.
