Build a product to solve the dog poop problem.

Build a product to solve the dog poop problem.

I need to ask precise questions about defining the dog poop problem. What problem are we seeing regarding dog poop? Have we noticed an increase in calls to police/fire departments due to flaming bags of poop on the front porches in a given location? Maybe the trash cans by the picnic tables at my local park overflow with dog poop on Sundays, and a hot summer day smells pretty ripe. Perhaps it is not the dog poop but the smell of the dog poop that is causing an issue. 

Since this is a waste management company asking these questions, should we focus on the trashcans needing to be picked up more often during certain times of the year by a waste collector? 

Narrow down the months they see or receive calls regarding this issue in the park. What is the current waste management process for collecting garbage at this park? How does this differ from other parks? 

Goal

The interviewer and I have agreed that the goal of this design improvement is to eliminate the excesses of dog poop and smell by the picnic tables by relocating the trashcan by the dog park and creating a smart trashcan that self-composts the bags and poop to fertilizer that they can use on non-vegetable garden plants in the park. This will reduce parks and rec fees by 10% annually by cutting out the cost of fertilizers. This trashcan will need to be outside in the elements and notifies the company by weight when the compost needs collecting and neutralize the smell with fresh mount scent. 

Users

We have four prominent users/persons. One is the taxpayers using the park, both dog and non-dog owners. The other is the waste collector, and our fourth is the park and rec.

List the needs of your user group.

• Taxpayers and non-dog owners want to utilize the picnic area without having to smell or see dog poop bags steaming away like hot corn tamales.
• Taxpayers with dogs want to clean up their dog poop from the dog park, but where do they put it if the trashcan is not in proximity and is full all the time. 
• The waste collector needs to find out when the trashcans are full compared to the other receptacles, and moving them to the dog park would require someone to walk over and grab them compared to a truck picking them up. If it gets too full, it becomes too heavy, and they cannot move it or risk getting hurt on the job. 
• Parks and rec want to lower their operating cost. 

Prioritize their needs

Given that it takes six months for a month's worth of poop to compost in the sun into safe usable fertilizer for the Parks and Rec team to use. In addition, the parks in question are getting security cameras installed in eight months, allowing us to utilize their network. Therefore, we should focus on supplying poop bags that compose very quickly and help the dog poop breakdown. Second, we would use the technology in our larger recycling plants on a macro level in our trashcan to build a prototype. As we build out and scale this technology, we could think about what it would look like to package and sell this to make back our investment in this RNDh. Also, could we use this technology with our regular trashcans?  

summary

In summary, we will be utilizing in-house technology to quickly compost dog poop into safe fertilizer that can be used in the park. We will accomplish this by creating an intelligent trashcan and placing them in the dog park areas. As this program ages, we see the opportunity to resale this fertilizer to the general public at a discount for non-editable gardening. This technology can also speed up the composting of our recycling trash reciprocals. 

Context: I will work on an innovative yet simple solution for dog poop problem. I will not consider any cost constraints or being part of any parent brand which limits through mission or by existing solutions.

User:

• Dog owner (purchaser of the product), all geographies, aged between 25+, who can buy a dog/provide for a dog and take care of it. Earner in the family/earning bachelor.
• Dog lover/take carer (family member of the dog who can be a child or partner or a parent etc./take carer hired specifically for the dog), all
• Cleaner at a dog park or at a restaurant for dogs, not buyer of the product, uses to pick up trash at the location

Needs through 5W method: (focusing on the dog owner segment only B2C product who is also the buyer and not for B2B purchases)

• Dog owner
  • when - while evening walks or at home, at a friends’s place when they take the dog out, while on vacation at a airbnb stay, while traveling in a car or a flight
  • what are the needs at home - leave the place clean, keep his house clean, address for smell of the poop, ensure no one touches poop before its cleaned fully, easy way to collect/accumulate before disposing, have a disposable area where he can through it, understand when to dispose before the area smells or catches flees etc.
  • what are the needs at outside places - have a specific type of packaging to cover the caught poop
• Dog lover/care taker - same needs as above, expect the process to be simpler and intuitive that anyone can understand

