A strategy towards more Overgrown homes

Abstract

When we look at all of the benefits of having houseplants around us, it is not hard to see why they have been around for ages already. However, over the past years they have seen a huge surge in popularity. The pandemic has been a big accelerator to this surge in popularity. This thesis was done for Overgrown Plantshop. This surge in popularity has given Overgrown the opportunity to grow and thrive, but it also came with a set of challenges. The quickly changing market brought on a lot of new small plant shops, making competition fierce. In addition to this, rare plants became a lot more difficult to source in an ethical way. Because of these challenges, Overgrown wants to develop a new product, service or product-service system to expand into a new niche. As a young company Overgrown has little to no knowledge or experience about the market outside of the rare houseplant niche. This lead to the following design assignment: “Get a deep understanding of the market and it’s consumers. Use this to drive a new strategic future vision which is visualized in a roadmap and create a first product or product-service system towards realizing this future vision “ The double diamond approach was followed. Through broad and orienting interviews, a crucial moment was identified in the journey to becoming a plant parent: the green spark. This is a crucial part for whether a person commits to being a long(er) time plant parent, or falls back into believing they are not capable. A context mapping study was used to get a deep understanding of users during the green spark. The results were a persona and a set of design requirements with accompanying ‘how might we’ questions. Lastly, the results were used to determined Ovegrown’s new future vision: “Overgrown aims to support sustainable consumption of plants by supporting plant parents to have longer lasting bonds with their houseplants“ The first step towards this future vision is Emma. Emma helps to lower the barrier for new plant parents. Right now, the most common trigger that creates a low barrier is a cheap plant. In the case the plant dies, not a lot is lost. Overgrown wants to achieve a similar low starting barrier, but in a more sustainable way. Instead of offering a cheap plant that is easily replaceable, Overgrown offers a high quality plant that is all ready to go for a smooth start. After the purchase of Emma, Overgrown offers additional services that help the plant parent form a closer bond with their plant. These services are developed and added onto through three horizons that are laid out in a roadmap. Throughout these horizons Overgrown’s focus shifts from selling plants to selling plant care. By doing this Overgrown wants to take the focus away from always acquiring new trendy plants to having stronger bonds with the plants you already have. Overgrown gets a closer bond with their customers, becoming a partner in long term plant growing.