Root: Smart Grow SYStem

Prior to recreational legalization in 2016, cannabis cultivation had existed primarily underground, including the knowledge and education surrounding it. Finding reliable information on proper cultivation techniques and troubleshooting was no easy task, especially for beginner growers. The industry lacked a tool or service that eliminated the guesswork of growing and guided them to a successful harvest.

After working with local cultivators for several months to build products and streamline growing practices, it became clear that even experienced growers could use a tool to help them eliminate the guesswork in their growing practices.

How might we empower growers by giving them all the vital data they need about their grow, so they can manage it directly from their smart phone? How can we use technology to help growers of all experience levels, know exactly what to do and when to do it? Meet Root, the smart grow system designed to make cannabis cultivation plain and simple.

PROBLEMS

🤷‍♂️ Growers often “guess” when making decisions, resulting in a higher margin for error

🥵 No way to know plant or environment conditions when away from grow space

🔒 Lack of available or reliable information on plants and cultivation

🤯 Feeding schedules are difficult to understand and follow

📓 Grow journal apps are not made for beginner growers

Goals

• Provide real-time data of plants’ vital information and essential needs

• Assist with the setup and management of the grow space and equipment

• Provide growers with helpful growing tips and tutorials that would walk them through the entire process

• Collect first time data on Cannabis cultivation

• Seamlessly integrate with state compliancy and ERP software for seed-to-sale tracking

Challenges & Constraints

• Grow information was hidden in online forums or gatekept by underground growers

• Operating in a legal “grey area” before recreational legalization in 2016

• Lean team of 5, including myself

Discovery and research

ICANN was a Cannabis technology company, focused on building products that helped growers take their harvested cannabis to being processed and tested for compliancy. While working with cultivators that ranged from inexperiences to very experienced, one thing was clear; no one was using data to help manage their grow and maximize yields. Everyone had a different method of growing, some more successful than others.

After interviewing several of these growers, we learned the following insights:

• Due to the nature of Cannabis legalization at the time, information was largely underground

• Finding accurate tips, growing techniques, and best practices was limited to searching through online forums or knowing someone with first-hand growing knowledge/experience

• “I wish I could check in on my grow anytime, so I can leave the house with peace of mind”

• “I usually add water based on feel, but every plant and grow is different, so I am never 100% certain that I am making the right decisions”

In addition, we learned what information was most important to a grow, which helped us prioritize what data we needed to have readily available:

• Strain type and grow medium

• Growth stage / Days from seed

• An option to add a journal entry

• Core plant vitals (Soil pH/Humidity, Temperature, Light, CO2)

• Grow room temperatures

Define

The next phase was to begin laying out the information architecture. Beyond the plant and grow room data, we also wanted to include resources to assist with setting up and managing grow operations. We also wanted the app to help users setup their plant and grow spaces by inputting their strain and grow space information. This was also essential to accurately provide information of their grow.

DESIGN

After tons of research into cannabis cultivation, soil sensor programming, chatbots, and even AR technology, we built a product that was an extremely valuable resource to growers of all experience levels. By letting growers know what their grow room conditions are, plant’s vitals, and how to take action on it, this powerful tool is essential for anyone interested in growing or learning how to cultivate a cannabis plant. Here are where some of the features landed:

Flows

1. ONBOARDING FLOW

2. My Garden & Plant Dashboard

3. Grow journal

4. Library

5. Setting up your Plant and Grow Space

HARDWARE

As we designed the app stateside, our offshore engineering team was busy developing the app, as well as the hardware component that provided the real time plant and grow room data. I had a chance to work very closely with the CTO and engineering team, meeting twice a week to review prototypes of the hardware and software.

When it came time to bring together the final physical product design, I partnered with an Industrial Designer to execute a polished final design. The images below show the progression of the hardware sensor, and how it eventually looked after the final render.

MARKETING

As we were building our proof of concept and trying to learn more about how growers viewed the tool and its usefulness, we made a few appearances at trade shows and conferences to showcase what we were working on. In addition to the product design, I also created some marketing material for these events.

LEARNINGS

While this tool was extremely helpful to growers with smaller grows, it didn’t serve larger grow sites as well. As cannabis cultivation becomes mainstream, grow sites are becoming larger and larger. The more we went out in the field to view grow sites and talk to growers, we realized this product was better suited for home or small scale grows. The Root app and sensor was designed for smaller, indoor grows, and wasn’t as optimized for scale. Because of how efficiently Root all data about a grow there were enormous opportunities to work with municipalities and insurers to ensure compliancy, manage larger grow sites, and parse this untapped data on cannabis cultivation.

Reflection

Based on the learnings, the company decided to pivot to focus on building an ERP seed-to-sale system that would be more focused on larger grow operations. Unfortunately I moved on at that time and was not able to see the project through. If given the chance to do things differently, I would have loved to spend more time researching learning more about the actual users and their true pain points that were preventing them from scaling their operations. This would also have been much easier to do in a post-legalization environment like what we have today.

Thank you!