How would you design a gardening app?

Ask Clarifying Questions

1. Target Users (Casual Gardener, Enthusiasts, Plant nursery owners) – Casual to start with
2. Goal (Plant education, plant care assistance, community, or e-commerce) – Plant care assistance, gardening community
3. Revenue Model (Freemium, ads, subscription) – Freemium
4. Platform (Mobile, Web) –  Start with mobile app
5. Geography – Global

Problem Definition

The task at hand is to design a gardening app that will help solve problems related to:

1.     Plant knowledge such as plants which suit their environment, plant identification, etc.

2.     Forgetting to water/fertilize

3.     Plant diseases and treatment

User Personas

1.     Casual Gardener (loves plants but struggles with care)

2.     Urban Gardener (living in apartments who have limited space for gardening)

3.     Enthusiasts who has a deep hobby in gardening

4.     Nursery owners/sellers of plant and equipment

Customer Needs

1.     Basic gardening ideas

2.     Plant identification

3.     Plant diseases and care

4.     Plantation based on season

5.     Reminders to water and manure/fertilizers

6.     Community/collaboration with other enthusiasts

7.     Gardening e-commerce

8.     Gardening course/learning

Solutions (Product features)

1.     Gardening tools and tips

2.     Plant library and identification

3.     Smart reminders to water/fertilize

4.     AI-Disease detection by scanning plant  

5.     AI-powered personalised care of plants based on season/climate/environment

6.     Gardening community and collaboration (individual as well as group)

7.     E-commerce (buy seeds, plants, pots, tools, fertilizers, etc.)

8.     Gardening courses/ILT

Prioritize Solutions (RICE)

PS: I have not calculated the RICE but rather just ranked the features. The rank 1 features are the ones that can be offered for free. Premium features will incorporate rank 2 and 3 attributes.

Success Metrics

1.     User Engagement: DAU/WAU/MAU

2.     Retention Rate – % of users still active after 3 months

3.     Feature Adoption Rate – % of users using different features

4.     Conversion Rate – % of free users upgrading to premium

5.     CSAT/Customer complaints

Summary

The gardening app will provide personalized plant care, AI-based disease detection, community support, and e-commerce integration.

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.

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)

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.

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

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.