DESIGN FOR POT

Let me start by getting this out of the way: I am not a stoner. Now I can tell you why marijuana interests me as a designer.

Over the last 100 years, marijuana in the United States has gone from a taxed substance, to a Schedule 1 illegal drug, to a legal medicine, to a recreational product in four states and the District of Columbia. More states are expected to vote on legalization bills in their state legislatures this year, and others are projected to introduce ballot measures to legalize recreational marijuana in 2016. Let’s also remember that the Justice Department has announced that it will not prosecute cannabis companies that follow state laws. I dare say that as a country, we are well on our way to legalizing marijuana.

Pot is going mainstream. It’s not there yet, but it’s certainly breaking away from stereotypes. The experience today is just as much about kicking off your Louboutins and unwinding with an edible after work as it is about gravity bongs and patchouli. Reefer Madness is an anachronism.

The legalization of recreational marijuana has created a new industry, one in which growers, product developers, service providers, retailers, and marketers are competing for consumer dollars. They’re trying to understand how to make things consumers want and differentiate themselves in what is currently a seller’s market.

That’s why I’m interested. This is an industry in the making — a frontier — rife with opportunities for design. In the two-by-two of offerings and consumers, I’m especially excited by the top right quadrant, although there are some interesting products, services, and marketing tactics popping up in the top left and lower right quadrants.

There are companies making amazing things to better address the needs and desires of an existing consumer base as well as appeal to emerging consumer segments, like the “Stiletto Stoners” (thanks to Marie Claire for that endearing classification), that previously weren’t interested enough in pot to break the law, wouldn’t be caught dead in a headshop, or maybe had no interest in smoking, for example.

Today there are marijuana-fueled yoga classes, tours and cooking schools, gourmet edibles and drinkables, Apple product-like paraphernalia, weekly subscription and delivery services, fancy retailers, high-end magazines, and even ad agencies representing marijuana-related businesses. My favorite example of how the industry has evolved was a fundraiser held by the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. “Classically Cannabis,” as described by The Huffington Post, involved “well-heeled attendees sipp[ing] drinks, [shaking] hands and [smoking] pot from joints, vaporizers and glass pipes, while a brass quintet played Debussy, Bach, Wagner and Puccini.” Amazing.

Not surprisingly, what these fundraisers — and entrepreneurs in Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, and DC — have figured out is that there is money to be made in pot. Consumers are looking for a better experience and are willing to pay for it. One year after pot legalized in Colorado, it has become a billion-dollar business in the state, and it has generated some $45M in tax revenue. Assuming full legalization across the US, CNBCreports that “most demand-based studies put the market at $10-$40 billion.” Supply-side models put it at $120 billion.

Another interesting way to look at the market is through analogy. If pot is considered an “adult leisure product,” the question is whether it can make the same sorts of numbers as alcohol and tobacco. According to a November 2009 Standard & Poor’s industry report, the alcohol and tobacco industries generated $263 billion combined in 2008. Alcohol represented $188 billion of the total, with $99 billion in beer, $61 billion in spirits and $27 billion in wine. Personally, I’m not convinced people will be replacing their cigarettes with cannabis anytime soon, but I do think that they might plausibly substitute their alcohol.

Will people consume as much pot as they do beer or spirits? How much share will pot steal share from these other categories? How will product formats such as edibles and drinkables, devices such as vaporizers, and even new services such as subscriptions and delivery grow the market in ways that alcohol has not and cannot? Rest assured, the world’s biggest breweries, distilleries, tobacco companies, and retailers are watching this space closely.

Pot is an opportunity to design an industry, to think about the whole system and go deep on the hairy, holistic questions that it will need to address to grow and thrive. From education, labeling, and dosage, to food and beverage product design, to device design, brand design, retail design (both physical and ecommerce, pick up and delivery channels), to marketing and awareness experiences, and beyond, pot is a tabula rasa. The country is watching to see what happens in the handful of states where it’s legal, and we can write the rules through human-centered design.

For interested designers, entrepreneurs, and investors, here are some questions that begin to frame human-centered design challenges:

How might we approach labeling and communication to clearly describe marijuana products in relatable, human terms?

How might we help people discover marijuana products that are right for them?

How might we design brands, products, and paraphernalia for different consumers, occasions, and retail channels?

How might we build communities of enthusiasts?

How might marijuana become a platform for design experimentation?

I’d love to hear your thoughts and “how might we” questions.

Article originally published in IDEO Stories 01/29/15