Jack Sherman

Identify three different primary stakeholders on your project, and come up with a list of 10 distinct questions you would ask each of them. Remember the aspirational / emotional /functional categories of needs and desires and try to find a balance of questions that might give you information in each of those areas.

End Users- Corporate Employees

• How do you envision a successful combination of greenery and office work space? 
• Have you noticed a difference in employee happiness in the office?
• In the past have you tried to incorporate greenery in the office space?
• Do you have any feedback on how we could improve our product?
• Could you describe the process of trying to get employees back in the office?
• How can we work on improving our product to benefit you better? 
• Does the noise our automation system produces affect your employees in any way?
• What are specific examples of how you feel our product improves your emotional wellbeing?
• We have conducted a psychological study previously proving that our product can improve the office work environment, do you feel that our product has this effect?

Customers- HR Department 

• Has your company previously enforced any similar products that improve mental health?
• What is your HR Department currently doing to improve the emotional wellbeing of consumers? 
• How can working in a cubicle environment feel taxing at times?
• Do you believe that changing the environment you work in to a more positive manner can increase work productivity?
• How does your company’s HR department compare to others?
• In what way do you feel our product can relate to the movement of enforcing self care and emotional well being in the employees?
• What gap is your HR Department currently trying to fulfill?
• Are you supportive of how our product can positively impact your HR department?

Grants/Investors

• We often struggle with defining what niche our product would be best to find grants, would you recommend gearing towards mental health or interior design?
• If investing in our company, what do you expect to receive after investing in our company?
• What would be the outcome of the grant? Do you expect to relieve something in return?
• After receiving a grant would we have to undergo a specific process to retrieve the money?
• Does the money received from grants or investments need to be recorded on taxes?
• Could we do something to better attract the types of investestors and grants we seek to obtain?

Identify all of the key customers for your product/service/creation/solution. List specific ways that you will ensure that your product will meet their aspirational, emotional, and functional needs and desires.

• Corporate Employees
  • We will network with corporate offices near the Lehigh Valley in order to start off with our product close to home. Our team member currently specializing in marketing right now is posing our product to the HR Department of many companies.
  • We want to make sure we attract these corporate employees by emphasizing how our product will change the work place environment. 
  • We will also explain the technological side of our product  to the people who are in charge of the technological department so they can ensure that our product will be functional.
• B2B Plant scapers 
  • Since our product is dealing with incorporating nature into the environment another customer that we hope to seek out are B2B Plant scapers. 
  • Through our marketing research we have found that a common key audience for starting business is a solid business to business marketing strategy.
  • We are aiming to develop an official prototype soon and once this is done we will be able to implement our product in lehigh offices and we will utilize this avenue of proving that our product is functional when attracting B2B Plant scapers. 
  • Our product aims to be almost entirely self-sustaining, with the only human involvement required being the occasional trimming of plants. This means that plant scapers can leverage our product to pick up customers who might require less frequent maintenance.
• Interior Designers
  • We are currently looking for grants that deal with interior design and architectural design. In the future, we are planning on working with the interior designers of companies.
  • By continuing to pitch our product as something that will improve the physical qualities of a corporate office space we will attract interior designers currently already working with the corporate office spaces we plan to employ.

Articulate your value propositions for each of your customer segments (using the format presented in class).

Corporate Employees – The value for this group would be in their enjoyment of the office space. We are here to provide them with a product that causes them to want to come to work and to be productive when they are present. 

B2B Plant scapers – The value we bring to the plant scapers is that we are able to give them a hands-off product that they can offer to customers, still make money off of, but not have to use as much manual labor. We also offer them ways to incorporate plants into the interior design of offices in a low-maintenance and modular way. 

HR – HR is looking to increase productivity and lower stress in their employees using the benefits of plants. Their job is to maintain good employees and ensure that they are pleased with their working conditions. This would help HR to prove to their employees that they care about them and for the company to prove to the stakeholders that their employees are happy and well-treated in the organization. 

Interior Designers- Unique and easy way to incorporate low-maintenance greenery into a design space. A great alternative to messy potted plants and expensive walls. Adds a unique opportunity for them to suggest these structures.