Needs through word associations:

• Poop
  • smell
  • decompose
  • flees
  • dirt
  • sticky on floor
• Dog
  • touch their own poop
  • make a mess of their own poop
  • no cleanliness
• Dog owner
  • want to clean the area
  • dispose the poop
  • sanitize the poop area to avoid spread of any diseases
  • control for smell
  • get to know health of the dog based on poop variations [New ones identified]
  • suggestions on what to feed or give medicines based on the poop [New ones identified]

Use cases through scamper

- C (combine it with something else) → may be combine with dog kernel

- Adapt (something to it)

• alarm/notifier that dog might poop in next 15-20 mins depending on the age and breed of the dog so that the owner can be prepared

Prioritization of needs:

Solution:

• To address dog poop problem, I will consider following:

1. Poop collector will be a long rod with flexibility for user to open, collect and close the collector
2. Poop collector will have 3 buttons & a display area:
   1. Button 1 : For disposal
   2. Button 2: Rating health of dog, which then gives basic suggestions on the mobile app about medicines required & food to be given
   3. Button 3: Santize & spray the place (but without a mop functionality)

Evaluating trade-offs:

• The reason I picked health of dog is that it will increase revenue by cross selling products to the dog owner and even suggest any vet services if needed
• The investment in this product would be one time effort to understand health based on poop but will give significant edge over existing features available in the market.

Recommendation:

• I would position this product as assistance service for entire dog life cycle from 0 day to when the dog becomes old. Around better health and longevity of the dog.
• I can even level up the app to ask user to enter further details about dog behavior, create a community where first time users can ask many questions and get suggestions

1. Clarification - What is the problem we are trying to solve? Stink? Picking up? 

2. Personas

   1. People with One or two pets

   2. People with disabilities - service dog

   3. Police force dogs - service dogs

   4. Dog walkers

3. Choosing dog walkers coz the need is higher there with multiple dogs in dog parks etc

4. Dog walkers pain points

   1. Dogs are pulling them in different directions

   2. Prevent other dogs from smelling this dog’s poop - possible infections etc

   3. Watch other dogs while they are picking up 

   4. Hands might not be free

5. Solutions

   1. Cordless vacuum stick - lined with dog poop cover. Odorless covers. Extendable handle 

      1. Pros - not bending down, more control

      2. Cons - your one hand occupied, always need to carry it with you, maybe heavy

   2. Voice activated roomba - clean up, camera to identify where the poop is. Odorless cover. 

      1. Pros - both hands are free, use watch for voice activated commands that can be communicated to the roomba with 5G. 

      2. Cons - Its difficult to move it to different parts if automatic navigation doesn’t work over large distances especially in outside terrains. Dogs might end up chasing it

   3. Drones- pick up poop

6. Cordless vacuum stick -  It’s a safer option with dogs and the environment it has to be used. Can cover wider range

7. Metrics

   1. How many sold?

   2. Clicks we got in campaigns. 

   3. Reviews

Need to design an app that can help in identifying the right places where dogs can poop and those can be cleaned on time

Clarifications/Assumptions

1.      Who are the users?

Assumption- Domestic house holds who has pets at home, vetenary hospitals, public parks, gardens, municipality owners owing the cleanliness of the streets, residential societies maintenance, IT parks allowing the dogs at workplace. I am also assuming that dog poop activity is an operating expense that needs to be borne by the pet users at a reasonable price. Like paid public toilets. It can be used by big (area wise) or medium scale residential societies. Very small societies might use very limited feature as it is easy to track for the smaller area.

2.      What do they want to do?

                   Assumptions- Identify a suitable place for dog poops and maintain cleanliness with hygiene at the same time.

3.      How they want to do?

Assumptions- Mobile app, desktop, laptop, tablet where mobile is more intuitive and user friendly as masses use the cell phone and hence can use app anytime at any place.

