Background
In 2018, after 15 years of side-hustling plant cuttings from home, Fendi Sani set up Little Botany, a plant enterprise that at the time of writing, counted 3 nurseries and 3+1 plant vending machines across Singapore.
This case study was developed with the focus on the plant vending machine business : Little Bot, a differentiated business from the walk-in retail / consultancy / workshop arm that is Little Botany.
A Primer On The Vending Machine Landscape In Singapore
2023, a mind-boggling array of vending machine offerings can be found in Singapore dispensing daily essentials like Covid-19 masks to MasterChef-enabling sashimi-grade salmon. All this against the backdrop of 24-hour convenient stores across the island. The case for a standout customer experience, thus, seems compelling.
Here are numbers that support my assumption.
“Singapore recorded $67.2 million in vending machine sales in 2017, data from research firm Euromonitor International showed, a 3 percent increase from the previous year, and sales are expected to exceed $72 million by 2020.”1
While I do not have numbers, house-plant buying patterns in Singapore looks something like this.
Competition
In the area of online / offline / instant-gratification / self-checkout plant offerings, there is one business competitor : Green Thumb X, which has 6 vending machines across the island dispensing plants and plant accoutrements. For the purpose of this paper, a deeper analysis is not necessary.
Challenge
Resources are always lacking. A very real consideration as Fendi is the only person running the enterprise full-time. Second, customer data from the vending machine e.g. buying patterns, transaction sizes, was scant because these had to come from the vending machine vendor, not Fendi.
Customer desire
Little Botany has very good social credit. Google reviews, and perception in general, are very positive. This didn’t happen overnight and it is with this awareness that Little Bot is differentiated from Little Botany.
Going in to the sprint, Fendi didn’t really have any Little Bot customer experience challenges because he was in the sweet spot where resources justified sales. Nonetheless, the sprint yielded 2 useful outcomes. One : insights affirmed the customer demographic assumption ; two : discovery.
Here, I preface the challenge statement :
How might we design novel botanical experiences for the urban adventurer ?
But read on for how it came to pass.
The approach : Stay Gold, Be Crystal, Act Diamond
The main constrain for the sprint was always going to be interviewees. Though deployed for 7 months, the vending machine vendor only returned 1 set of interview questions, via SMS. It was clear early on that I had to look further afield, and stay optimistic (stay gold flamingo, stay gold). This meant that the load will have to be borne at the synthesis stage, which I did.
The focus was crystal : Customer Experience, low resource implementations, quick sprint.
Because the vending machine vendor had a vested interest in Little Bot, I involved him and Fendi at meaningful stages of the sprint.
Overcoming Challenges
Since Little Bot had launched 7 months ago, I took that to be the minimal viable product which is today ideal for a Design Thinking sprint. I proposed a single-diamond sprint and this low-tech but high-touch sketch was useful in garnering consensus.
Empathy
The interviews were a mixed bag of long-time Little Botany faithfuls, first-time Little Bot customers, unsuspecting browsers, suspecting buyers, and the research results were varied and did not point directly to one answer.
I realised this was ok. Expectations, appetites, wants and needs were always going to be different for something ubiquitous like plants and vending machines.
Zooming in, the Persona of the Little Bot customer came down to this : The urban adventurer.
It takes a person with a certain amount of curiosity to not be cynical about vending machines, in short, someone with adventure in them. This proved to be useful because Fendi confirmed this was the type of people he was targeting. This was the group of people represented by the bell-jar, the extremes represented folks who knew too much, and therein, were either skeptics or followers already.
So the adventurer is drawn to the vending machine. The challenge now was “then what ?”
Opportunity Statement 1 : How might we design novel botanical experiences for the urban adventurer ?
When the insights were presented to the stakeholders, a second opportunity statement was created :
Opportunity Statement 2 : How might we design lovable experiences for the modern family ?
Show Day
Opportunity Statement 1 : How might we design novel botanical experiences for the urban adventurer ?
