case study interview shopee

Shopee Product Management (PM) Interview - 5 Things You Wish You Knew Before Applying!

With its rapid growth, Shopee sees the need for more and more Product Managers yearly, which might lead one to assume that getting hired isn't all that difficult. On the contrary, PM interviews are challenging to say the least. The questions are tough, every so often specific to Shopee, and cover a wide range of topics.

However, the good news is that cracking the PM interviews is very achievable with the right preparation. Here at NodeFlair, we have gathered a pool of interview questions (and resources!) to help you get hired by Shopee. Want to take it a step further and truly MAXIMIZE your chances? Be on the lookout for the valuable tips scattered ahead. 

The information and questions are gathered from various sources from users who have gone through the interview process for roles. These sources include, but are not limited to, Glassdoor, Shopee Careers, forums and users we have interviewed.

‍ Disclaimer:

While we do our best to ensure that the content is accurate and up to date by cross-checking it with a sizable number of individuals, we acknowledge that the questions might be changed over time, or it might vary across departments and interviewers. 

• Wide range of products at Shopee you should be familiar with
• How to score a Product Management (PM) interview with Shopee
• Shopee Interview Process: 3 to 4 rounds
• Shopee Interview Questions: Experienced-based, Market Sizing, Strategy, Case Studies, Behaviorial and more!
• Years of experience affects your salary + Expect 1-3 months of variable bonus! 💰

Main Products of Shopee

Before we dive straight into the interview questions, let us zoom in on the most fundamental element of product management - the products. Being a PM at Shopee, you ought to display your familiarity with their products. Being well-acquainted with the products you’ll be working with will greatly aid you in answering the questions with confidence. 

Don’t know where to begin your research? Fret not! We have put together a list of Shopee’s key products. familiarize yourself with them, especially the team you are applying for.

Note: The list is non-exhaustive and changes from time to time.

Scoring a Product Management interview with Shopee

Getting an interview is the first step to advancing through the hiring process. Just like any other company, there are a few ways you can land an interview with Shopee

• Referral from a friend who’s already working there! 
• A recruiter from Shopee reaches out to you on LinkedIn
• Lastly, you can apply directly -  you can find the list of jobs here

TIP: Get a referral from a friend working at Shopee! It is statistically proven that applicants from referrals have a greater priority.

Here are 7 short actionable steps you can take to increase your chances of getting scouted on LinkedIn or have your resume be accepted during the initial screening!

What to Expect from the Interview Process

Not much is made known about the general progression of the recruitment process for PM at Shopee. Besides, surveying the experiences of previous applicants altogether, the procedure appears to vary to some degree from person to person. However, some similar patterns can be observed.

On average, the complete process lasts 3-4 weeks regardless of method of application, and consists of 3-4 rounds . 

• Online assessments (GMAT Data Sufficiency and Logical Reasoning) - Not all interviewees undergo this test, but according to test-takers, the questions are on a slightly higher difficulty level.
• HR interview
• Interview with the team and hiring manager (2-3 rounds) ‍

Behavioural interview questions and case studies seem to be unavoidable for PM interviews at Shopee. Case studies can come in the form of market sizing and estimation, product iterations, product implementation and launch strategies. Continue reading to discover examples of questions you may face in the next section!

TIP : Don’t shy away from asking relevant and thoughtful questions regarding the role, work culture, opportunities etc. This is one of the best ways to demonstrate passion and interest for the job without coming across as overly desperate or superficial.

Product Manager Interview Questions for Shopee Singapore

The interview questions we’ve all been waiting for.  Beyond the ever-so generic “Tell me about yourself” sort of questions you’ll see elsewhere, these questions are largely specific to the PM role at Shopee. 

Memorising responses word for word may be of little help, especially since Shopee takes a fairly unusual approach to interview questions. If not careful, it may even come off as insincere or result in you going off at a tangent. Despite that, rehearsing some questions may allow you to gain a sense of what to anticipate and give you the edge over other potential candidates.  ‍

TIP: Check out the description of the role you’re interested in if you haven't already. Knowing what the company is looking for would sharpen your responses and let them know you are the right candidate for the job.

Frequently asked Interview Questions 

Based on numerous personal experiences, these are recurrent questions you should be ready to face. Although there is no 100% guarantee you’ll be asked any of them, most interviewers would incorporate at least a few of these in their interactions.

• What is a Product Manager, and why do you want to be one ?
• Why do you want to join Shopee ?
• Why do you want to work in the Singapore office?

Experience-based

Share a product you worked on / Explain a feature you have implemented

• What are some difficulties you have faced?
• How did you overcome difficulties faced?
• Why are you proud of how you overcame the difficulties?