4.      Scope of application

Assumption is domestic, India

5.      Goal of the application

Generate income and increase the customer base.

User Needs and Pain Points

I would like to list down the pain points from the pet owner’s perspective and the maintenance team’s perspective who is accountable to manage cleanliness in the residential areas as they are the masses who will be using this app. Municipal corporation can act as a user who invigilates if the residential societies are managing the cleanliness and hygiene adhering to the laws

1.      Inability to identify the right available spots for dog poop

2.      Inability to identify the uncrowded place during the peak hours where not too many dogs are pooping together

3.      Inability to remember the time when dog wants to poop or urinate. Hence, poops and urinates at undesignated areas

4.      Janitors are not able to find the spots where dogs have pooped to clean it on time

5.      Maintenance team who is accountable for cleanliness is not able to identify at which time and place the pets have pooped to sensitize the pet owners

6.      Inability to track if pet owners are cleaning the dog poops immediately if inadvertently the dog has pooped to the undesignated areas

7.      The maintenance team should penalise and pet owners if they break the discipline and record the income generated out of it that in turn can be used for the management of cleanliness

8.      Inability to escalate the critical issues to the upper management of the society for immediate action within very short span of time

9.      Inability to track when how many times I have paid penalty to the maintenance team and the regular hygiene maintenance fees

10.   Inability to track if any other street dogs are entering and pooping inside the residential gardens and common areas.

Evaluation

The features are simple to use and intuitive from the user standpoint. It can be used by learned people even janitors should be having basic level of education to use the application. As the application has been made predominantly for India. Hence, we can allow the users to have in regional language along with English as the standard language so that it can be used by the masses. Rating mechanism and feedback helps to understand more about the user mindset for better engagement. Revenue generation should happen from the residential societies where they can take subscriptions and it becomes mandatory for the pet owners to register and use the app who are living in the societies. Pay per use model might not work as dog pooping is a regular activity and cleanliness and hygiene is suppose to be maintained on daily basis.

Clarification

What are we talking about when we say the dog poop problem? Two things immediately come to mind:

1. Dog poop gets left on the ground and doesn't get picked up, it's smelly, unsightly, attracts flies, and you can step in it
2. Dog owners have to let their dog out of the house to go poop. What if you are sick or want to sleep in, your dog still needs to go poop.

In terms of solutions, it's hard to come up with a magic bullet that solves everything for everyone so let's take a look at some of the potential users of a dog poop problem solving product and choose one to focus on:

1. Dogs themselves
2. Dog owners
3. Park Staff
4. Park Visitors

1. Bring a plastic bag
2. Park offers plastic bags
3. Kick it under a bush
4. Leave it on the ground

1. They could've forgot or don't have access to a plastic bag
2. Not always present or aware that their dog is going to the bathroom
3. Stool isn't always solid and able to be picked up
4. After you pick up the poop, you have to carry it until you find a trash can

1. Fibrous stool binding dog food
2. Chemical spray that dissolves dog poo
3. IOT enabled collar to alert you when your dog is going to the bathroom

1. B-, A+, B-
2. C+, A, A-
3. B-, B-, B-

1. We touched upon this above in the comparison matrix, but is this even feasibly doable? Can such a spray really be made?
2. If we can create a spray, is it going to be environmentally friendly? If it dissolves the dog poop what is going to stop it from also dissolving the grass underneath it and leaving a giant barren patch.
3. Assuming this is technically feasible, are we going to be able to manufacture and offer it to consumers at a price point that makes sense for them and us. The cost of a plastic bag is damn near free.
4. This doesn't address the pain point of dog owners forgetting to bring their plastic bags with them to the dog park. Maybe we could offer it in a compact size that could attach to a key chain, or just have parks keep some available on hand for public use like some do with plastic bags now.

Clarifications: 

1/ What is the problem?

Pet dogs. When we walk them, they poop, we need to clean up after them. What is the problem? Dog owners dont like cleaning up and we have to solve that? Assume Yes. 