The Story : Alexis, the happy-go-lucky Marketing Exec
The year-end marketing strategy review has been particularly vexing for Alexis. It went through many rounds of deliberation and in the end, was concluded with the intervention of ChatGPT. For a creative like Alexis, that sucks out all the oxygen in the room. Only the room is the four walls that surrounds her life because thinking, and doing, is her identity.
Alexis steps out of her office for some air and naturally reverts to a flaneur (a person in an act of aimless wandering with no agenda or purpose. Because she has a streak of adventure in her) when a vending machine catches her eye. “Is that… ???”
Pressed against the glass, she sees… miniature trees. 18 oddly-shaped, highly asymmetrical, and ugly… but ugly in the most beautiful way, miniature trees. Next to these exotic looking flora are packs of clay and stone mix, an empty container, and the all-important note with the proposition : Waiting for you to assemble.
The Idea :
To answer the Opportunity Statement : How might we design novel botanical experiences for the urban adventurer ?
Taking a 🌱out of IKEA’s playbook, a simple assemble-yourself customer experience was conceived. Instead of an assembled plant in each vending machine slot, the plant, stone mix, pot, fertiliser, are all unassembled. Alexis will have to assemble her plant when she gets home. The merits of the IKEA effect are well documented and might resonate well with adventurous spirits like Alexis who is a do-er happy to work with her hands.2 After all,
“Labour is love.”
And for Fendi, it represents a low resource outlay.
However. Unlike furniture, plants are living organisms and prototyping will have to take into consideration how well the plant thrives outside of the pot while on display. This will take some R&D in the nursery but there is an alternative.
Idea 1A :
To tap into that wider spirit of adventure , a flag of where the plants are native of, could be included.
Opportunity Statement 2 : How might we design lovable experiences for the modern family ?
The Story : The Handsome Family
While out and about on Sunday, the Handsome mother stops at an Orange juice vending machine for a much needed vitamin C boost. Handsome father joins her with his takeaway coffee while Handsome child 1 and Handsome child 2 are captivated by a vending machine nearby.
When the Handsome parents join up with the Handsome kids, they exclaim, “Look, trees.”
“Soil is messy,” says Handsome mother.
“Hang on,” Handsome father replies, “it’s not soil. It’s a stone mix.”
And a small sign with the all-important proposition reads : Child safe acrylic pot so everyone in the family can care for me.
An interesting conditional the vendor made was Home and decor families will buy plants if their children can be involved. And to answer the Opportunity Statement : How might we design lovable experiences for the modern family ? a child-safe, non-breakable acrylic pot range can be considered so that the whole family, including junior, can be involved.
The Sprint Limits
At this point, the wherewithal rests with Fendi to prioritise the ideas and launch. Given that we are in the busiest period in the retail calendar 🎄, it might take some time before we can assess and iterate on the ideas.
For the moment, the diamond ends here with my personal notes.
My Notes
Good customer experience defies easy definition. Therefore, it is a challenging proposition to convince stakeholders.
The methodology provides opportunities to take calculated risks. Do so with audacity.
Design thinking-wise, the amount of wall real-estate required for an effective white-board effect is mind boggling.
What Could Be Done Better
One diamond can be accomplished within a week. If the consensus roadmap was better designed, all the stakeholders could have blocked out time to meet which would have kept things fresh and green. This schedule can then be applied to the second diamond and so on. I believe this momentum can be sustained.
An offline / online hybrid way of working.
For prototyping, I should have suggested meeting at the nursery where the plants and plant accoutrement were. Without that, we were left to sketch out the prototypes which didn’t feel satisfying.
Peer Review (TBC)
This case study has been submitted for a peer review.
Enablers
Little Botany and Vendisg.
All photos taken with iPhone.
Super sticky Post-it. PSA : You can digitise your Post-its with the Post-it app !
Pilot medium Board Master markers.
Mahjong paper.
Easy tear masking tape.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-singapore-retail-idUSKCN1GU01G/
D-I-Y fulfils at least the Elevation and Pride moments.