Profile research¶
Before I take my concept further, it is important to do research. In Profile question you could read which profile I chose, and what my profile question was. As a reminder, I am going to investigate the following:
How can my product help plant lovers, between the ages of 18 and 39, to create the best possible indoor climate, and thus keep their plants healthy?
This will give me insight into the following points:
- Who is my target audience?
- What is the initial reaction to my concept?
- Is there a demand for this product, would the potential target audience use this product?
To answer these questions, I used the CMD methods pack. This pack was given to me during my studies, and it contains several research methods that are applicable to almost any project.
For this project, I used the following research methods:
- Survey
- Persona
Survey¶
To answer these questions, I created a survey that I sent to x number of people. Here you can view the (Dutch) questions:
https://forms.gle/JXERvi6xk5aHKYY78
Results¶
Fortunately, I have had a fair number of responses to my questionnaire. Of course, this survey was not conducted on a huge scale, so the results may not paint an accurate picture of the overall target population. Nevertheless, this does give a first impression. If there had been more time or should people continue with this project, I recommend tackling this survey on a much larger scale for the most accurate picture of the target group.
Below you can see some of all the responses I received to my survey:
Persona¶
I converted the results that came out of this survey into a persona.
A persona is a detailed description of your (fictional) ideal customer. A persona combines the most important characteristics of customers and contains a description of this average ideal customer.
Here you can see the persona I created for this project:
Conclusion¶
From this research, I was able to extract quite a few answers. Let’s start with the questionnaire. I immediately noticed that although many people feel that they can take better care of their plants, they are not sure how to go about it. For example, 58 percent of participants indicated that they thought just watering was enough to keep a plant alive. In principle, of course, this is also the most important factor, but there is much more involved. One of those things, for example, is temperature and humidity, as this has a great influence on the well-being of your plants. A number of participants indicated that it is not feasible for them to always keep the room at a certain temperature, which is completely understandable if you have a poorly insulated or old house.
The survey also revealed an initial reaction from a potential user, and all but one participant were very positive. They are not sure if this product could save the life of every little plant, but at least it would help them a lot. That is exactly what I hope to achieve with this product; a push in the right direction.
From all these results, I started to create a persona representing the ideal user. Making a persona gave me a better idea of the target audience, and it is also useful to keep this persona in mind later in the design process. By checking each time whether my product still meets the requirements and wishes of my persona, I can be sure that I am creating a product that is desired by the target audience.
Recommendations¶
Through this research, I found that it is very useful to distribute a survey to the target audience. This is because it gives you answers to crucial questions directly from the desired people. Because my opportunities and time within this project are limited, I conducted this research on a fairly small scale. Therefore, my advice would be to continue this on a much larger scale, which would provide a much clearer and better picture of the target group.
In the questionnaire I also asked what these potential users would like in a product like this, and a lot of interesting answers came out of that. Unfortunately, due to previously mentioned limitations, I can’t follow through on all of them, but so these are definitely recommendations for a possible follow-up study!