Personal opinions

How would you improve Shopee? 

• How would you improve the current Shopee Mobile Application?
• What features of Shopee can be improved?
• What would you change about Shopee? How would you implement the change ?

What is your favourite product? 

• What is your favourite product, both online and offline?
• What features would you improve about it?
• What do you think makes a good product?

Other Interview Questions

While these questions are less popular, it definitely does not mean they are of any less importance. If anything, they are trickier and require more technical knowledge. They have appeared in previous interviews at Shopee, and may or may not be repackaged.

• What do you think is/are the most important trait(s) in a product manager?
• How do you deal with multiple things?
• What is the difference between Product Management and Project Management?

Market Sizing and Estimation

• How many cinema tickets were sold during the pandemic in Jakarta?
• How do you count the number of transactions in a restaurant at a mall?
• How many buses are there in Singapore? 
• Estimate the daily number of passengers in an airport
• At 5pm on a normal day, can you tell me how many trains are active on our MRT tracks?

Analytical & Strategy-based

Product Requirements and Metrics Tracking

• How do you measure your KPIs / track success?
• If you were a product manager for an elevator , what are the product requirements and why?
• If you are building an elevator system for an office building with 100 stories, what are the metrics you would measure?
• How would you best determine the number of ads to display amongst our listings in a given page?

Product Development

• How do you design a personalised strategy?
• I want to design a XXX system: What problem do you see, and how would you resolve it?
• How do you develop OCR Technologies (Optical Character Recognition)?
• Tell me about the steps you would take to undergo QA (Quality Assurance) on a product.
• What would you do when presented with XXX challenges while building a feature?
• Create a UI sample to help sellers manage their stock

Problem Solving

• You received information that your system is bad. How would you go about tackling this?
• What would you do if customers complained a lot about their deliveries?
• How can Shopee increase customers in another new market?
• How would you launch XXX in a new market?

Interpersonal and Behavioural

• How would you handle a disagreement with your manager?
• Share some difficulties you have faced when working with a different team and how you solved that
• How do you persuade people to attend your meeting?
• How do you get people to cooperate with you on a project?
• Highlight one’s past experience that uses data
• Have you ever initiated a project?
• Familiarisation with testing method and ticketing system
• What are the 3 most used apps on your phone?
• What is the problem you faced as a Shopee user?

Questions for Shopee Product Management Internship

As an internship applicant, you are not expected to have a wealth of “professional” experience to speak about. Besides that, the difference in questions asked is likely minimal. These are 3 examples of the questions previous internship candidates have faced.

• Assess the use of social media sites for brand marketing
• Describe a time where you had to work with uncertainty. How did you overcome it?
• Do you have any experience on data analytics outside of school?

Shopee Product Management Salary and Pay

Based on NodeFlair Salaries , it seems while seniority and title do reflect one's salary at Shopee, years of experience matters quite significantly.

One can also expect to receive variable bonus ranging from 1 to 3 months!

Find this article useful? Here’s how you can benefit from it more!

Other interview resources:

• Bytedance Software Engineer Interview Guide
• Shopee Software Engineer Interview Guide
• Grab Software Engineer Interview Guide

Help keep this article updated

This article is only made possible thanks to fellow developers. Tech interview processes and questions might change over time, so If you have had an interview with Bytedance (or other companies), you are encouraged to contribute back !

Got a job offer from Shopee? Contribute it anonymously!

NodeFlair is improving salary transparency to empower tech talents with the correct salary information so they are not lowballed by companies. Salary is a taboo subject in Singapore, so we have built it with anonymous compensation sharing in mind. Sharing your job offer anonymously will help the tech community inch one step towards salary transparency.

‍ Share it on social media and with your friends

Related Articles

FOR TALENTS

Blog (Vietnam)

FOR COMPANIES

• philippines

Case study: How Shopee has trained over 450 leaders across the region for a learning culture

• main#clickShareSocial">email
• main#clickShareSocial">telegram
• main#clickShareSocial">whatsapp
• main#clickShareSocial">wechat
• main#clickShareSocial">pinterest
• main#clickShareSocial">line
• main#clickShareSocial">snapchat
• main#clickShareSocial">reddit

Lim Teck Yong, Shopee's Head of Regional Operations and People Team, speaks to Priya Sunil on the online marketplace's competency-based, systematic and holistic approach towards leadership development for both new and experienced leaders.

Hence, the online shopping platform believes in grooming its leaders from within. According to Lim, while many of Shopee's young leaders are "exceptional in their own domain", they are also first-time managers who have faced steep learning curves.

