Finding the Opportunity in Cannabis

Discovering the hidden consumer needs that will shape the future of Cannabis innovation

Challenge

Our client wanted to understand consumer motivations and needs for cannabis consumption to advance their category strategy and ultimately define their product innovation pipeline.

Approach

In an emerging industry like Cannabis, the market can be very fragmented. Despite category growth, consumer behaviour is still quite erratic, driven either by a lack of product knowledge or by the relatively complex online and in-dispensary experience.

To bypass this confusion, we uncovered consumers' hidden needs by conducting a series of consumer interviews to:

• Understand consumers' needs and preferences concerning their current repertoire of products
• Define the need gaps within their existing repertoire of products
• Develop consumer-generated 'ideal' products

This 6-week research program resulted in a rich and detailed understanding of consumer needs, motivations, and need gaps, creating a powerful insights springboard to inspire and inform product ideation.

With clear insights on where to play in Cannabis to best meet consumers' unmet needs, we facilitated a 6-week cross-functional product innovation sprint and developed 17 product propositions for consumer testing.

Output

• Hidden Needs Report
• KANO Analysis
• Innovation Sprint