Smart & Connected Devices in Lawn Care | RTI Innovation Advisors
As smart, connected devices proliferate inside our homes, using them outdoors is becoming the next great opportunity. From landscape lighting to irrigation, tree maintenance, and temperature control in outdoor living areas, landscape professionals are using technology to change how they offer services and better meet customers’ needs. Although the lawn care and maintenance segment has been slower to adopt technology, equipment manufacturers are beginning to see the potential to use technology to innovate.
In collaboration with a leading lawn care equipment manufacturer, we identified opportunities in smart and connected devices. Subsequently, we validated our client’s vision of a new business line of automated, integrated yard care products.
Providing Insights to Support Product Development
In the project’s first phase, we explored market, technology, and regulatory trends; customer needs; and emerging solutions. We identified trends that signaled opportunity and highlighted competitors’ approaches. We defined the reasons our client should pursue the opportunity, including our recommendations on key solutions and the implications on a new business model. We confirmed the market viability and identified competitors our client hadn’t considered previously.
Using our insights, our client understood the opportunity and that a future with smart, connected devices will be the norm. We advised on the best time to enter the market given technological hurdles, customer awareness and openness to adoption, and competitive threats; and recommended four product offerings as they enter the connected lawn care device space.
In the second phase, our organization validated our client’s vision of a new business line of automated, integrated yard care products and defined the business model and value proposition. We identified key technologies to invest in, classified potential partners and partnering models, and identified internal talent and capabilities required for success.
Originally published at https://rtiinnovationadvisors.org.