He says: "Even for experienced managers who have led teams before, our rapid growth means that they have had to adapt and manage bigger teams."

The solution? A competency-based, systematic and holistic approach towards leadership development, shares Lim. This approach integrates programmes for new and aspiring managers to align on practices of developing high-performing teams, as well as tailored programmes for five levels of leadership experience.

Additional programmes and resources are also available, which include coaching and mentoring programmes; organisation-wide feedback tools to identify leadership development needs; regular sharing sessions by senior leaders; and dedicated in-house leadership trainers and training partners.

Together, with the dedication of our talented professionals within the learning and development team, we are able to build a learning culture.

The first step into Shopee's learning and development modules takes place through an intensive regional onboarding programme for managers, where experiential activities highlight the importance of the leadership culture and competencies. These managers also attend deep-dive sessions to improve their understanding of Shopee's key business functions. Over 350 leaders have been involved in this programme since its inception in 2018.

Second, the academy offers five tiers of leadership development programmes designed to meet the needs of Shopee's leaders at different stages. Every leader in the organisation is invited to participate in the tailored, two-day training programmes each year.

The range of programmes include leadership masterclasses (conducted externally); two-hour training courses; brown-bag sessions by senior leaders; panel discussions; learning networking sessions; and subsidies for online or external training.

Within the first quarter of 2019, more than 450 leaders across the region have participated in these programmes.

In addition to the above, Shopee also chose to integrate its current coaching programme with its leadership programme so as to ensure continuity in its staff learning while emphasising on the application of learning.

Like in every implementation, the team at Shopee has faced some challenges along the way in implementing this gamut of programmes. Lim explains: "One of our challenges in implementing our coaching and mentoring programmes was the limited numbers of coaches and mentors we had, in relation to the number of employees interested in the programmes."

In fact, he admits that the mentoring programme is widely popular, with more than 100 mentors and 300 mentees benefitting from the programme.

To address this, he shares: "We learned that senior management support, role-modelling from senior leaders, sharing of success stories, and proper training by Shopee's learning and development team, helped to motivate coaches and mentors in investing their time and effort."

Looking towards 2020: What’s on the agenda?

Further, he says: "Transitioning from tech professionals to leadership positions can be rather challenging.

This case study was part of a feature on leadership development, which appeared in the June-July edition of  Human Resources magazine (Singapore) . Read the full feature  in the special Learning & Development edition  out now, or in our  online versi on !

Photo / provided

Follow us on Telegram and on Instagram @humanresourcesonline for all the latest HR and manpower news from around the region!

Related topics

• Case studies

Free newsletter

Get the daily lowdown on Asia's top Human Resources stories.

We break down the big and messy topics of the day so you're updated on the most important developments in Asia's Human Resources development – for free.

Business Expansion : A Case Study of Shopee Company in Thailand

• October 2022

• Manipal GlobalNxt University

Discover the world's research

• 25+ million members
• 160+ million publication pages
• 2.3+ billion citations
• Yolla Margaretha

• Dorothy Rouly Haratua Pandjaitan
• Shafa Ajeng Wulandari Nurfakih
• Waelan Waelan
• Agus Edy Rangkuti
• Tick Ying Heng
• Herasiny A/P Pushpanathan

• David Galipeau

• Itb Aas Indonesia
• Seta Samsiana

• Seyed Yaaghoob Hoseini
• Younes Jafarpour

• Sea-Jin Chang
• Jay Hyuk Rhee
• Recruit researchers
• Join for free
• Login Email Tip: Most researchers use their institutional email address as their ResearchGate login Password Forgot password? Keep me logged in Log in or Continue with Google Welcome back! Please log in. Email · Hint Tip: Most researchers use their institutional email address as their ResearchGate login Password Forgot password? Keep me logged in Log in or Continue with Google No account? Sign up

Information

• Author Services

Initiatives

You are accessing a machine-readable page. In order to be human-readable, please install an RSS reader.

All articles published by MDPI are made immediately available worldwide under an open access license. No special permission is required to reuse all or part of the article published by MDPI, including figures and tables. For articles published under an open access Creative Common CC BY license, any part of the article may be reused without permission provided that the original article is clearly cited. For more information, please refer to https://www.mdpi.com/openaccess .

Feature papers represent the most advanced research with significant potential for high impact in the field. A Feature Paper should be a substantial original Article that involves several techniques or approaches, provides an outlook for future research directions and describes possible research applications.

Feature papers are submitted upon individual invitation or recommendation by the scientific editors and must receive positive feedback from the reviewers.