2/ Assuming we are focusing on US - in other countries maybe its not the law to clean up after their dog. So its not a problem for the owners. 

3/ Is this really a problem worth solving? Yes. Its determined, we should solve the problem. 

OK. Lets look at the experience of a dog owner. 

There are two phases of the dog. 

a/ Before its trained. 

b/ After its trained, it knows it needs to poop outside and not inside the house. Also poop only during the designated walking times. Or prompt the owner that it needs to poop, hence take it outside. 

What would be an ideal experience?  

Lets look at humans. We also need to be trained as kids. Once we are trained, we know that we need to poop inside the bathroom at house, inside public or private restrooms when outside, and not to openly defecate. We are self-sufficient and we dont need adults to supervise us. 

For this exercise, I am assuming that the dog is reasonably trained. I dont know how training works, so dont know how I can solve that problem. 

Clarification Questions

1. Which geography are we talking about? The dog ownership rights and animal rights vary widely in different countries? Can we assume this is in the US? - Yes
2. What do we mean by the dog poop problem? Is it the issue faced by the city officials to clean dog poop from the streets? Is it the issue faced by the dog owners to help them clean up efficiently after their dog? There is also an issue that poop can be used as an indicator for diseases and since testing for diseases in dogs is rare, we want to use this to test them for that? Or is it for the pedestrians who end up stepping on dog poop? - Dog Owners
3. What do we mean by a product? Is it a physical product we are looking for? or a software product? or an app - you pick

Goal: Make it easy for a dog owner to clean up after their dog

The Situation

Dog ownership is quite common in the US and has been on the rise. People get dogs to keep them company, to play with them, to have a companion in difficult times, and many more cases. However, as more people get dogs, there is also the issue that many of them who get the dog for the first time in their life. Owning a dog has many facets, it is almost taking care of a baby:

1. Feeding the dog
2. Attention for the dog
3. Playing with the dog
4. Training the dog and many more...

It is a whole discipline in itself.

User Segments

There are various user segments that I can think of:

1. First time dog owners
   1. Puppies
   2. Grown Dogs
2. Multiple time dog owners (getting a dog second time)
3. Service dog owners
4. Police dog owners to name a few

I assume there would be different kinds of needs for each of these dog owners. For the sake of this assessment, I would like to focus on the First Time Dog Owners because they have will have the most number of unknowns and their pain is the maximum. Here again, there would be different challenges for owners of puppies and owners of grown dogs. Since, puppies in most cases also stay in special care or animal houses, we will focus on owners with grown dogs (6 months or above).

User Pain Points

I want to quickly consider the user journey for a dog owner. For the sake of this assessment, we will talk about three stages.

1. Before the dog poops
   1. Don't know when the dog will poop
   2. Don't know what the cycle is
   3. Don't know how the dog will communicate if he/she needs to poop
2. During the dog pooping
   1. Don't know what are the right places for the dog to poop
   2. Don't know what to do while the dog is pooping
   3. Don't know when the dog is done pooping
3. After the dog poops
   1. Don't know how to clean it up
   2. Annoyed that they have to clean up poop
   3. Frustrated that others are looking at them as they pick up poop
   4. Afraid that they might get poop somewhere on their clothes

Grouped Challenges

As I think about the challenges that a user is facing, I think there are three major themes that emerge:

1. Education about the dog pooping habits
2. Prediction of the dog pooping to ensure there is no discomfort for the dog
3. Physical handling of poop

Some Solutions

Given these challenges, I'd like to propose a few solutions to assure that we are solving for them adequately. I think these three problems require a fair bit of attention. We will try to cover ground and then grade the solutions based on the value vs effort.

