How would you design a product that increases the consumption of fruit in the US?

1. Clarify Goal of Product

Before diving in, I'd like to understand why we're creating the product.

Why are we trying to increase fruit consumption?  Is it to encourage healthy eating habits?  Drive sales of a particularly fruit (eg, Florida oranges)?  --> Encourage healthy eating habits / improve health outcomes.

2. Clarify Scope

Are we focusing on a particular geography? --> US

Are we focusing on a particular user segment? (e.g., kids / overweight / etc) --> Up to you

Are we focusing on a particular type of fruit? --> All fruit

Is this a standalone app? --> Up to you

3. Identify User Segments

Let's think about a couple of potential user groups for this product.

1) Kids (Age 9-14) --> Potential reasons why they do not eat enough fruit: Lack education about health benefits of fruit, 'picky eaters' have not tried fruit or have not found tasty recipes.

2) Overweight Adults --> Potential reasons why they do not eat enough fruit: Difficulty breaking unhealthy habits, lack of education, lack of access to low-cost fruit, lack of desire to change eating habits.

3) Low-Income Families --> Potential reasons why they do not eat enough fruit: Lack education about health benefits of fruit, cost / access.

Among these segments, I'd like to focus on developing a solution for kids, as I believe they're the group that is the easiest to influence into adopting healthier habits, while also driving the biggest change (i.e., if kids can develop healthy habits now, we can improve health outcomes over a longer period of time).

As discussed above, some of the most common reasons kids do not eat enough fruit is because: 1) they lack education about the health benefits of fruit; 2) they are picky eaters -- i.e., they have not tried fruit or have not found recipes / preparations they enjoy; and 3) they lack access to fruit (i.e., their parents do not purchase it at home).  I'd like to focus the rest of the discussion on solving #2, targeting picky eaters specifically.

4. Brainstorm and Prioritize Use Cases

Let's think about some potential use cases:

#1: Learn about different types of fruit and associated health benefits with each

• Effort = Low, Impact = Medium

#2: Discover tasty and easy-to-prepare recipes 

• Effort = Low, Impact = High

#3: Set fruit consumption goals and track progress

• Effort = Low, Impact = Low

Among these use cases, I'd like to focus the discussion on #2, as I believe trial is the biggest barrier to picky eaters. If they can find preparations they enjoy, they are more likely to consume more fruit (and therefore, this will have the highest impact on our user base).

5. Prioritize Solutions

There are a variety of approaches to help users discover tasty and easy-to-prepare recipes:

1) Ask users to complete a quiz detailing their favorite foods. Recommend recipes that have similar taste profiles to foods they enjoy (i.e., 'predict' the fruits they will enjoy the most).

• Effort: Medium, Impact: Medium

2) Ask users to indicate which fruits they have on hand in their pantry, and display recipes they can make with the ingredients in their own homes. Allow users to upload photos of their creations / write reviews of the recipes (for social proof) although note risks to this given underage audience.

• Effort: Medium, Impact: High

3) Database of healthy recipes from top-notch chefs. Allow users to upload photos of their creations / write reviews of the recipes (for social proof) although note risks to this given underage audience.

• Effort: Low, Impact: Medium

• Effort: High, Impact: High

6. Summarize

To improve healthy eating habits / health outcomes among children who are picky eaters, I would design a product designed to help kids find easy and tasty fruit-based recipes. More specifically, I would consider serving up personalized recipes based on the ingredients and fruits that users have on hand in their pantry (given this age group tends to not handle the grocery shopping).