Develop Original Concepts

1. Case Study Overview

Fluff’n’Stuff is a small mobile dog grooming business based in WA, run by two owners, Bri and Ash. They drive to clients’ homes in their grooming van and offer services such as:

Washing and drying
Clipping and styling
Nail trimming
De-shedding and coat care

They are very good at grooming and handling dogs, but they struggle with the business side of their work.

How they currently run the business

Right now, Fluff’n’Stuff relies on:

A handwritten paper diary to record all bookings
Text messages from customers to schedule or cancel appointments
Loose notes or notebook pages for grooming details (coat condition, behaviour, preferences)
No central digital system for client records or job history
No website and no online booking option
Photos and notes stored randomly on different phones

Problems this is causing

This setup is creating serious issues for the business:

Bookings get lost, mixed up, or forgotten
Double-bookings happen when both owners book the same time slot
Customer addresses are sometimes missing or incorrect
Important notes about each dog are not stored consistently
There are no automatic reminders, so customers forget appointments
Bri and Ash spend too much time texting and checking the diary instead of grooming dogs
The business looks less professional and is hard to grow or scale

As a result, Fluff’n’Stuff is losing potential income and finding it difficult to stay organised and reliable.

2. Your Role & Task

Your role

You are acting as a digital consultant and problem solver. Your goal is to design concepts (ideas) that could help Fluff’n’Stuff fix their business problems.

You are not building the website or software in this activity. Instead, you are designing the idea for a solution and explaining how it will work for the business.

What you need to do

Identify the main problems in Fluff’n’Stuff’s current workflow.
Develop two different solutions that could help improve or fix these problems.
For each solution, explain:
- What the solution is (your overall idea)
- How it fixes the main issue
- How it addresses the specific needs of the business
- What technology or tools it uses
- Any limitations or restrictions
- Expected costs
- Factors that could affect whether the solution works (e.g. people, skills, budget)
Compare your ideas with similar products or best-practice examples (other apps, systems or processes).
Prepare a short presentation where you explain your recommended solution to your trainer and classmates.

3. Example of an Identified Problem

Here is an example of a clear problem statement you might write in your assessment:

Example – Problem Statement

Issue: Fluff’n’Stuff has an unsustainable reliance on manual scheduling and handwritten documentation. Using a paper diary, loose notes and text messages leads to lost bookings, inconsistent records, and frequent miscommunication with customers. This reduces customer satisfaction, wastes time, and makes it difficult for the business to grow or bring on additional staff.

4. Things to Think About When Creating Your Solutions

As you design your two solutions, think about questions like:

How can technology make the daily work easier and faster?
Which tasks are currently wasting the most time?
How can we reduce mistakes and double-bookings?
What’s the best way to safely store client information and job history?
Could automatic reminders (SMS or email) improve customer attendance?
What solutions are realistic and affordable for a small business like Fluff’n’Stuff?
What kind of training would Bri and Ash need to use your solution?

In this activity, you are practising how to originate (come up with) and develop (refine and evaluate) concepts to solve real business problems – just like a web developer, consultant or systems analyst would do in industry.