1. Dog Poop Academy: A simple education app, that helps owners understand how dogs develop, by breed and age. The user will simply be able to enter a few details and all the information that they need would be at hand. We will work with vets and researchers to put this information together. The entire app will take on a funny/humourous tone because we know this is important information for an owner.
   1. Value: High
   2. Effort: Low
2. Dog Poop Tracker: A tracker that will help users track the pooping habits of their dogs. Tracking this and sticking to their schedule will help the user track the time for their dogs to ensure that they can take their dog out every day at the same time and avoid any discomfort for the dog also. It will also highlight all the nearest dog parks around the city and where there are enough waste disposal options available. Using this app will not only help the owner avoid discomfort for the dog but also keep the city clean. The owner can quickly tap a button to dispose of said waste. Plus this could also gamify the act of cleaning up dog poop to nudge them to keep the city clean.
   1. Value: High
   2. Effort: Medium
3. Handling Devices: Provide a link on Amazon with all the devices available and their latest ratings and videos for users to make an informed decision. Affiliate revenue on the app to generate additional revenue.
   1. Value: High
   2. Effort: Low

Prioritize

1. I would start with building a simple app with education and links to products they can purchase.
2. I would add the tracking features later on

Summary

We started with evaluating the dog poop problem, looked at various facets of it round down on first-time dog owners who are mostly clueless about what to do. After coming up with user pain points, we grouped them into high-level themes and provided some solutions to solve the problems.

Step 1: Ask clarifying questions to narrow down the scope of the product/question

-Mobile based product or desktop based app? (mobile)

-IOS or Android? (Both)

-Product available to people in a particular region, yes or no? (Yes for the scope of this question lets assume that this product will only be available to people living in NY to begin with)

-What kind of dogs are we considering? (Normal pet dogs, nothing special)

-Is it going to be a standalone product or are we planning to integrate it in an already existing solution? (Standalone product)

-What do you mean by the dog poop problem? (Dogs can poop anywhere, thus there should be designated places assigned only where dogs should poop to keep the place/city clean)

Step 2: List down the user groups

- Pet dog owners and walkers: These are people who own pet dogs and may or may not take their dogs out for walks

- Hired Dog walkers: People who get paid for taking someone's pet dog out for walks

-Dog lovers/enthusiasts

Step 3: Select a user group and state your reason for doing so

For the scope of this question we will be going with pet dog owners and walkers as the main user group. This is because this app will be used majorly by this user group as its the largest user group present.

Step 4: List down user pain-points 

1) They want to know about the nearest dog poop parks/facilities near their location?

2) Finding and searching for dog parks is a very time consuming process

3) Want to get more information about these parks, whether they are paid or free, empty or busy etc?

4) Want to know whether these parks are safe or not

5) Lack of incentive for the users to take their dog  to the park

6) Don't know how to reach the nearest park

7) Want to know where are their friends taking their dogs to poop

Step 5: Prioritise the pain-points based on criterias like Impact to end user and Impact to business value.

Based on the above criterias we have prioritised the following pain-points 

2,4,5 and 6

Step 6: List down the solutions for these prioritised pain-points

2) Finding and searching for dog parks is a very time consuming process

A) AI and GPS-based facility/park recommender: Based on person's location, daily route etc

B) Voice based search: To search for dog poop parks and facilities nearby

4) Want to know whether these parks are safe or not

A) AR/VR feature: By clicking on the park/facility on the app and using this feature the user can know more about the park and check whether they are safe or not

B) Safety Review and Ratings page: Can check and read the safety review and ratings page related to a particular facility to know whether these parks are safe or not

C) Chat feature: Reach out to people who have already been to this park and ask them about it

5) Lack of incentive for the users to take their dog  to the park/facility

A) Gamified Platform: Everytime a user takes their pet dog to the park/facility for pooping they get rewarded in the form of bitcoin tokens which is reedemable in nature

6) Don't know how to reach the nearest park

A) Integration with google maps: To recommend multiple routes to the nearest park (depending on the mode of transport)

Step 7: Prioritise the solutions based on criterias like Impact to end user, Implementation effort, Implementation cost

