Short answer: Listen before you park. Talk to the people you want to serve, learn what they buy and what gets in the way, and design the market with them. Plan for this to be ongoing work, not a one time survey.
The markets that last are built by the community, for the community. That means the people you serve help shape what you sell, where you stop and how you run.
Start with empathy
Observe. Go where people shop, wait and gather. See what they care about.
Interview. Hold one on one conversations about how they buy food and what is hard.
Immerse. Try the trip yourself. Take the bus to the nearest grocery store with bags. Ask permission and be respectful.
Capture it. Use an empathy map: what people say, think, do and feel, on one page.
Design with the community
Design thinking gives you a simple loop: empathize, define the problem, generate ideas, prototype and test. Test small things first, like a new stop time or a new product, then keep what works.
Check every idea three ways
Desirable. Does the community want it?
Feasible. Can your team do it?
Viable. Can the market afford it?
Be honest about fit
Not every community can or should be served by a mobile market. Some will not support a stop. Some will cost more than they bring. It is better to find another food access solution for that area than to run a stop that fails.
Engage your corporate and afternoon partners too. Their HR teams can tell you what employees want and help promote wellness markets.
With the Farmers' Truck Map: Open a stop as Coming Soon and share the link with residents. The sign-up count tells you whether people want you there before the truck shows up.
Sources: CDC/ATSDR, Principles of Community Engagement · IDEO, Field Guide to Human-Centered Design · Nielsen Norman Group, Empathy mapping