Editor’s Choice articles are based on recommendations by the scientific editors of MDPI journals from around the world. Editors select a small number of articles recently published in the journal that they believe will be particularly interesting to readers, or important in the respective research area. The aim is to provide a snapshot of some of the most exciting work published in the various research areas of the journal.

Original Submission Date Received: .

• Active Journals
• Find a Journal
• Journal Proposal
• Proceedings Series
• For Authors
• For Reviewers
• For Editors
• For Librarians
• For Publishers
• For Societies
• For Conference Organizers
• Open Access Policy
• Institutional Open Access Program
• Special Issues Guidelines
• Editorial Process
• Research and Publication Ethics
• Article Processing Charges
• Testimonials
• Preprints.org
• SciProfiles
• Encyclopedia

Article Menu

• Subscribe SciFeed
• Recommended Articles
• Google Scholar
• on Google Scholar
• Table of Contents

Find support for a specific problem in the support section of our website.

Please let us know what you think of our products and services.

Visit our dedicated information section to learn more about MDPI.

JSmol Viewer

Public food trees’ usage and perception, and their potential for participatory edible cities: a case study in birjand, iran.

1. Introduction

2.1. setting, 2.2. target groups and recruitment, 2.3. semi-structured interviews, 2.4. data analysis, 3.1. visitors, 3.1.1. fruit tree experience and culture, 3.1.2. usage and perception of akbarieh garden and tohid park, 3.1.3. knowledge and usage of the fruit trees of akbarieh garden and tohid park.

• Ripe fruit was not seen (either because they did not visit these places when the fruit was ripe or because all the fruit had been picked already—before ripening in the case of pomegranates);
• Concern about phytochemicals (usually because they had seen a sign saying that the trees had been sprayed);
• It is not possible to wash the fruit before eating it on the spot;
• They have no need to pick the fruit because they have access to their own or relatives’ fruit trees in the city or in a nearby village.

I: Why you didn’t pick [as a child]? P: Because my parents said so. I: And now? P: Even now we have the feeling that we should not pick the fruit of a private place. Akbarieh Garden is a public place, but if we were allowed to pick, they would say so. (Azar)

I said it might not look good, but then some people said that these trees are for people to use. Seeing that people were picking fruit also affected me, so I went and picked it. (Simin)

I will definitely go if the authorities or the garden guards allow it. Because my grandfather used to have a garden and I love to pick and eat fruit more than buying it. (Laleh)

3.1.4. Appreciated and Disliked Features of Public Fruit Trees

• Appreciated
• Visual, olfactory, gustatory: ○ Beauty of the tree, flowers, fruits, and colors; ○ Bringing visual and emotional variety in space and time to the landscape; ○ Smell of flowers or fruit; ○ Taste of picked fruit.
• Experiential: ○ Sitting at the base of the tree, in its shade, or under its blossom or fruit; ○ Picking fruit; ○ Eating picked fruit (due to the taste, but also the concept, as opposed to buying from a store); ○ Enhancing the feel of the seasons; ○ Enhancing the feel of nature; ○ Making the urban space more interesting in terms of natural and social phenomena.
• Feelings, thoughts, and memories: ○ Making people feel good; ○ Providing feelings of hope, fertility, freshness, and prosperity; ○ Creating and reminiscing about personal memories; ○ Learning about food.
• Social: ○ Creating positive social events (harvests); ○ Using the fruit as gifts; ○ Tool to teach about art (light and color) and plants; ○ Vector of cultural identity and memory.
• Visual, olfactory, and gustatory:

Its branches and the attractive pomegranate tree itself, it is really a beautiful tree in my opinion. Its color is beautiful when it has small flowers, when it blooms and when the pomegranate ripens on the tree. I think the pomegranate is beautiful at every instant … Every time I go [to Tohid Park] with someone, we exchange about the beauty, for example, how beautiful this [pomegranate] tree is here. (Esther)

Fruit trees in parks have a better feeling than decorative trees, the decorative tree is also good, but the fruit tree has its decoration and feel, and when you sit under it, you sit and smell the fruit, like apricots. Well, it feels so much better than sitting under a barren tree. (Simin)

• Experiential:

Fruit trees are good in that you can see the change of seasons, but pine trees are green all year round. Fruit trees can make spring, summer, winter and autumn beautiful … If the fruit trees are removed in Akbarieh Garden, all seasons are the same and people cannot say that they went there in the summer to have fruit or whether it was green, they do not see the change of seasons, I do not think it is very interesting. (Firuz)

Nature and forests are not just for decoration. Every plant has a number of functions. They have products. That way, you feel the seasons more: now it sprouts, flowers, bears fruit, you feel the season more. You feel the connection between nature and man more, it is not just a decorative aspect they give a more vivid state to the environment. (Arman)

