The market space for automated coffee solutions is vast and includes households as well as office workspaces seeking to boost employee morale. Usual automatic coffee makers can only produce one version or several similar versions of a cup of coffee. Aficionados prefer to have control over proportions and material to customize for their taste needs which can be easily done with a french press. Sadly there are essentially no automatic french press machines that are feasible for household consumers to purchase. Therefore, a large market gap exists for an automatic french press that is affordable enough for the average (cup of) joe.

In terms of our competitors, we face no direct competition for a product with our planned functionality and pricing. However, other automatic coffee brewing solutions do exist. For instance, Keurig, and Nespresso are examples of indirect competitors. Their products serve the people who prefer fast low effort coffee. On the other end of the spectrum, automatic espresso machines, such as the Breville Barista, offer a more complete experience for the most serious of coffee lovers. Products such as these cost upwards of 1000$ putting them out of reach for the average consumer. All in all, most of our product’s competition is indirect due to other comparable products fulfilling the needs of different market segments

When using the automated french press its is assumed that the user has access to a power source, water and coffee grounds. The eventual user of our product will be expected to maintain the water in the tank, and the grounds in the container for daily use. From time to time, the final user will also have to remove and clean the brewing chamber, bean container, and various nozzles. In terms of constraints, our product is designed for personal use in any ordinary kitchen, constraining the size of our final product to something that would fit on an ordinary countertop. On top of this, components of our french press have to be removable for easy cleanup. Finally, our most important constraint has to be price. Making a product for household consumers requires the price not be too high, however, due to our better performance than Keurig type coffee makers our price can be more than their typical offering.