Based on the above criterias we have prioritised the following solutions 

2A, 4B, 5A and 6A

Step 8: List down the metrics that you'll track for these solutions/features

2A) AI and GPS-based facility/park recommender: Based on person's location, daily route etc

% of total number of users who no longer search for facilities on their own

4B) Safety Review and Ratings page: Can check and read the safety review and ratings page related to a particular facility to know whether these parks are safe or not

avg # of users that check this page out before going to a facility/park on a daily, weekly and monthly basis

Avg time spent per user on this page before deciding to go to the park

Increase in NPS, CSAT and user feedback after the launch of this feature

5A) Gamified Platform: Everytime a user takes their pet dog to the park/facility for pooping they get rewarded in the form of bitcoin tokens which is redeemable in nature

Avg # of users who have received over 30 bitcoin tokens in the past 6 months 

% inc in no of users who take their dog to proper dog parks and facilities after the launch of this feature

6A) Integration with google maps: To recommend multiple routes to the nearest park (depending on the mode of transport)

Step 9: Summarize your answer

Interview Question: Build a product to solve the dog poop problem.

Clarification: 

1) Let us define what 'dog poop problem' means. Here we are looking to solve for the issue of unwated dog poop in public places like streets, parks etc. 

2) I am assuming that we are builing a hardware and/or a software product v/s a consumer good product

3) Is there are particular geography to focus on? I am going to focus on Mumbai, India

4) Assuming we are a startup builidng a soultion

Mission:

Unwated dog litter, can be critical hygine issue. Our mission is to reduce dog poop in public areas.

User Segemnts:

We can divdie user segments across multiple axis:

1) Types of dogs: Dogs with owners v/s Stray dogs

2) Type of  people: We can segment all people into 3 segment Dog Owners, Public city workers, Innocent peopler/Bystanders

Of the two axis I presented, I am priotizing 'Public workers' in 'Type of people'. For this segment I will look at pain point across both Type of Dogs; Owned dogs and stray dogs

In people segement I am selecting Public city workers, mainly with since they are employed to reduce dog poop in public places and are incentivited to do so. This ties into the goal of the product. I will go through the pain points they face and how we can enable for them to do their jobs better. 

If time permits we can also look at other persons, Dog owner: Since they can directly impact amount of dog poop left uncleaned in public places and also bystanders since they are higly impacted by unhygenic dog poop.

I will now go through the pain point, prioirtize those, list out solutions and then we can prioitize the solution.

Pain points:

1) Stray dogs who dont have owners, poop at any public places and there is no ownership of cleaning up after

2) Public city workers may not know which areas to focus on for a clean up drive 

3) Dog owners may not know where the designated areas for dog walking/dog pooping are, so could leave dog poop in a wider distributed area. This causes more work for Public city workers

4) People who own dogs, may not be aware of health and hygine issues of not cleaning up

5) Owners/dog walkers have do not want to pick up poop, as it is smelliy and dirty. Type of poop can also raise an issue if it is not solid

Using a sinple Frequency, Severtiy and Relveance as criterias for prioitazation, I am priotizing issues # 1 and 2 above: Issue of stray dogs pooping in public areas and Public city workers unaware of which areas to clean up. Stray dogs make up a huge population of dogs in Mumbai, also it is safe to assume that almost 100% of the stray dog poop is not picked up by common public. So frequecny and severity of the problem is high, and solving this problem can have a bigger relevant imapct to our primary mission of reducing dog poop in public areas.

Solutions:

1) Build an app, where general public can upload information about 'poop hotspots'. This will help public city workers, with a more accurate information on location of dog poop. Something similar to how Waze maps providers crodsourced info about accidents.

2) Build an app where common public can report stray dogs. This will enable public workers to find stray dogs and Spay or Neuter stary dogs, this will eventually reduce dog population and thus dog poop

3) Create local compost pits, which public cleaning crew can use to dump dop poop. This can provide a positive impact to the negihboord by providing compost

Using reach and impact as crietaris to prioitize solutions, I would prioitise to build an app. This can features for 1 and 2 above.