Assigned SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities & Communities) for our class project, we wanted to encourage small scale, accessible greenery in urban living spaces. Many college students love the idea of having plants but struggle to start due to limited time, knowledge, space, or confidence.
Our goal was to lower the barrier to entry for first time plant owners while making the experience exciting and giftable through mystery box mechanics and collectible figures.
We created Hidden Garden, a line of mystery plant boxes that included:
I contributed to:
To validate the product, our team conducted two full testing phases and pop up selling sessions at:
We interviewed 60+ potential customers, tested different price points, compared “plant only” vs. “plant + figure,” and gathered feedback on packaging appeal, figure design, and the mystery experience.
Across all sessions, Hidden Garden consistently appealed to our target demographic primarily college aged women attracted to cute, collectible items.
Key findings:
We sold 16 boxes total, validating the core concept and identifying opportunities for future improvement such as:
Hidden Garden blended product design, branding, and real market testing and gave us hands on experience turning a playful idea into a functional, testable consumer product.