Nothing is wrong with your alley which has a pine tree, it has another tree that makes us feel good and prevents dust; now add a possibility to this space to make our city more social and its people feel better. If there is no jujube tree, the old woman who crosses the alley will just pass by, but when her eyes fall on the red jujube fruit on the ground, she spends a moment of her life picking them, and I enjoy watching this scene. (Baraz)

• Feelings, thoughts, and memories:

I feel good seeing fruit trees. (Azar)

Still now when I pass by, I like to taste it and remember these childhood memories. We do not climb trees or hang on them like before … Now we politely pass and if we can, we will pick a few berries. (Yasmin)

You see fertility, hope, freshness and prosperity in the fruit tree. The fruit tree is like a woman who gives birth and how much vitality comes with it. A house with a small child and crying sounds coming from it. But the pine and cypress trees are like old fossilized men. (Arman)

I picked three figs that day and took them home. The fact that I did not eat that fruit alone and brought it to my wife was lovelier for her than to receive a basket of roses. (Baraz)

“half hour of eating berries … the same worth as [a five-hour] class”. (Baraz)

• Berry (mulberries and blackberries) or jujube trees: Their pests can infect other trees, fallen and unpicked fruit cause a mess and attract insects;
• Tohid Park’s pomegranate trees: Fruit is small and dry; several trees have died in the past years, and this brings sadness; and some people litter the park with their peels after eating them.

3.1.5. Attachment to Tohid Park and Akbarieh Garden’s Fruit Trees

I would be very upset. When there was a more severe drought a year or two ago, when I saw the trees … even the green leaves were drying out, it felt bad. I did not like to look at these trees at all. In the upper parts of our garden … a few walnut and jujube trees … were very damaged because of the dust that sat on the leaves and they did not produce fruit. It felt as if you were facing a sick human being, a tree is like a child to a farmer and a member of his family. It is like a living thing … (Azar)

3.1.6. Opinion About Public Fruit Trees

• Urban design: ○ Relieving from the dryness and monotony of the asphalt and boulevards; ○ Improving green spaces (adding services to them); ○ Smart design (trees require maintenance, so they might as well provide more services, i.e., food); ○ Reinforcing or developing the city identity (if a specific species is planted in a sufficient number to become emblematic of the city).
• Society: ○ Encouraging people, including children, to go to the park more and to look at their surroundings more; ○ Providing people with a good feeling of “productivity”; ○ Providing a means for people to gain experience and children to get in contact with agriculture and outdoor activities; ○ Bringing social vitality to public spaces (“The city makes sense with its people. If we are all supposed to be safe inside our apartments, that’s worthless.” [Baraz]).
• Careful selection of the type of species and the location: For instance, fruit trees should not be planted in places where harvesting could bother others or on the street sides, as this may cause accidents (for instance, children stopping on the road to pick fruit may get hit by a car); species producing berries should be planted in places where the dirt produced by fallen fruit would be manageable or acceptable.
• Educating people such that the detrimental behaviors sometimes observed are minimized: vandalism (pulling and breaking branches while harvesting, stealing young trees), and the overharvesting or picking of unripe fruit.

The fact that they can allow citizens to take the child to the park to pick the fruit herself, the fruit that you bring [home] in a plastic bag is completely different from the fruit that you pick from the tree. It’s totally exciting. I brought my kids to Akbarieh Garden and picked mulberries for them. It is interesting and exciting for them … If there is a place in the urban green space where children have experience with agriculture, harvesting and irrigation, it will help a lot. Although it is artificial and managed and limited, still this experience is good … Now that everything is limited, many citizens do not have the yard that we had, where the children can feel, see the flowers, water and… (Arman)

3.1.7. Interest in Participation

3.2. administrators.

• Akbarieh Garden
• Since trees require manpower, they might as well provide food;
• This is asked by visitors (who also use this argument above);
• They provide happiness to people through fruit, color, beauty, and diversity over the seasons;
• They provide peace of mind by showing that food is available;
• They can contribute to reducing the carbon footprint of the food system;
• They have positive impacts on social interactions and social capital by increasing park visitation and by causing the public to speak with the park staff and administrators more, as visitors call or visit the office to communicate their concerns over specific trees (and they do this much more with fruit trees).

4. Discussion

5. conclusions, supplementary materials, author contributions, institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, acknowledgments, conflicts of interest.

