Customer Discovery
The Customer Discovery process was by far the most insightful of our assessments and provided two pivots for our team. We had an expert interview with Amigo Bob, of Organic Ag Advisors and Felix Gillet Nurseries. We also had a interview with hands-on gardeners Patty Joe, of West End Nursery in San Rafael and Tim, formerly of Sloat Garden Supply.
Amigo Bob enlightened our team to several aspects that proved critical in the development of our business idea. First, he confirmed an assumption that we had come to: that we would need to use composted material as opposed to raw compost. This was necessary to kill pathogens in the manure. Second, he suggested that we locate ourselves on one dairy in the Southern San Joaquin Valley. In addition to easy distribution access, low labor and materials costs (related to most of California), many dairies in California have extra space on their property and it would be more suitable to locate ourselves closer to raw material. We would also compost and process the plants at the same site, therefore removing most of our rent and transportation costs. He also suggested catching thermal heat off of the compost piles, allowing the dairy to heat its buildings and barns, and saving energy and resources in the long run. His ideas lead to a more stable business model that had more refined assumptions.
Our second step in our Customer Discovery phase was to "get out of the building" and go and talk to some experts and potential clients. Our team had two simultaneous interviews. First, Jillian & Liesha spoke to Tim, formerly of Sloat Garden Supply and an avid apartment gardener. His was very excited about the idea but said, "That's great, but Marinites won't want to touch it!"
Meanwhile, Marissa & Robert were at West End Nursery speaking to Patty Joe and she had the exact same reaction. She said that customers won't want to touch it, even if they knew it was composted. She also suggested that our elimination of plastic pots was actually counter productive for the nursery. While the do take back large plastic pots and do not take small ones, just the simple fact that the customer returned to the nursery to attempt to return pots was seen as a opportunity for a follow up sale.
The feedback we received from our gardening experts proved invaluable at redefining our frameworks. We had been so excited about our idea that we lost sight of the needs of the customer. Do people really want to buy poo, was our ultimate question? No, was the answer. We removed any element of manure, poo or cow poop in any context. We took the opportunity to differentiate our product by having a fully compostable outer wrapper and all natural binding agent. We changed our name from Poo Pots to Full Circle Planters and took a more eco-conscious approach to our marketing strategy.
The Customer Discovery process was by far the most insightful of our assessments and provided two pivots for our team. We had an expert interview with Amigo Bob, of Organic Ag Advisors and Felix Gillet Nurseries. We also had a interview with hands-on gardeners Patty Joe, of West End Nursery in San Rafael and Tim, formerly of Sloat Garden Supply.
Amigo Bob enlightened our team to several aspects that proved critical in the development of our business idea. First, he confirmed an assumption that we had come to: that we would need to use composted material as opposed to raw compost. This was necessary to kill pathogens in the manure. Second, he suggested that we locate ourselves on one dairy in the Southern San Joaquin Valley. In addition to easy distribution access, low labor and materials costs (related to most of California), many dairies in California have extra space on their property and it would be more suitable to locate ourselves closer to raw material. We would also compost and process the plants at the same site, therefore removing most of our rent and transportation costs. He also suggested catching thermal heat off of the compost piles, allowing the dairy to heat its buildings and barns, and saving energy and resources in the long run. His ideas lead to a more stable business model that had more refined assumptions.
Our second step in our Customer Discovery phase was to "get out of the building" and go and talk to some experts and potential clients. Our team had two simultaneous interviews. First, Jillian & Liesha spoke to Tim, formerly of Sloat Garden Supply and an avid apartment gardener. His was very excited about the idea but said, "That's great, but Marinites won't want to touch it!"
Meanwhile, Marissa & Robert were at West End Nursery speaking to Patty Joe and she had the exact same reaction. She said that customers won't want to touch it, even if they knew it was composted. She also suggested that our elimination of plastic pots was actually counter productive for the nursery. While the do take back large plastic pots and do not take small ones, just the simple fact that the customer returned to the nursery to attempt to return pots was seen as a opportunity for a follow up sale.
The feedback we received from our gardening experts proved invaluable at redefining our frameworks. We had been so excited about our idea that we lost sight of the needs of the customer. Do people really want to buy poo, was our ultimate question? No, was the answer. We removed any element of manure, poo or cow poop in any context. We took the opportunity to differentiate our product by having a fully compostable outer wrapper and all natural binding agent. We changed our name from Poo Pots to Full Circle Planters and took a more eco-conscious approach to our marketing strategy.