Cheffy

Project Overview

In a fast-paced world, inefficient food management leads to food waste, unhealthy eating, and inefficient grocery shopping. Existing tools don't fully address household inventory tracking, dietary personalization, or ingredient-based meal planning — costing users time, money, and convenience.

Business Impact

By targeting underdeveloped features like inventory expiration tracking, flexible filtering, and ingredient-based personalization, Cheffy has the opportunity to:

• Reduce food waste (a $400B problem annually in the U.S.)

• Drive adoption through convenience for budget- and time-conscious households

• Differentiate with trust-building features around AI transparency, improving cross-generational appeal

Learnings

Understanding user behavior across the full decision journey (not just meal selection) is critical to adoption.

1. Trust and usability features are just as important as "smart" AI suggestions.

2. There's strong business value in solving "inventory management" for the everyday home, not just meal discovery.

Solution

Cheffy simplifies meal planning with real-time ingredient tracking, personalized meal suggestions, and smart dietary filtering — reducing waste and enhancing the home cooking experience.

Opportunity

Build an AI-powered app that simplifies food management, promotes healthier eating, and reduces waste by suggesting meals based on ingredients users already have.

Research Highlights

Goals:

• Understand how users choose meals beyond just ingredients

• Identify top challenges in meal planning and inventory management

• Define features critical to user adoption

Key Insights:

• Convenience and Clarity Win: Users prioritize quick search, clear prep/cook time, and the ability to save or review recipes.

• Cost-Conscious Choices: Budget-friendliness is a core concern; users abandon complex or expensive recipes.

• Skepticism Toward AI: Some users, especially older ones, need trust-building features like tutorials and transparent AI reasoning.

• Dietary Complexity: 5 out of 9 users manage strict dietary restrictions, requiring flexible ingredient substitutions.

Competitive Gaps Identified:

• Few apps offer personalized recipe suggestions based on real-time kitchen inventory

• Ingredient expiry tracking is almost entirely missing

• Robust filtering (beyond premium tiers) is rare, frustrating users