• Gregis, A.; Ghisalberti, C.; Sciascia, S.; Sottile, F.; Peano, C. Community Garden Initiatives Addressing Health and Well-Being Outcomes: A Systematic Review of Infodemiology Aspects, Outcomes, and Target Populations. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021 , 18 , 1943. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Smith, J.P.; Meerow, S.; Turner, B.L. Planning Urban Community Gardens Strategically through Multicriteria Decision Analysis. Urban For. Urban Green. 2021 , 58 , 126897. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Horst, M.; McClintock, N.; Hoey, L. The Intersection of Planning, Urban Agriculture, and Food Justice: A Review of the Literature. In Planning for Equitable Urban Agriculture in the United States ; Raja, S., Caton Campbell, M., Judelsohn, A., Born, B., Morales, A., Eds.; Urban Agriculture; Springer International Publishing: Cham, Switzerland, 2024; pp. 89–120. ISBN 978-3-031-32075-0. [ Google Scholar ]
• Nordahl, D. Public Produce: Cultivating Our Parks, Plazas, and Streets for Healthier Cities ; Island Press: Washington, DC, USA, 2015; ISBN 978-1-61091-550-2. [ Google Scholar ]
• Albrecht, S.; Wiek, A. Food Forests: Their Services and Sustainability. J. Agric. Food Syst. Community Dev. 2021 , 10 , 91–105. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Exner, A.; Weinzierl, C.; Cepoiu, L.; Arzberger, S.; Spash, C.L. Smart and Edible: How Edible Cities Create Smart Public Spaces Smart and Edible: How Edible Cities Create Smart Public Spaces ; Vienna University of Economics and Business: Wien, Austria, 2021. [ Google Scholar ]
• Sardeshpande, M.; Hurley, P.T.; Mollee, E.; Garekae, H.; Dahlberg, A.C.; Emery, M.R.; Shackleton, C. How People Foraging in Urban Greenspace Can Mobilize Social–Ecological Resilience During COVID-19 and Beyond. Front. Sustain. Cities 2021 , 3 , 686254. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• United Nations. THE 17 GOALS|Sustainable Development. Available online: https://sdgs.un.org/goals (accessed on 20 September 2024).
• Lafontaine-Messier, M.; Gélinas, N.; Olivier, A. Profitability of Food Trees Planted in Urban Public Green Areas. Urban For. Urban Green. 2016 , 16 , 197–207. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Shackleton, C.; Hurley, P.; Dahlberg, A.; Emery, M.; Nagendra, H. Urban Foraging: A Ubiquitous Human Practice Overlooked by Urban Planners, Policy, and Research. Sustainability 2017 , 9 , 1884. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Hajzeri, A.; Kwadwo, V.O. Investigating Integration of Edible Plants in Urban Open Spaces: Evaluation of Policy Challenges and Successes of Implementation. Land Use Policy 2019 , 84 , 43–48. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Colinas, J.; Bush, P.; Manaugh, K. The Socio-Environmental Impacts of Public Urban Fruit Trees: A Montreal Case-Study. Urban For. Urban Green. 2019 , 45 , 126132. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Free, C. These Cities Turned Parks into Orchards Where Anyone Can Pick for Free. Washington Post , 12 October 2022. [ Google Scholar ]
• Plante et Cité Premières Assises Internationales Des Paysages Comestibles Fruitiers Dans La Cité, Les 7 et 8 Septembre 2023 à Nantes-Plante & Cité. Available online: https://www.plante-et-cite.fr/specif_actualites/view/1139/typeactu:actualites/slug:retenez-la-date-premieres-assises-internationales (accessed on 16 July 2023).
• Romanova, O.; Lovell, S. Food Safety Considerations of Urban Agroforestry Systems Grown in Contaminated Environments. Urban Agric. Reg. Food Sys. 2021 , 6 , e20008. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Barthel, S.; Isendahl, C. Urban Gardens, Agriculture, and Water Management: Sources of Resilience for Long-Term Food Security in Cities. Ecol. Econ. 2013 , 86 , 224–234. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Park, H.; Kramer, M.; Rhemtulla, J.M.; Konijnendijk, C.C. Urban Food Systems That Involve Trees in Northern America and Europe: A Scoping Review. Urban For. Urban Green. 2019 , 45 , 126360. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Taylor, J.R.; Lovell, S.T. Designing Multifunctional Urban Agroforestry with People in Mind. Urban Agric. Reg. Food Syst. 2021 , 6 , e20016. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Shi, X. The Urban Food Forest: Creating a Public Edible Landscape. Urban Des. Int. 2022 , 28 , 189–201. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Fornaciari, M.; Marrapodi, S.; Proietti, C.; Ruga, L.; Orlandi, F. Evaluation of the Productive, Economic, and Ecosystem Potential of Fruit Species in Urban Settings. Res. Sq. 2022; in review . [ Google Scholar ]
