Interview with Wei-Fan Chen, the CEO of Plant Nanny [2023]

I graduated from National Taiwan University (NTU) with a master degree of computer-aid engineering (CAE) of civil engineering. All of my college life is actually around civil engineering, from structure engineering to material physics. However, when I started to study in the graduate school of CAE, I had lots of experience how only about understanding computer science and information technology, but also how to use them as a tool to extend the mechanism of buildings, furniture, and facilities to strengthen people’ life. We have a Smart Living lab researching human-computer interfaces, cognitive behavior and so on. Based on the background, I have the ability and desire to use technology to make people’s lives better.

Regardless of age, playing is one of the best ways to learn. Through fun and games we can learn valuable skills, cultivate habits, and even solve some of the most common problems we face in everyday life. When I graduated from graduate school, I wanted to join this kind of company but I found nothing. So why not start one by ourselves? Fourdesire began in the summer of 2012 when a group of friends got together and began discussing their ideas on how fun could be used to solve problems and improve lives. That’s the reason we started Fourdesire and created Plant Nanny.

My story starts from my aquarium experience in the research lab when I was a graduate student.  I found that we had a glass fish tank with a computer screen in our group-meeting table. The screen showed many sea creatures swimming around. The aquarium is an ongoing research. The eco-system of the aquarium is linked to the power consumption of the research room. If we consume too much electricity, the eco-system of the aquarium will be worse and worse, the fish will die; but if we can save electricity, then the eco-system in the aquarium will get better, and even the rare mermaid will appear! This way of changing human behavior in a fun way makes me very fascinated. It’s a small aquarium, but it turned the practical and boring energy-saving task into a very interesting event.

The water in the human body accounts for 70% of the body weight. It is important to get enough water every day. It’s a very simple step, but people just ignore it. It’s a great habit to keep hydrated, which we could use as a game mechanism to help people build-up their habit. For the same reason, my partner and I created Plant Nanny, an app to encourage people to drink water more regularly to keep the body hydrated. In the Plant Nanny, we both use the virtual character and tamagotchi-like game mechanism. We use the virtual plant to symbolize the user his- or herself. Once the user drinks a cup of water, the plant will grow; if the user forgets that, the plant will be withered.

In the beginning of using Plant Nanny, users will be asked for their activity levels and body weight in order to calculate the goal of water intake volume. The formula is based on scientific search and helping users to understand how much water they need every single day. 

When using Plant nanny, users will receive notifications from their plant to ask users to water them. The adorable messages will help users to keep aware of their hydrated status. Users could set-up their own favorite notification frequency, from one notification per 2-4 hours, to customize them anytime they want. 

If a user forgets to update a record of their water, they could always record it anytime in the same day. However, if s/he totally forgets to record it, the plant will withered. For us, this is an important metaphor for our users – the plant on the screen is just like their body, they need to be fed everyday. If the users keep watering the plant and themselves, the plant will grow up and the user’s body will also be healthier at the same time.

Start with the daily habit of drinking water, we want to be thankful for the water, thank our bodies, and also thank and care for our environment. Plant Nanny has cooperated with several NGOs every quarter with diversified advocacy values, such as: Trees for the Future, Ocean Blue Project, Drought Angels. (Follow Plant Nanny’s IG for more information: https://www.instagram.com/plantnanny_us). Drinking water, a seemingly daily trivial matter, is actually the first step in health and a good way to start self-care. After developing the habit of taking care of themselves, our users will also care about their loved family and friends, and even the entire environment and the earth we are in. We feel like it’s a great positive cycle, also encourages our users to get better and better together by starting small with simple daily actions like drinking water without using disposable plastics.

In my personal experience, work is not a time-competitive relationship with life. I love my job, and even if it makes me talk all day about what my job is about—from product, engineering, design, to management. When I do a project I love, I can also be very immersed in it. I also enjoy reading various books and writing articles during the holidays, most of which are positively related to work, and these things keep me energized. Maybe it’s because I know I’m continuing to create value, or I’m improving myself, and I love and love that feeling.

Of course, proper rest is still very important. No one can work 80 hours a week without rest. But the focus is not on working hours. Rather than urging everyone to leave work on time every day, it is better to master the rhythm of the team. When the project is less urgent, let everyone have more time to rest – rest, learn new knowledge, think or adjust your pace – when the rhythm is tight, if everyone can create value and integrate into the team , in order to make “work and life really harmonious”, and make both full of energy and enthusiasm.

Keep the passion of a creator. I truly believe that our users love us because we take lots of our time in designing the best playful experience for them. It is very important to keep all of us having a very sharp sensitivity of insight, observation and empathy in order to discover the tiny friction in everybody’s life. Thus, we can create the most playful experience from the tiny troubles in everyday life to eliminate the friction.

Asana, Roam Research (personally favorite), VS Code, Adobe Creative Suite, Figma and some more softwares.

Just open your MacBook to write some codes, and deliver them to the world through the boundless internet.

We’re trying to embrace more devices to interact with our users – desktop, watch, website, and so on – in order to give our users a better seamless experience. We’re also doing our best to re-design the Plant Nanny in a more modern form in order to give the user the best experience with their latest technology (such as new iPhone or Google Phone). Finally, we keep creating more and more innovative content for our users to keep them motivated with hydration.