Product Manager — Design
How would you design a Trash Can?
Understand the Question and the goal of the product ? Why are we creating a new trash can?
The assumption I am basing it on is we are trying to design a new trash can for creating a new line of product, and everything is open to change starting with design going upto materials used, etc.
What kind of trash can are we trying to design?
- Is it indoor or outdoor trash can?
- Is it the one which is used for recyclable items such as plastics, glass, paper, or food waste?
- Is there some regulatory or governmental requirements such as material color to differentiate between types of items to be dropped in the trash can, as in Bangalore, or using a bin bag inside the trash can, that needs to be taken into consideration?
- Is there a price point we already have with us?
We are assuming that the trash can we are going to design is an indoor trash can, for disposing food waste items off. We are not bound by any governmental regulations. Assuming that there is no price point yet, and it depends on the user segment we will focus on.
Provide a Structure
Now, I will try to identify the customer and users we are designing the product for, after which I will be discussing with you some of the main use cases we can focus our attention on while thinking about the new product. Then, we will see how existing options in the market are faring against the primary use case. Finally, we will be discussing the inferences and features to have in the product to deal with these use cases in line with our target segment and their goals with the product.
What is the target segment? Who are the users who would use it?
Given that it is an indoor trash can, I am assuming that the customer who will be buying the trash can will be the head of household who does the purchase for most household products. Usually, women call the shots on when and how to buy these household products, so I will be assuming the customers are urban females, if there is some other segment such as rural household females which we need to look out for, please let me know. So our customer is mainly urban household females who either cook themselves or have a helper for cooking.
Point to note will be that users may be other members of the household as well including kids and elderlies. When we consider kids or elderlies there are some safety considerations we might need to take into account, but we will come back to it later.
What are the use cases? What is the primary use case?
The use case which I can think of such trash can are:
- Disposing food waste into the trash can
- Taking out food waste to either transfer into outdoor trash can to to give it to municipal cleaners
- Cleaning the trash can after usage
- Disposing off the trash can itself when either broken or needs replacement
I will focus mainly on the first three of these use cases, which constitute majority of them in a usual household. So, we have disposing food waste into it, transferring food waste outwards, and cleaning the trash can after usage. Is there something specific you want me to dig deep into or should I proceed with evaluating how the current product in the markets fare on these (Assume interviewer asked to proceed).
How well are current products doing against the use cases?
There are two main types of products as per my experience which I see our target segments as currently using. One is open without a lid, another is closed with a lid, which can be either opened by pushing on a pedal or by hand. Both can be of plastic material or metal such as steel (with inner lining or rubber/ plastic)
When looking at the table earlier, Steel Trash Can with Push mechanism suits better compared to other options, other than the fact that it is usually on the heavier side compares to its plastic counterpart. The product is more useful or functional, long lasting, and appeals to the aesthetics of a home more than plastic wares. It is environmentally more friendly as well given it is metal. However, there are some obvious issues with it, one of which is its being heavy. Apart from that, keeping the lid open while transferring food waste out is a pain point though it only has to be done once a day usually. Another issue with the design which I have usually seen with this kind of trash can is it is cylindrical and not conical. On one hand this leads to occupying less surface area for the floor for a same volume of a conical one. On the other, food waste doesn’t completely roll off from the surface compares to conical shape.
What is the innovative and incremental features suitable to the use cases?
Our Trash can should be made of metal preferably steel to appeal to the aesthetic sense of usual household. This way the push mechanism for opening of the lid works well through the lifetime of the product. However, we can go for thinner material for the can to make it lighter. Anyway, trash cans are not expected to bump very often to give it a dent as can happen to usual utensils. There can be attached a simple locking mechanism to keep the lid open especially when required for transferring food waste outwards, and while cleaning the can too. Or we can make the lid easily detachable from the can so as to suit both cases.
In order to make cleaning more convenient compared to what it is, since it is the worst part of a trash can as usually is viewed, we can make a provision of attaching a trash bag automatically so as to cover the inner surface after waste from the can has been transferred. Usually it is slightly inconvenient to do that for such cases. However, this can add a layer of complexity to the product and unless it lies within the budget, we do not necessarily have to include it. We may make it into a higher end version of the product. For that we can also attach an switch so that the plastic bags if being used within, gets automatically close together around its opening to add convenience to tying it by the user before taking trash out. These will however require some kind of partnership with trash bag suppliers or at least the consideration of how trash bags are in construction.
Cleaning is difficult to be done in the corners, and food waste if stuck on the bottom corner of trash can when it is used directly to dispose food waste is unhygienic. Hence, we can make the inner bottom surface of the can into a hemisphere rather than plain circle. It will be easier to clean that way and more hygienic especially considering kids in the house. It simply is the difference in cleaning the inner corners of a Heinz beans can vs. a steel bowl. Other than that, we can make the lid tight on the can itself just as cocktail shakers are, so that if needed while cleaning, users can simply add detergent with a little water and shake it to clean it rather than putting in their hands just as they have to do while cleaning up dishes in India. They can do thorough cleaning per week as per their convenience.