• Davivongs, V.; Arifwidodo, S.D. Bangkok’s Existing Mixed Fruit Orchards Are Tree Diversity Hotspots for City Greening. Urban Ecosyst. 2023 , 26 , 991–1005. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Sartison, K.; Artmann, M. Edible Cities—An Innovative Nature-Based Solution for Urban Sustainability Transformation? An Explorative Study of Urban Food Production in German Cities. Urban For. Urban Green. 2020 , 49 , 126604. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Artmann, M.; Sartison, K.; Vávra, J. The Role of Edible Cities Supporting Sustainability Transformation—A Conceptual Multi-Dimensional Framework Tested on a Case Study in Germany. J. Clean. Prod. 2020 , 255 , 120220. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Nero, B.; Kwapong, N.; Jatta, R.; Fatunbi, O. Tree Species Diversity and Socioeconomic Perspectives of the Urban (Food) Forest of Accra, Ghana. Sustainability 2018 , 10 , 3417. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Riolo, F. The Social and Environmental Value of Public Urban Food Forests: The Case Study of the Picasso Food Forest in Parma, Italy. Urban For. Urban Green. 2019 , 45 , 126225. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Liu, Y.; Fan, H.; Wei, M.; Yin, K.; Yan, J. From Edible Landscape to Vital Communities: CLOVER NATURE SCHOOL Community Gardens IN SHANGHAI. Landsc. Arch. Front. 2017 , 5 , 72–83. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Scharf, N.; Wachtel, T.; Reddy, S.; Säumel, I. Urban Commons for the Edible City—First Insights for Future Sustainable Urban Food Systems from Berlin, Germany. Sustainability 2019 , 11 , 966. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Hosseinpour, N.; Kazemi, F.; Mahdizadeh, H. A Cost-Benefit Analysis of Applying Urban Agriculture in Sustainable Park Design. Land Use Policy 2022 , 112 , 105834. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Allen, J.A.; Mason, A.C. Urban Food Forests in the American Southwest. Urban Agric. Reg. Food Syst. 2021 , 6 , e20018. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Betz, M.; Mills, J.; Farmer, J. A Preliminary Overview of Community Orcharding in the United States. J. Agric. Food Syst. Community Dev. 2017 , 7 , 13–28. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Coffey, S.E.; Munsell, J.F.; Hübner, R.; Friedel, C.R. Public Food Forest Opportunities and Challenges in Small Municipalities. Urban Agric. Reg. Food Syst. 2021 , 6 , e20011. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Clouse, C. The Resurgence of Urban Foraging under COVID-19. Landsc. Res. 2022 , 47 , 285–299. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Guenat, S.; Bailey-Athias, J.P.; Fischer, L.K. Urban Foraging in Brazilian Public Greenspaces. Ambio 2023 , 52 , 1248–1261. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]
• Kowalski, J.M.; Conway, T.M. The Routes to Fruit: Governance of Urban Food Trees in Canada. Urban For. Urban Green. 2023 , 86 , 128045. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Rombach, M.; Dean, D. Edible Landscape: Key Factors Determining Consumers’ Commitment and Willingness to Accept Opportunity Cost and Risk of Foraged Food. Front. Hortic. 2023 , 2 , 1028455. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Schunko, C.; Brandner, A. Urban Nature at the Fingertips: Investigating Wild Food Foraging to Enable Nature Interactions of Urban Dwellers. Ambio 2022 , 51 , 1168–1178. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Shortly, A.; Kepe, T. Consuming the City: Challenges and Possibilities for Foraging in Toronto’s Parks. For. Trees Livelihoods 2021 , 30 , 75–89. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Zheng, Z.-W.; Chou, R.-J. The Impact and Future of Edible Landscapes on Sustainable Urban Development: A Systematic Review of the Literature. Urban For. Urban Green. 2023 , 84 , 127930. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• McLain, R.J.; Hurley, P.T.; Emery, M.R.; Poe, M.R. Gathering “Wild” Food in the City: Rethinking the Role of Foraging in Urban Ecosystem Planning and Management. Local Environ. 2014 , 19 , 220–240. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Fischer, L.K.; Kowarik, I. Connecting People to Biodiversity in Cities of Tomorrow: Is Urban Foraging a Powerful Tool? Ecol. Indic. 2020 , 112 , 106087. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Gaither, C.J.; Aragón, A.; Madden, M.; Alford, S.; Wynn, A.; Emery, M. “Black Folks Do Forage”: Examining Wild Food Gathering in Southeast Atlanta Communities. Urban For. Urban Green. 2020 , 56 , 126860. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Hall, C.M. Why Forage When You Don’t Have to? Personal and Cultural Meaning in Recreational Foraging: A New Zealand Study. J. Herit. Tour. 2013 , 8 , 224–233. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Khalilnezhad, S.M.R. Distinctive Features of Productive Landscapes in Persian Gardens. In Proceedings of the VI International Conference on Landscape and Urban Horticulture, Athens, Greece, 22 December 2017. [ Google Scholar ]
