Oddbox - Challenge and Pitch

Oddbox is a fruit and vegetable box delivery subscription service. My team was tasked with solving a key issue for the business using digital innovation. We decided to look at the company goals first, to see if there were any areas where they were lacking or had room for improvement. It soon became clear that Oddbox was in need of a cohesive integrated marketing strategy, leveraged by evolving technologies in the digital space.

Specific points of interest for the team were user experience, community engagement, content creation, data management, and repeat-purchase incentives. These were all addressed with the idea to implement NFC (Near Field Communication) Tags, Blockchain, and AI (Artificial Intelligence) within a dedicated mobile application that would act as a bridge to unify the three technologies under one unified interface.

NFC Tags would be used to link the contents of the box to the user’s profile, containing information of the exact source of each variety of produce, the reason it was rejected for commercial use, the estimated expiry dates of each item, and the related metadata for use with AI.

AI would serve to provide curated recipes to the consumer based on the contents of the box they received using the aforementioned metadata. It would also push reminders of produce expected to expire and offer relevant recipes accordingly.

Based on the produce consumption (or lack thereof) before expiry, the user would be rewarded ‘Sustainability Points’ (working title), to be placed on a community leader board. Every week, the user with the highest score within their local area would then be eligible for discount coupons. This would gamify the customer’s interaction with Oddbox, discourage food wastage, and incentivise concurrent purchases of the subscription. It would also aid in cultivating a community for Oddbox subscribers to interact with one another and share their experiences, recipes, advice and more, only furthering their loyalty to the brand.

Blockchain would be the infrastructure used to tie everything together, from data processing, management, collection, and storage, to providing privacy for users with decentralized use of their personal information.

With all of this planned out, the team created materials to pitch the concept to Oddbox. The material was judged by a panel before three of the five participating teams would be chosen for a live presentation followed by a Q & A.

Our team was able to push through this stage and present on the spot to the panel. Being the last of the three to present, there was pressure to perform well as the previous teams had touched on technological innovations also intended for implementation within our pitch.

Despite the nerves, group members supported one another and presented as a singular unit, answering questions for one another and endearing ourselves to the panel with the united front.

After much deliberation, our team was crowned the victor if this challenge and we walked away (metaphorically) excited and eager to present our ideas to Oddbox themselves.

This was the first leadership role I have ever taken and I definitely learnt a lot about how to manage teams, adapt schedules, and adjust to the needs of the team as a whole as well as accommodate for the needs of the individuals who form it. It was an intense learning experience and I was able to work with my fellow project manager to fully address the brief whilst ensuring the rest of the team was on board with every decision we took.