Tweaking the Innovation

1) Sketch out the product/service mix for App Solution & optional mullion accessory:

Note: Green border indicates profitizing opportunities

2) Map each item:

3) Describe the innovations. 

Need 1: The app's technology to scan the grocery receipt and load/calculate expiration and spoilage dates is innovative technology. Instead of applying it to the store's inventory management, we are extending it to the consumer's home grocery inventory management. The recipe suggestions are also reversing the steps consumer typically take to use a recipe. Usually they pick a recipe and then go to the store and buy the ingredients, but the reserve is happening. Consumers went to the store and bought groceries, and the recipe now has to match up with the ingredients they need to use up. The recipes are both the product (tangible) and the augmented benefit of not wasting time trying to think of what to do (embrace the laziness!).

Need 2: The grocery store distribution channel is innovative. Typically the produce comes from the supplier to the grocery store then to the customer. For example, green bananas are shipped to the store, and the consumer buys perfect bananas that are just starting to ripen. The innovation is that if the consumer decides he or she does not want the banana for sure (will not use it in a recipe, freeze it, extra to avoid waste), the consumer can become the provider for the ugly fruit store. The composting is innovating in that it also embraces human laziness. We finally got trained to put a recycle bin next to our trash and think as we toss out items. The app is training wheels or baby steps towards a third bin we need, a compost bin. The reason the third bin is harder for people to adopt is that it requires having a smelly compost pile in the backyard, so this app removes that inconvenience.

Need 3: The App introduces good judgment where we were previously comfortable with a certain level of human error. By telling us we really shouldn't buy that item because we never eat all of it anyway and it costs us wasted $ amount, we are forced to recognize the monetary cost of our poor judgement. The mullion is in the augmented circle because we don't quite have a need yet to not waste time manually entering the inventory of our fridge into a database, but once we start using the app we will need that. Being able to look at your front door, your pets, or your fridge from the cameras in your home just using the app on your phone is the way of the future.

Need 4: This one was pretty lean to begin with, so it's hard to think of where the innovation is. The need essentially comes from the complaint my boyfriend and I have that "the produce was bad" at Publix today or the relief we have that "there were great produce choices at the store today." We've been discussing perhaps keeping some sort of chart, so we can figure out which of the two stores near us restock on which days, so we know which days of the week we should do our grocery shopping. Moreover, I went to the store yesterday (Monday) and they were actually OUT of two non-produce items I needed: red pepper flakes and fruit jelly. I tried to make a mental note that Mondays must be awful grocery shopping days since the weekend is so busy, but I know I'll forget. If the app could tell me the best days to get new produce so it will last the longest, I would find a lot of benefit and need fulfilled by that!