Trailhead Design
Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Trailhead Design Limited is a boutique product company specializing in developing products for the renewable energy sector.
About Us
Having built their reputation for excellence in the UK, Trailhead Design brings decades of experience delivering cutting edge products that focus on a better user experience to drive positive outcomes for everyone involved.
Voltaire’s maxim is often quoted as a business dictum... but the race to the middle never sat comfortably with us, it's worth remembering, one person’s ‘good enough’ is another person’s ‘shocking’... let’s do better.
The energy transition has become a political battlefield scarred by misinformation, smoothing this journey is the responsibility of everyone involved. We believe by developing exceptional products through our ‘design first’ lens, we can help companies guide their customers through this vital transition.
We have been fortunate enough to work on cutting edge projects in the clean energy industry and take huge pride in the products we deliver. Our journey of learning is continuous, and we look forward to showcasing our passion and achievements here on the West Coast of Canada.
Our design ethos:
Service Design
This iterative, user-centric, creative process that concerns itself with all experiences of delivering a service, forms the foundation of our approach to product design.
If you haven't stuck a Post-it Note to a window, have you really designed anything?
Prototyping
If you’re going to fail, fail fast… Presumption isn’t the friend of a good night’s sleep. The importance of getting an early prototype in front of users can’t be overstated.
We build fast, both hardware and software. This is our happy place, where reputations are saved.
Knowledge
Specializing in delivering cloud and edge-based systems for EV Charging, we are subject matter experts. We have delivered complex cloud solutions at scale, load management software controlling critical processes, and managed government funded projects.
Partnerships
They say, “never be the smartest person in the room”, we’ve worked with many leaders in many fields. They’ve challenged us, helped us grow, and empowered us.
You don’t have to be the best at everything, you just need to know who is.
GridTwin
GridTwin is a triage and feasibility tool for electrical projects of all sizes, based around a digital-twin, a standardized file format and a recursive logic engine.
Starting as an internal tool to validate the DESTOPOD - Modular Solar Charging Concept, it soon became obvious that the visual representation of electrical projects, could help democratize the energy transition by giving non-technical stakeholders a clearer picture of the requirements and benefits of electrification.
The more people use the system and share data the more powerful it becomes. Houses modeled to investigate adding Ev Charging, can later be used to create models of whole neighbourhoods.
Enrich your data with climate and usage models and prioritize manageable devices, the possibilities are endless.
GridTwin is not just a tool, it's a new approach to working in energy. It's standardized file format lends itself to many uses, including:
- Educators: Visual learning is effective for complex concepts.
- Contractors: Onboard projects and produce compelling proposals.
- Retrofit Advisors: Load existing data and demonstrate possible savings.
- Home Builders: Genertae electrical code compliant permitting models.
- Software Developers: Test your software against live API endpoints.
- Property Managers: Save live and historic data into the digital-twin.
- Manufacturers: Create product catalogues for users to use in models.
We are working with industry partners to finalise our initial release, if you have any thoughts, suggestions, or just want to stay up to date with our progress, please register below.
Project Triage
Using questionnaires, we walk you through converting one of our starting points into your energy model. When do you do this? How many of these do you have? Your model will be refined as detail is added and will remain yours to share with whoever needs to see it.
The GridTwin visual format helps you gain a deeper understanding of how things interact.
Logic Engine
Our digital twin contains definitions of standardized electrical components. It models what kind of power they use, if they store energy, how much, and if they output power, in what format.
By iterating over these objects using our logic engine we can accurately model the energy use of every individual component and alert of any possible issues.
Energy Models
It’s all very well knowing what’s in your model but lets now deal with how it reacts with the real world. Tariff, Weather and Usage Models can be loaded or created to illustrate best and worst cases for energy generation.
Or get really specific to demonstrate how much money installing a heat pump would have saved you in 2025 right here in Vancouver.
Automated Reports
We like to think everyone will view their energy models in GridTwin and we will produce some beautiful reports to illustrate your data. But before we reach that tipping point, we’ll make sure your data is available to you in some very useful formats.
Sharing a link to your model makes it viewable, but if they’re happier with a spreadsheet, that’s fine with us.
GridTwin - Viewer
View models and reports created by completing questionnaires or shared by other people. Export data in various useful formats.
GridTwin - Designer
Design Energy Models for feasibility studies or to illustrate live projects to clients. Create detailed use scenarios for validation.
GridTwin - Professional
Create and share Device Libraries, store live data, manage devices using API endpoints. The true digital twin experience.
Our People
Our experience creating and managing cross-disciplinary teams, will enable us to scale efficiently as and when it’s needed.
We have mentioned the importance of partnerships, and drawing on our networks gives us mentors to call on as we start this journey.
Jon Sayers
A creative technologist who’s 30 years of experience spans design, development and architecture. When Indra Renewable Technologies (a leading UK based Charger Manufacturer) decided to bring their cloud solutions and app development in-house, they asked Jon to build a cross-disciplinary remote team of 10 to design and deliver all aspects of the project
Later, at 3ti Energy Hubs, the team's cutting-edge product development was rewarded with an 18-month, £3,000,000, Innovate UK project, funded by the UK government, to investigate the use of DC Microgrids in the delivery of V2X charging infrastructure.
Claire Walsh
Claire has over a decade of experience managing government funded global programs, with diverse stakeholders. She specializes in all aspects of grant management and has achieved the highest scoring level for her reporting on international aid projects funded by the UK Government.
Her previous experience working as a Product Owner for large software projects will ensure Trailhead Design delivers ‘the best’ work efficiently.
Jon is always pushing the envelope of what can be done and has a very inquisitive mind toward technology. Enthusiastic and thoughtful, I have no hesitation in recommending him.