July 2022
Engagement
When Our Kinds approached Hatchd with the challenge of designing a scanner app they immediately met all the criteria to become our perfect work partner.
Yes, they had a great vision. Yes, they were genuinely invested in making the world a better place. Yes, they could become a true a digital product with legs. Such long legs. And of course, they needed it done yesterday.
‘Yes, we can definitely help’.
Our Kinds vision is to make single-use cups redundant, globally. Customers are encouraged to sip their coffees from a reusable QR coded cup, rinse it after use, and return it to the cafe next time around. Although it is most sensible, it did sound outrageous to many.
JULY 2022
Scanner app prototype
Context? City of Fremantle, Town of East Fremantle. Department of Communities and Fremantle Port sponsored a 12-week pilot program to trial the Our Kinds model in a different styles of cafes with real life coffee drinkers, kicking off during Plastic Free July.
So it had now become critical to find a quick way for baristas to scan the QR codes on the cups with minimal disruption to their production line, which would enable us to track the amount of cups saved from landfill.
That’s how, in close collaboration with sister company Adapptor, we designed an MVP scanner app that Adapptor then built. With Plastic Free July well under way and a pressing timeline, both design and implementation were achieved in a matter of days.
AUGUST 2022
PUTTING OUR KINDS TO THE TEST
We additionally designed a web prototype to test with coffee shops, validating how the experience of joining the OK movement would look like. We took it for a day out, along with a bunch of questions, touring around the cafes in Fremantle that were already using Our Kinds. We talked to the lovely managers, owners and baristas and collected valuable feedback on the related day to day challenges that Our Kinds can help them with.
Of course we had to order a coffee or 2 to fully immerse ourselves in the experience.
SEPTEMBER 2022
unravelling a business model for sustainable success
Our expedition to the cappuccino strip and beyond turned out to be an eye opening exercise. Whilst the amount of communication required with one-time customers is the biggest challenge for cafes, we saw first hand that the OK model presents low barriers when most customers are habitués, like those near office buildings (AKA ‘the corporate cafes’). This scenario makes choosing a reusable cup not just easy but rewarding as well.
For instance, the impact that a short term corporate communication plan had surrounding the Department of Communities in the FOMO building, fast tracked a corporate subscription model.
Businesses want to contribute to the fight against climate change and to track and show off that impact to the world in their ESG reporting. So we adjusted our prototype to enable an organisation to sign up and follow their impact with the cafes they support, so they can continue to sip their daily brew, free of guilt, and while improving their do-good score.
Hatchd and Adapptor have volunteered as the first guinea-pigs to trial this model, learn and iterate. Brace for the coffeeholic journey ahead!
