Ethical dog breeders and honest potential owners have a lot of trouble finding each other online. Between fake listings on most marketplaces, unattended inboxes, and tons of breed misinformation, it felt nearly impossible start the process on the right track. How could we create a community of ethical dog breeders everyone could access?
Summary
Our research revealed that breeders were exhausted from re-educating potential owners and owners didn't feel "equipped" to approach breeders with confidence. We initially focused on bridging this knowledge gap with a robust breed questionnaire and detailed breed profiles. However, after launching our MVP, no owner wanted to immediately contact a breeder. Instead, they really wanted to meet the breeds in-person first.
This insight led us go all in on our "Meet Your Match" experience, which connected potential owners with local breed experts for in-person meets. After 7 successful meet-and-greets (with one user driving 9 hours to meet a Doberman), we heard another persistent request. Owners wanted access to the entire breed database–not just our recommendations. So we evolved again, giving users full control to explore while maintaining the matching algorithm as a helpful guide.
Conclusion
Throughout this process, we could have been better at really listening to the potential owners and their needs. We often stuck to our own assumptions for too long or listened to breeder opinions of how potential owners should behave. It’s a good reminder that being a good designer is an exercise of humility. Your assumptions and ideas only hold weight if you’re truly putting the user first.
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