Hey All,
I’ve spent the last year in my free time building MealMap, a grocery list iOS app that uses crowdsourcing to reorder your list based on the store layout. I’ve gone through several iterations, but feel I’ve gone past the MVP without understanding if there is truly a market here and without gaining enough user feedback.
I wanted to take a step back to better define the problem statement, see if the current version of the app can help validate the problem, and see what problems others are having in the grocery store.
Problem Statement:
I’d like to break down the problem statement into 3 parts: ideal, reality, and consequences.
Ideal
Ideally users would be able to navigate through the grocery store in one swoop, picking up all items in their list without backtracking and doing so without going down unnecessary aisles.
Reality
Depending on how you create your list (paper, todo list app, specific grocery store app) and your knowledge of the store layout, you could have any set of realities.
- Using paper, you rely entirely on your ability to read through your list in the order you wrote it and knowledge of where items are to determine while navigating the aisles, if you need to pick up an item.
- Using a todo list app, many group items by category (Fruits, Snacks, Dairy, etc.). With knowledge that say Oreos are in this snack aisle vs. the other, you can associate certain categories on your list with certain aisles as you navigate.
- Using a specific grocery store app (ex. Harris Teeter app while shopping at Harris Teeter), often times you can get breakdowns of which aisles items are in. Using an app like this, if the aisles are in the correct order, you can shop without backtracking and with knowledge of where items are. However, if you shop somewhere else, you must use that store’s app in order to achieve the same results.
Consequences
- Users spend more time in the grocery store than needed.
- Users potentially spend more money in the grocery by navigating duplicate areas and traveling down aisles they don’t need to.
- Users must ask an employee for assistance finding an item.
I’m looking for some feedback on my problem statement.
- Is this a problem you are having (backtracking & not knowing where items are)? Do you even consider this a problem?
- Would you pay for an app that had knowledge of all items in your store and assisted in directing you where to go?
- What problems do you have grocery shopping today?
- Do you feel the grocery categorizing in todo list apps today is enough of a solution? (Oreos grouped with “Snacks” as opposed to Oreos grouped with “Aisle 7 - Snacks, Chips”)
In my head I’ve had this vision for the app, however I don’t think I went through enough market discovery before jumping in. In the short term I am hoping to make grocery shopping easier for myself and others. In the long term I do see value in an application that has knowledge of all store’s layouts and where things are (think indoor mapping, VR navigation, etc.).
The point of this post is to validate my app idea, although I do have a working version. If you feel so inclined to check it out, here it is. http://mealmap-app.com
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