Your Club, Your Product Types
Curling clubs sell much more than leagues and bonspiels. They run clinics, rent ice, assign lockers, host junior camps, sell banquet tables, and collect donations.
Today, each of those offerings has to fit one of Curling IO's predefined types. That works, but sometimes only because a club picks the closest available bucket. One active junior summer camp is stored as a Product, with its August dates written into the name. A full-sheet ice rental is stored as a Program because it needs a date, capacity, and a waitlist. A donation is stored as a Fee.
In Curling IO v3, the organization decides which product types it needs. A club can create Camps, Clinics, Ice Rentals, Locker Rentals, Fundraising, or any other category that fits its operation, then choose what each type can do.
Start with what your club calls it
Suppose the club tells us:
We run learn-to-curl clinics and junior camps. We also rent practice ice, sell lockers, and hold a fundraising dinner. Those shouldn't all be mixed into Programs or Products.
In v3, they don't have to be. The club can create a product type for each part of the operation, put them in the order staff expects, and turn off types it doesn't use.
New organizations still get familiar starting types such as Leagues, Bonspiels, Programs, Products, and Fees. They aren't a permanent menu chosen by Curling IO. An administrator can rename them, reorder them, disable them, or create another type.
These categories already exist in the real world
We looked at active offerings in Curling IO rather than inventing examples for this post. Here are a few of the things clubs and associations are selling now:
| Current offering | Where it fits in v2 | A natural v3 product type |
|---|---|---|
| Junior summer camp in August | Product, with the dates in its name | Camps |
| Two-hour full-sheet ice rental | Program, with four available spots and a waitlist | Ice Rentals |
| Evening tune-up clinic | Program, with a date, 20 spots, and a waitlist | Clinics |
| Half-size locker for the season | Product assigned to a participant | Locker Rentals |
| Table for eight at a fundraising dinner | Product | Fundraising |
| Additional $100 donation | Fee | Donations |
The current choices aren't mistakes. They show the limitation of a fixed set of types. Clubs are already using Curling IO for this work, but the product structure doesn't always speak their language.
A type controls more than its label
A product type decides which tools are available for products of that type.
If a club creates a Clinics type, it might enable purchasing, participant registration, dates, capacity, waitlists, and product managers. Each clinic can then have a price, registration form, opening and closing dates, participant limit, and assigned staff.
An Ice Rentals type might need purchasing, dates, and inventory, but no participant registration. A Donations type might need purchasing and accounting without dates, teams, or a waitlist.
The result also carries through the rest of Curling IO. Enabled product types appear in the Products section in the order the organization chooses. Each type can have its own bilingual name and summary, accounting code, and public listing address.
What can a product type do?
Curling IO v3 currently provides six capabilities:
- Purchasable: pricing, taxes, discounts, add-ons, late fees, and accounting.
- Registerable: participant registration, custom questions, eligibility rules, and registration records.
- Dates: start and end dates, plus registration opening and closing dates.
- Inventory: capacity or stock limits and optional waitlists.
- Event: teams, schedules, stages, and results.
- Managers: staff access scoped to individual products.
Capabilities are supported behaviour built into Curling IO. Creating a product type doesn't create arbitrary new software. It lets an organization combine the behaviours Curling IO supports under a category that makes sense to its staff and customers.
Familiar defaults, without the fixed boxes
Most clubs can keep using Leagues, Bonspiels, Programs, Products, and Fees. Nothing requires an administrator to design a taxonomy before opening registration.
But the club running camps can create Camps. The association running coaching courses can create Courses. The facility selling practice ice can create Ice Rentals. Their admin navigation, public listings, and product setup can match the operation people already understand.
Custom product types are coming in Curling IO v3.