YardTrade — product brief
Tagline: One board for the people who come to the yard. You pay them. They pay a lead fee. Industry: Skills & services Go / no-go: 23/25 (need 20). Pain 5 · Adopt 4 · Trust 4 · Money 5 · Lean 5. Scores: feasibility 8/10 · market 9/10 · appeal 9/10.
Binding law: `../../JAMAICA_TRUST.md` Commercial rules: `../../IDEA_RULES.md`
Phase 1 — problem
Pain. The parish already matches skills in WhatsApp. Splitting plumber, AC, mechanic, and chairs into four apps is four CACs for one habit.
WhatsApp group test. ‘Who have a plumber / AC man / electrician’, the cousin tyre-man, and Thursday ‘who have chairs’.
Flagship. YardTrade — skills & services Shared engine: `../../ENGINE.md`
Categories (not apps). Plumber & AC · Electrician · Mobile mechanic / roadside · Event kit (chairs, gen, speakers)
Absorbed. TyreNow, YardNight kit, Sitevoice walk
One job. Get three named prices for this photographed skill job.
Evidence of a gap.
- The WhatsApp hack is one habit: ‘who have’ + a photo.
- Tyre-only and chair-only apps die on frequency. Categories do not.
Why informal workarounds fail. Voice notes vanish. Prices change mid-thread. The same vendor is recommended by three cousins and ghosted by two. There is no completion badge and no paper trail if something goes wrong.
Market gap. Directories are ads. WhatsApp has no written price. Event kit is the same ‘who have’ as a plumber.
Current solutions
| What people use | Strength | Limitation |
|---|---|---|
| Parish WhatsApp | Already matching | No price, no rating |
| Five vertical apps | Look focused | Five CACs, one provider wallet needed |
| Jobber | Scheduling | Holds money |
Technology — use vs reject
- AI: Optional whisper on a 20s walk. Category suggested, price never invented.
- Blockchain: Rejected. Shared wallet is a debit ledger, not a chain.
- AR / VR: Rejected.
Who it is for
- Miss Pat — leak, will not Lynk a deposit.
- D. Cole, plumber, already in three parish groups.
- Taxi driver with a flat — same board, Mechanic category.
- Family needing 100 chairs Saturday — Kit category, not YardLot.
Solution
MAIN launch feature. Job Board — photograph the leak, the AC, the panel, the flat, or the empty verandah. Pick a skill. Up to three verified providers write a price. Pay them. Lead fee leaves their prepaid balance.
Interface. A category strip on one three-quote board — not five apps
PWA. Photo or pin first. Category filter. Quotes cache. OTP after the first price. WhatsApp share of the strip. Same shell as LoadYard.
The other party is named. Pay the trade, mechanic, or kit owner on the quote. We never hold the job money. The trade, mechanic, or owner is paid by you.
Trust & Jamaica law
- Value before account. Phone OTP only when someone wants to save, message, or accept a lead.
- Two-way ratings after a completed job. National ID or driver’s licence photo on the provider side.
- Named Jamaican company + WhatsApp +1 876 555 0190 + walk-in desk.
- Data Protection Act 2020: export/delete. We do not sell personal data.
- Household money never sits with us. A provider prepaid lead balance is their float for our fee — not job escrow.
Never
- Hold a deposit for a stranger
- A second app for tyres or chairs
- Ask a route-taxi driver to tap seats
Phase 2 — four lenses
Einstein
A skill is a category id on one matching table. A new category is not a new company.
Jobs
Photo. Category. Three quotes. Pay them.
Csikszentmihalyi
One board. One sitting.
Lennon
The parish remembers who finished the leak and who lent the chairs.
Related
- Rules:
concepts/IDEA_RULES.md - Trust law:
concepts/JAMAICA_TRUST.md