Originally we were driven in by our ambition to eradicate bottled water in the city of Pondicherry. Our idea for Amrutdhara was to create a viable alternative to plastic bottled water. After experimenting with prototypes, we had a fairly clear idea of the problem we wanted to solve, and a sense of how to go about it in terms of technology and product.
We sought some input from our mentors, and to advance our thinking they threw up the idea of focusing on the issue of improving accessibility to water rather than reducing plastic waste. This shift in approach meant that we needed to rethink what we were doing and how we were positioning ourselves. This shift signalled a few things for us, in terms of our target markets (not just public spaces, but also schools, hospitals, institutions), design of the product to be more modular, and most importantly the kinds of consumers we were targeting.
We had already pivoted a couple of times, but each time we had built on the work we had done previously. This time we decided to start from first principles.
The tool helped me to structure my idea before communicating it to the rest of the team. We used my notes from the exercise to have several calls/meetings where we then changed our pitch quite dramatically, and also made some subtle changes in the product roadmap and market sizing.
The core of the system is now a modular vending machine that can be installed in various different contexts, providing quality assured unpackaged drinking water to people who need access all while reducing plastic.
You can learn more about our project here Video Production Cost