Garden Gather Product Requirements

🔑 Overview

Garden Gather is a marketplace platform connecting homeowners, gardeners/landscapers with excess flowers, trimmings, and plants to florists seeking affordable, locally-sourced materials. Similar to Too Good To Go's model for food, Garden Gather reduces plant waste while providing value to both sides of the marketplace: gardeners monetize what would otherwise be discarded, while florists access fresh materials at prices below traditional distributor rates.

Solution Overview

Garden Gather creates a two-sided marketplace where:

• Gardeners list excess flowers and plant materials with photographs, pricing, and availability

• Florists browse local offerings, message, place orders, and arrange pickup or delivery

• Both parties benefit from a streamlined, trust-based system with secure payments and communications

Key Business Goals

1. Create a thriving marketplace with active users in both gardener and florist segments

2. Generate revenue through transaction fees

3. Reduce plant waste and transportation emissions

4. Build a scalable platform that can expand to new markets

5. Establish a brand known for sustainability and local commerce

6. (Future) explore opportunities to implement AI/ML

⭐️ User Personas

Gardeners

List excess flowers and plant materials with photographs, pricing, and availability

Passionate Home Gardener (Maria)

• 45-65 years old

• Maintains extensive flower gardens as a hobby

• Regularly prunes and trims plants, generating excess materials

• Tech-comfortable but not tech-savvy

• Values: environmental sustainability, community connection, supplemental income

Lorenzo Landscaping (Lorenzo)

• 35-35 years old

• Owner of a local landscaping business

• Regularly prunes and trims front and backyards for homeowners, generating excess materials

• Needs to supply a junk bin to dispose of plant waste

• Values: supplemental income, waste reduction

Urban Garden Collective (GreenSpace)

• Community garden with multiple contributors

• Generates significant plant material throughout growing seasons

• Managed by a coordinator with variable tech abilities

• Values: waste reduction, community engagement, fundraising for garden operations

Florists

Browse local offerings, message, place orders, and arrange pickup or delivery

Boutique Floral Designer (Alex)

- 25-40 years old

- Operates a small floral design business with emphasis on unique arrangements

- Constantly seeking materials at manageable costs, particularly surrounding greenery for bouquets

- Tech-savvy and social media active

- Values: creativity, sustainability, local sourcing, cost management

Event Florist (Jasmine)

- Plans and executes floral designs for weddings and events

- Needs large quantities of specific items periodically

- Often works with seasonal themes

- Values: reliability, variety, cost efficiency, advance planning

⭐️ User Stories

Gardener User Stories

As a gardener, I want to:

• Create a profile with photos of my garden so that florists can get a sense of the quality and style of my materials

• Easily list available plant materials with photos, quantity, and availability so that I can start selling quickly

• Receive guidance on how to price and package my cuttings so that I can meet florist expectations

• Set specific pickup times and dates so I can manage my schedule without disruptions

• Communicate directly with interested florists through messaging so I can answer questions or coordinate pickups

• Track my sales and earnings over time so I can understand what’s in demand and improve my listings

• Leave reviews for florists to share my experience and help others in the community

Florist User Stories

As a florist, I want to:

• Search for specific plant materials by type, color, season, and location so I can find what I need for my arrangements

• View photos and reviews of gardener listings so I can trust the quality before placing an order

• Favorite specific gardeners or save searches so I can quickly reorder materials I like

• Get alerts when new materials become available that match my preferences so I don’t miss out on unique finds

• Pay securely through the platform and receive a receipt so I can manage my business expenses

• Rate and review my experience with gardeners to build trust and share insights with others

• Schedule deliveries or pickups around my event calendar so I can better plan my production timeline

⭐️ Product Features

User Onboarding & Profiles

Gardener Onboarding

- Simple registration process with email verification

- Profile creation with garden description and photos

- Location settings with privacy controls

- Education on how to prepare plant materials for florists

Florist Onboarding

- Business verification process

- Upload of business credentials

- Creation of business profile and needs/preferences

- Educational content on working with garden-sourced materials

Listing Management

For Gardeners:

