Customer Interviews: In total, we have conducted 15 customer interviews. We additionally, have updated our survey with the help of Professor Rasmussen who advised us to make it more open-ended so we will get optimal feedback. We are going to send the survey out to email lists that Professor Rasmussen said he will provide us with because after posting the original survey in Berkeley's Facebook pages, we realize that students are not the best indicators of who will buy this product. The product is more for families and older individuals with a steady income.
What did you learn?
This week in class, we explored some "silly patents" that Professor Levian showed us, such as a dog dust cover. We learned that not all patents are as useful and relevant (compared to the ones the groups in our class have chosen to look at) as others. We also saw how patent law comes into play when competitors try to slightly change a part of a device, product, or idea, in order to avoid violating intellectual property restrictions.
Issues and Insights
For our patent, we learned that we'd have to narrow down our business model canvas and look deeper into pricing for our device and subscription model. In order to exactly price the product, we'll have to consider COGS and any additional expenses that our middle man, which consists of phone companies, will incur. We are additionally thinking of developing a "family plan" as well to reach more customers and provide an incentive for more people to try the application.
Plan for the next 2 weeks? Originally we were creating and B2C business and directly targeting the consumer. However, after giving it a lot of thought we have decided that the best way to market this business would be to make it a B2B2C company. In doing so we now need to figure out how much a provider like Comcast or AT&T would charge us to be part of their service. Additionally, we have many other costs to figure out. We need to see how much materials will cost and what it will cost to manufacture our product. This will help us figure out how much we can sell our product for. Additionally, we need to see how much it will be to be tied to the emergency network software.
Our updated value proposition canvas is here.
Our business development canvas is here.
Subscription model and collaboration with carriers as family plan are nice business models for your product, and switching from B2C to B2B2C based on customer surveys is a great step. Maybe you want to further consider how to market this service through telecommunication carriers and attract users to pay more prices for their family plan.
ReplyDeleteHi! Figuring out specific costs is challenging, but seems necessary at this stage of the planning. It seems that you're having some issues getting to your potential market with the interviews. Our team shared the survey in Facebook, and, after some persons shared it, we started to get more responses from older individuals. It seems that your business canvas is already completed. It is really detailed. My team still needs to figure some parts of the canvas. Good luck getting additional information!
ReplyDeleteWow! Sharing the survey to Facebook was a great idea to get more people to take it. We will give that a go!
DeleteI agree with Nick!
DeleteHi! I like how you have narrowed down your customer group. I agree with you that students are not the best customers even though they might be the most easily contacted. The customer group you have selected - families with steady income seem like a good fit and the idea on having family plans sounds interesting too.
ReplyDeleteI really like your business business canvas! Figuring out the costs is a tough step, but it may help to interview key players in that area such as phone companies to get a little more clarity there. As for customer interviews, it was really helpful for my group to send out google survey forms out to people and ask friends to share on Facebook!
ReplyDeleteI am glad that your are switching this to a B2B2C model - I believe that will be very beneficial in the long run. Definitely meet with manufacturers to assess cost! Also, I like the family plan idea - it seems very attractive and safety and family are definitely great points to market towards.
ReplyDeleteHello there! I am glad that you were able to gain more insight through customer interviews and eventually narrow down your focus. I know that you are currently in the process of figuring out the COGS and other cost analysis. That being said, I think it is best to get in touch with industry experts to get the industry-specific data set. Although it is hard to get a hold of them, connecting with them will definitely help you sketch out a more realistic financial analysis and provide insights that you didn't consider previously. Good luck moving forward with the financial component of your project and I look forward to reading your future posts!
ReplyDeleteSeems like you're all on top of everything. Really like your value proposition and how you broke it down for customers and businesses.
ReplyDeleteI am happy to contribute to your customer interview. It seems like you are on top of everything. I really like how you are switching to a B2B2C model, we have something similar too.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the comments in here too. I really like Jae Seong Yoo suggestion referring to getting in touch with industry experts to get the industry-specific data set for the COGS.
Smart move switching to B2B2C. It is difficult getting into contact with enterprise customers but perhaps try reaching out via LinkedIn to "regular" employees rather than managers or exec and see if you get more responses then.
ReplyDeleteMy group had the same problem, since we are all college students, it is easiest to interview other college students. It was smart to shift your attention toward families. I completely agree with your decision to switch to B2B2C and I think that AT&T or comcast would be excellent partners. Is there any way for you to contact a representative from one of these companies?
ReplyDeleteI just filled out your customer interview. Good job making it so accessible, since your product is definitely something that could be used by most of the public. I think that $2/month is a little expensive since most of these things would be found out for free (weather.com app or social media), or there is already an alert for them in the iPhone.
ReplyDeleteOnce you determine the cost of making your product, you can begin A/B testing price models with different consumers and decide if a higher price is accepted by customers and stick to what will give you the best balance of user number and price to maximize profit
ReplyDeleteSounds like your customer interviews are going well. It's good that you have a survey set up as well, as your product sounds like it can be used by the more general consumer base. It's interesting hearing about how you pivoted from a B2C to a B2B2C as well.
ReplyDeleteHi! Glad to hear your customer interviews are doing well. Your value proposition canvas is very interesting and I am interested to see if and how it might change as you develop your product further!
ReplyDelete