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How would you design a gardening app?

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Great question:

How would you design a gardening app?

Let’s first think about why we would want to design a gardening app?
Clarifying / Assumptions:
Type of garden: Fruit and/or flowers
Indoor or outdoor?  Indoor
This is a mobile application
Why : Gardens allow people to grow food & be sustainable, reducing costs on grocercies, improving quality of foods, and increasing the room presence/air quality [flowers]
Goal: Increase the # of people who have home garden
User Groups
Users TAM Freq
Beginners  H H
Ocassional hobbiests M S
Experts H M

 

Users: Painpoints
Beginners Don’t know what to grow/plant in their gardens
Ocassional hobbiests Don’t always have time to take care of a garden
Experts Need tools to refine their processes

I’m going to choose Beginners there is a large addressable market & they may need the most help & guidance which results in frequent use of the application. This in turn can later allow us for ways to monetize with a users.

User Journey

What to plant -> Care for plant -> Sow Rewards

Knowing what to plant is the bigest painpoint in getting started with a garden, especially for beginners.

Potential solutions for beginners

Solutions Impact Freq (because we are looking to increase the # of gardens)
Edu app that helps users understand the process and care for different types of plants H H
Reminder application that lets users know they should water/repot plant/fruit H M
App that tracks history of their garden M M

 

So we’re designing an app targeted at beginners looking to understand which plants would be good for their garden depending on their lifestyle.

 

We’re focusing on the inital pain point of starting the garden

We know the edu content is helpful by users

Metrics:

WAU – Weekly Active Users;  “Active” are users who have added ‘seeds’ (garden creation)  to their garden, as this is a mobile app we are allowing users to understand what to plant. When they add seed’s we can tell that our information was helpful.  This is more of a weekly tasks because gardening takes time.

a garden lifecycle (their garden can be in different stages -> seed, growing, bloom, death )

Support metrics:

# of plants within plant library

# of new gardens created

time spent on app

# of unique users

retention rate

Counter metrics:

churn rate

# support tickets

# of bad reviews

In summary, we’re focusing on increasing the # of gardeners by providing a mobile edu app targeted at beginners. The app allows users to understand what plants are out there to start their garden based on their lifestyle. We’ll track success of the application by number of weekly active users, with active being users who are adding to their garden weekly.

Business Goal

I’m assuming that the current process of finding gardening solutions is very ad-hoc and there is no app which can address homeowner specific needs. The goal is to create an engaging app to help homeowners find the best solution for their gardening needs.

Also, are we planning to earn revenue through the app download or are we planning to use advertisements to earn the money  – assuming it is advertisement based revenue

??????User Personas

  1. Rich homeowners with big houses for whom gardens are a prerequisite part of their lifestyle and status
  2. Garden enthusiasts who are passionate about the best services for their gardens etc.
  3. People with basic garden needs such as mowing etc.
  4. Households with very niche garden need such as whether to invest in a particular plant etc.
Assuming, that the goal is to earn more revenue, therefore I want to target the first user persona
User Needs
  1. Regular upkeep of their gardens etc.
  2. Landscaping/drawings
  3. Pest control/ tree cutting etc. specific services
  4. More guidance about what stuff to plant
  5. Sale – miniature plants, seeds
I feel that user need 4, will have more significance as the community grows bigger mainly because that’ll help people to exchange ideas as well as app owner to offer premium services.
Solution 
  1. Location-based service offerings
  2. Community build – ask an expert to get answers to the questions that you might have. As a further enhancement, getting horticulture experts etc. on-board
  3. sale of plants/gift materials/regular materials such as flowers, vegetables related to plants etc.
Launch and metrics
The app can gain traction by launching it via the realtors and advertising it at the open houses. Because we are targeting higher segment of society, therefore I feel it makes sense to identify people there.
Initially, the number of sign-ups can be used as a metric for tracking the awareness of the app. Also, by seeing the recurring customers using a different variety of services will be an indicator of retention. The metrics such as click-through rate can be used to track the level of engagement. Finally for monetization, the use of horticulture services etc. can be tracked. Additionally, the sale of gardening equipment for plants and gift materials can also be a good metric.

Assumptions and questions:

To clarify,

  1. We are looking to design a mobile application.
  2. By gardening app, we mean a platform that can connect people who are interested in plants, either as a hobby or as for maintaining their gardens.
  3. This app is relevant as comprehensive information about plants and gardens are rarely available at a single place. Additionally, a platform dedicated to connecting garden enthusiasts shall aim to bring all such people on board.