• Maghrebi, M.; Noori, R.; Bhattarai, R.; Mundher Yaseen, Z.; Tang, Q.; Al-Ansari, N.; Danandeh Mehr, A.; Karbassi, A.; Omidvar, J.; Farnoush, H.; et al. Iran’s Agriculture in the Anthropocene. Earth’s Future 2020 , 8 , e2020EF001547. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Amani-Beni, M.; Khalilnezhad, M.R.; Mahdizadeh, S. Hierarchical Access to the Edible Landscape: The Akbarieh Garden in Iran. Landsc. Res. 2022 , 47 , 333–353. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Gharipour, M. Persian Gardens and Pavilions: Reflections in History, Poetry and the Arts ; I.B. Tauris: London, UK; New York, NY, USA, 2013; ISBN 978-1-78076-121-3. [ Google Scholar ]
• Sobhani, S.R.; Arzhang, P.; Soltani, E.; Soltani, A. Proposed Diets for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security in Iran. Sustain. Prod. Consum. 2022 , 32 , 755–764. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Soltani, S.; Gu, N.; Ochoa, J.J.; Sivam, A. The Role of Spatial Configuration in Moderating the Relationship between Social Sustainability and Urban Density. Cities 2022 , 121 , 103519. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Khalili, S.; Fayaz, R.; Zolfaghari, S.A. Analyzing Outdoor Thermal Comfort Conditions in a University Campus in Hot-Arid Climate: A Case Study in Birjand, Iran. Urban Clim. 2022 , 43 , 101128. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• UNESCO. The Persian Garden. Available online: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1372/ (accessed on 27 November 2023).
• Abderezaei, A.; Bahramian, A. Gardens of Conflict: The Military Role of Islamic and Byzantine Gardens. Landsc. Res. 2023 , 49 , 327–339. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Farzin, S.; Khalilnezhad, S.M.R.; Moradzadeh Mirzaei, S.; Zarei, A. Investigation on Recognition of the Type of Multifunctional Landscape in Persian Garden (Case Study: Akbariyeh World Heritage Garden). MANZAR Sci. J. Landsc. 2020 , 12 , 6–17. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Khalilnezhad, M.R.; Russo, A.; Jannatifar, M.A. Forgotten Edible Heritage: The Case Study of the UNESCO Site of Akbarieh Garden in Iran. Arboric. J. 2022 , 44 , 234–247. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Patton, M.Q. Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods , 3rd ed.; Sage Publications: New York, NY, USA, 2002. [ Google Scholar ]
• Yin, R.K. Qualitative Research from Start to Finish , 2nd ed.; The Guilford Press: New York, NY, USA, 2016. [ Google Scholar ]
• Eldh, A.C.; Årestedt, L.; Berterö, C. Quotations in Qualitative Studies: Reflections on Constituents, Custom, and Purpose. Int. J. Qual. Methods 2020 , 19 , 160940692096926. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ]
• Wang, Q. The Cultural Foundation of Human Memory. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 2021 , 72 , 151–179. [ Google Scholar ] [ CrossRef ] [ PubMed ]

Click here to enlarge figure

Share and Cite

Colinas, J.; Ugolini, F.; Khalilnezhad, M.R. Public Food Trees’ Usage and Perception, and Their Potential for Participatory Edible Cities: A Case Study in Birjand, Iran. Sustainability 2024 , 16 , 8498. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16198498

Colinas J, Ugolini F, Khalilnezhad MR. Public Food Trees’ Usage and Perception, and Their Potential for Participatory Edible Cities: A Case Study in Birjand, Iran. Sustainability . 2024; 16(19):8498. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16198498

Colinas, Juliette, Francesca Ugolini, and Mohammad Reza Khalilnezhad. 2024. "Public Food Trees’ Usage and Perception, and Their Potential for Participatory Edible Cities: A Case Study in Birjand, Iran" Sustainability 16, no. 19: 8498. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16198498

Article Metrics

Article access statistics, supplementary material.

ZIP-Document (ZIP, 196 KiB)

Further Information

Mdpi initiatives, follow mdpi.

Subscribe to receive issue release notifications and newsletters from MDPI journals