100 Tree Furniture
I started 100 Tree Furniture as a solo founder to help people who didn’t have room for a home office to work-from-home in comfort during the pandemic.
I wanted to create a company that would have a meaningful and positive impact on the environment (something that is very important to me) while also being able to operate it passively.
100 Tree Furniture products have now been sold in 8 countries on 3 continents and they have funded the planting of tens of thousands of trees gloablly.
Background
Laptops are not ergonomically designed and spending hours working on one is bad for your back, shoulders and posture. Being quite tall, my back pain from working on a laptop all day became was even more acute.
However, lying flat on your back keeps your spine in a neutral position.
In 2017 I began working from home so I decided to build something portable to allow me to work while lying down. After a couple of iterations with some old timber in my shed I built a lie-down laptop stand that worked well for me. I thought that was the end of the story.
The Problem
The Covid Opportunity
Covid made the world work-from-home but many of my mid 20s friends had no space for a home office. One was even using his bed and ironing board for a chair and desk!
My friends needed a pop-up office that is comfortable to work at but also quick to assemble or take apart. Their bedrooms, like mine, needed to flexibly transform from a bedroom to an office and back as needed.
Market Research
Blue Ocean Strategy
My approach to product differentiation applied lessons from the book "Blue Ocean Strategy".
Firstly, I began by searching for competitors in the market. Secondly, I examined the buyer factors (like price, aesthetics, durability etc.) they used in their advertising to sell their products to consumers. I then plotted these buyer factors on a graph. My aim was to identify industry standard buyer factors that were high-cost but provided low buyer value and those that were low-cost but provided high buyer value.
My final step was to eliminate the low buyer value items from my product while excelling in the high buyer value factors. This created a differentiated value proposition curve.
My customer persona was the yoga generation; environmental and health conscious 20/30 something’s who now work from home, work for some of the big tech companies and who are renting without the space for a home office.
I also explored the B2B market as many companies began to provide WFH budgets and would have the power to buy in bulk.
Customer Personas
Rapid Iterations
Feedback for Prototype #1
Positives:
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Interesting having a 3 in 1
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Ok to assemble
Negatives
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Far too much lateral sway
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Lie-down not effective and no one will use that position
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People feel it is weird to lie under a desk
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No adjustability for the lie down position
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Lie-down can't be used in bed
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Long legs need to be lifted up to fit second short leg during assembly making it awkward
Feedback for Prototype #2
Positives:
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Split into two products (a desk and a lie-down stand) making both products better
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Lie-down is more user friendly & height adjustable
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Desk lateral sway stopped with diagonal piece
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Long legs are no longer lifted to assemble (slots flipped)
Negatives:
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Lie-down with dowels is not stable
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Dowels add to manufacturing costs & are easy to lose
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Desk diagonal piece is tight making it hard to assemble
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Slots for the diagonal look messy because CNC machines cannot cut at an angle in the Z plane
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The diagonal complicated the assembly
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Still hard to lift the top up for standing position
Feedback for Prototype #3
Positives:
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Lie-down is now stable, portable and easy to assemble. This product has been resolved
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Desk side leg filled to create standing desk surface so the top doesn’t need to be lifted up anymore
Negatives:
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Desk diagonal piece is still hard to assemble and detracts from the UX
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Oversized slots for the diagonal still look messy and make leg pieces non-reversible
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Original desk top isn't secure in the new standing position
Feedback for Prototype #4
Positives:
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Lie-down is now stable, portable and easy to assemble. This product has been resolved
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Desk top now locked in place; this prevents lateral sway and eliminates the need for a diagonal
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Eliminating the diagonal makes the desk easy to assemble and leg pieces are fully reversible again
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Desk top stays in place when in the new standing position
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Both products have now been resolved
"True validation only comes when someone buys your product"
Mahatma Gandhi
* probably not actually Mahatma Gandhi but still pretty true
Getting Sales Ready
I completed a Branding Sprint to identify the tone and theme I wanted the 100 Tree Furniture brand to reflect. Next, I designed a small design system with reusable components and a set of rules to ensure consistency across the site.
I then quickly built a website to sell my products. Simon Sinek’s principle of “Start with why” informed the content of the site. “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”
Once the site was live, I used Google Analytics, Fullstory and Wix Visitor analytics to monitor site engagement, run A/B tests and to optimise user flows.
Website Design
I used my limited video editing and photography skills to create some promotional content to share on the company Instagram and YouTube pages.
These videos were made using a combination of Figma and Shotcut Pro.
Promotional Content
“Purchasing just one of our products can offset the emissions of a petrol car driving around the Earth’s equator . . . . . twice”
The End Result
Global Sales
100 Tree Furniture products have been sold in 8 countries on 3 continents. Most importantly of all, we have planted tens of thousands of trees thanks to our partnership with Eden Reforestation Projects!
By implementing the principles of The Lean Startup, these products took less than 3 months and cost less than €250 to bring to market. The self-operating business model that runs itself is based on The 4-Hour Work Week and it enables me to contribute to a cause I am very passionate about (sustainability & the environment) on an ongoing basis and in a meaningful way.
This project shows that I have learned from the mistakes made with Placemate while continuing to practice the process of Build, Measure, Learn, Iterate and to design products where the user experience is paramount.
Additional Product Photos
"Really nice addition to my wfh setup. The stand is really sturdy and the 100 trees being planted is nice. Would recommend."
Liza R.
Los Angeles, USA
"My lie-down stand is a perfect stop-gap to long periods hunching over my desk. Great product, would highly recommend!"
Anthony M.
Berlin, Germany
"The stand arrived in good shape and should serve me well. Many thanks for the great customer service and a great product!"
Gus K.
Connecticut, USA