Newsletter #4: Stay at Home, Drink Coffee

We focus on further developing our online custom coffee survey, and begin preparing to integrate into this strange new economy, which COVID-19 has changed forever.

With Alpha testing on hold, building out the online store and Beta tests has remained the focus. We’re currently engaging with multiple partners to de-risk the Beta project and ensure that there is redundancy in a fragile aspect of the business. Our web development has achieved their goals of integrating an online survey with instant results that builds an industry first coffee selection tool based on genetics. A coffee score is recorded in the customer profile, and the customer has full access to it at all times. They are then subscribed to coffee subscription which can be cancelled any time. With the structure in place, we can test version 1.0 of the site, collect data and plan for Ver. 2.0, and are set up to build out 2.0 of the site towards 2021. To do that we will carefully engage in and examine the feedback from the site, and ask testers where they were most compelled to drop off or where they stopped understanding the workflow outlined below. Traditional user experience rules apply. 

Updates and Lessons Learned

The lab process is delayed by covid-19. Molecular genetics labs are either closed, busy processing samples for covid-19, or apprehensive to handle human samples. The lab directors and technicians are comfortable with the protocols established, however review boards are adding extra scrutiny to the process which is logical, but unnecessary given previous health and lab protocols remain sufficient given sterile techniques as standard lab protocols. 

The coffee market is facing great turmoil and change. We’re seeing a great decline in the consumption of soft commodities like coffee, however it’s coming from interesting areas. Typical consumption occurs in our “third place”, the coffee shop or cafe. Our third place is facing dire challenges. We see a transition from workplace and cafe consumption to home consumption. We expect that to continue through 2021, and remain stable as the workforce returns to offices. Share a coffee machine with 25 other people? No, thanks. For that reason, we are building a system to work with businesses to deliver beans and gear for 2021. As of writing of this article coffee beans have seen their biggest single month increase in a decade. This is encouraged by the high price of premium beans as outlined below which reinforces our market: the home office.

What’s Next

Test online store 1.0, Launch online store 1.0, Test / Launch Beta and link to online store.