In 2017, while I was working at Wayfair, two developers on my team approached me looking for a freelance designer for their new business idea: buddie. The idea was to create a platform for customers to browse local marijuana dispensaries, order for pick up or delivery, and submit payment – all online. In turn, build a platform for dispensaries to sell their product and manage their stores.
The Goal
Marijuana dispensaries were starting to become more popular and legalized in more states but there wasn’t a convenient way to find or shop them yet. We basically wanted to create an Uber Eats for dispensaries.
The Approach
We were in our early 20’s and none of us had ever done anything like this so the approach was super scrappy. The three of us worked together to define, plan and prioritize the features for their demo. Their goal was to sell the product before recreational weed sales became legal in MA the following year.
I designed the logo, branding and identity. We used the free plan on inVision to collaborate. Since there were no competitors in the space yet, I took a lot of inspiration from Uber Eats and Doordash for the experience and looked at online dispensary menus for content. From there, I leveraged all of my ecommerce knowledge I gained at Wayfair and applied it to buddie.
The Outcome
I designed an entire customer facing marketplace for dispensaries. I also designed a business platform for dispensaries to manage their stores through a content management system. The demo was built but unfortunately the business plan faced too many challenges with regulations and legalities and the project was abandoned. We all had fun and learned a lot though :).