- Intuitive listing creation with photo upload capabilities

- Templates for common plant varieties

- Pricing guidance based on market data

- Scheduling tools for availability and pickup times

- Inventory management features

- Batch listings for multiple similar items

Search and Discovery

For Florists:

- Search by plant type, color, season, and distance

- Map view of available listings

- Filters for pickup/delivery options

- Favorites and saved searches

- New listing notifications based on preferences

- Seasonal availability forecasts

Transaction Management

- Secure in-app payment processing

- Escrow system releasing payment after successful pickup/delivery

- Transaction history and receipts

- Cancellation and modification policies

- Dispute resolution process

Communication

- In-app messaging between parties

- Automated notifications for listing changes, orders, and pickups

- Optional SMS alerts for time-sensitive communications

- Standardized message templates for common interactions

Logistics

Pickup Management:

- Scheduling calendar for gardeners

- Pickup instructions and location sharing

- QR codes for pickup verification

Delivery Options:

- Third-party delivery integration where available

- Delivery fee calculation based on distance

- Packaging recommendations for different plant materials

Trust and Safety

- User ratings and reviews

- Photo verification of items at pickup/delivery

- Community guidelines and enforcement

- Reporting mechanisms for issues

⭐️ Success Metrics/KPI's

KPI's

• Page Visits

• Accounts Created

  • Email + PW

  • Google

  • Facebook

• Types of Accounts Created (Gardener vs. Florist)

Gardener-specific

• Listings created

• Time to Value = Total time from account creation to first listing created

User Acquisition & Retention

---

Engagement Metrics

Marketplace Health

---

• Will all Admins be able to edit user account?

  • No, only Admins with the specific permissions enabled will be able to edit user accounts.

• Is there a limit to the number of Admins with edit user account permissions?

  • Yes, there will be a limit based on their subscription. See the subscription plans for more details.

• Will training be delivered to sales and support teams to help with messaging this to existing clients?

  • Yes, there will be internal enablement material and training that will be delivered 1 month prior to launch. There will also be customer enablement materials automatically emailed to all admins.

Key Decisions & Considerations

• Admins will not be able to merge user accounts. In our research, less than 1% of support requests were to merge user accounts. There is currently a viable workaround that can be used to merge user accounts and will follow the same ticketing process as it does today.

• Admins will not be able to edit multiple accounts at once. In the initial research, none of the admins requested to have this functionality.

🗓️ Timeline

Release Schedule

Target launch date: March 1, 2023

• Pre-launch marketing: February 15 - March 1

• Post-launch marketing: March 2 - March 10

Milestones

Personas & User Scenarios

---

---

Features

Features Included

---

---

Features Excluded

• Export in Excel format. Will be included in the second release. It was determined that this feature was not critical for 80% of customers.

• Merge user accounts. This will not be included because less than 1% of support requests were to merge user accounts. Can potentially re-prioritize for a future release.

• Make edits to multiple accounts at once. In the initial research, none of the admins requested to have this functionality.

Release Criteria

Functionality

• User must be able to view account details

• User must be able to change their password

• User must be able to change their subscription payment methods

Usability

• Instructional pop-up will show the first time user navigates to the new screen

• Complete a usability test with at least 5 users

• Usability test results must show that user is able to navigate and complete functions with no additional guidance and no errors

Performance & Reliability

• Page load time <= 2 seconds for every page

• Must handle up to 1 million user accounts

• 99.99% uptime

Security

• ISO 27001:2013

• ISO 27017:2015

• ISO 27018:2019

• SOC 2 Type 2 certification

• PCI DSS certification

• GDPR compliance

• CCPA/CPRA compliance

• LGPD compliance

• HIPAA compliance

Supportability

• Customer Support must be trained on new product features

• New product must be added to the list of supported products in the support ticket form

• Logs must include:

  • Warnings and errors

  • Date, time, user account, and details of every action

Designs