Next, we can discuss the relevant user groups:

  1. Working professionals: People who like gardening and have gardening space, but do not have a lot of time to spend on it.
  2. Older Generation: This segment comprises people who are mostly retired, like gardening, and have a lot of time to spend on it.
  3. Plant lovers: People who do not have a dedicated/ample gardening space but like to explore various plants and interact with similar people.
  4. Professional Gardeners: People pursuing gardening as a profession, looking to get more clients, and learn more about gardening.

We should focus on the 1st user group as they comprise a large section and would be motivated to use our product more frequently.

Following this, we can discuss the user needs:

  1. Buy plants and seeds online
  2. Learn how to plant seeds
  3. Ask doubts/know about the various varieties of plants/vegetables
  4. Learn DIY gardening tips related to plant growth, pesticides, etc.
  5. Connect with other people in the community; post/share their garden pictures with other users

 

Now, we can prioritize the user needs, based on parameters: impact on the users, revenue/engagement potential, level of effort needed to address the needs.

  Impact on Users Engagement Potential Development effort required
1. High High Medium
2. High High Low
3. High High Low
4. Medium Medium Low
5. Medium Medium Medium

 

Based on the prioritization matrix, we can focus on use cases 1,2,3 in our MVP, and maybe concentrate on 4,5 in next iterations (after getting consumer responses)

Once we have selected our features, we can do the following to address these user needs:

  1. Develop an online marketplace to connect the users to the nearby nurseries. The users can see/read/ask questions about the different types of live plants and seeds available in the shops before ordering them. The nursery owners can deliver the product once the payment is made.
  2. Develop a repository of videos, live videos, reading materials on how to plant different types of seeds and plants. UI has to be developed in a way to enable easy usage without any complications in finding the right content.
  3. Along with the above point 2, build a QnA forum where people can ask doubts, and the experts can answer the queries based on their knowledge.

Some metrics to measure the success of the product:

  1. Number of downloads
  2. Number of active users
  3. Frequency/revenue of online purchase
  4. Avg monthly time spent by an active user

 

Use this approach to answer this Google product design interview question:

What’s the goal — Improving user experience

Constraint — Which region? Start with the US.

Is this for a home improvement retail store such as HomeDepot or Lowes? No

User segments

1. Apartment dwellers — Balcony and in-home gardeners

2. Single family home with decent backyards

3. Small Farm owners

Prioritization criteria:

a) No of users in that segment b) Frequency of use

Segment chosen — Single family home owners.

User motivation: Our user isn’t a gardening enthusiast however they like the idea of a great backyard.

User Journey and Needs:

Inspiration stage: Choosing what would I plant and where to start.

Actual setup stage — going to buy the plants and getting set up. Lot of time investment.

How would we do it? Either hire a contractor for landscaping or do it on your own. Finding a good contractor is a challenge.

Continued taking care of the plants. Weekly time investment. How would I get the advice? Where would I find an expert?

Continued motivation and keep doing what you’re doing. Is it worth doing what am I doing?

Understanding of cost of ownership. How much investment is this?

Priority of Needs:

Our target segments is 26-32 years range, they bought a home recently and moved out of their apartment. They just had a baby and extremely busy with their life. However, they look at their backyard each day and think what if it could inspire them.

Solution:

  1. They take a picture and the app suggests them visual representation of their space with various landscape choices along with options such as easy maintenance, quick set up, various styles and how much work/week it is.
  2. They can browse through various landscaping idea already done by other landscapers and choose the one they like and work with landscaping experts to figure out how to proceed on that.

I will like to prioritise these options based on impact on customer experience, time to implement as well as innovative or differentiating factor.

Option 1. Impact on customer exp H Engineering Difficulty H Time to market/ Partnership Needs M Innovation H

Option 2: Impact on customer exp M Engineering Difficulty L Time to market/ Partnership Needs H Innovation H

Based on the above criteria, I would recommend Option 1.

This is how it should work:

  1. An user takes a picture with their app and maps their backyard using the smart camera feature which understands the length, breadth and all other aspects of the space.
  2. The app presents them various landscaping ideas with plants that are appropriate to that region.
  3. In addition, it provides option for additional filters such as time investment for maintenance per week, watering needs and cost of ownership.
  4. It also provides the option to hire an expert for initial getting started work.
  5. The user will have the option to order all plants/insecticides and all other necessary items once they choose a style they like.

Metrics

  1. No of app downloads
  2. Total time spent
  3. CTR on the recommended search results (effectiveness of search results)
  4. No of transactions as % of total users (independent professional contacted, items ordered)