For our competitive landscape diagram, Elina and I decided to do a SWOT Analysis. Since we want to create a website that hosts a list of resources available to students, we knew that our main strength is that we are students ourselves. This gives us a unique perspective in trying to solve our customers’ problems. Additionally, we plan to make this website completely free to use, giving us a competitive advantage. The fact that we would be the first-movers in this field will also give us a unique edge. Since this service takes place online, costs are kept relatively low. Lastly, we plan to collect resources from many different areas of expertise, not just one. This makes it incredibly easy for fellow students to find everything they are looking for all in one place.
For our weaknesses, we recognize that the website will need to be constantly updated and maintained. New resources become available for students every day, so it is our job to find them and combine them all in one place. Additionally, this requires a lot of human capital. It takes a lot of work to find these resources, understand them and guide others on how to take advantage of them. Rules are also constantly changing, so all of this means that we need to keep a very close eye on our website.
For future opportunities, we would love to partner with different academic and financial institutions. Since our service is completely free, we need a way to bring in money to cover costs. If we get donations from various banks and universities, we get to cover costs, and they get to tap into a new customer segment. Many of these institutions do not do a great job of catering to the every-day college student.
Finally, there are some competitors in this field that we can consider threats. The college’s Student Affairs center is our top competitor since it is their job to make students’ lives easier. Also, academic advisors act as a source of information for students. Students are encouraged to forward any and every question to their advisor, meaning that advisors need to have knowledge of different student resources. Lastly, since we want to include mental health resources, as well as financial resources, on our websites, different mental health companies and banks can pose a threat to us. However, if we partner with all of the above competitors, we can eliminate them as a threat.
You said for future opportunities you would like to partner with academic and financial institutions. Do you have anyone in particular that you have in mind?
Also your work on the SWOT analysis is very concise and well done. I liked it, the only thing I would have loved to see some specific datas or examples of some of the general statements that were there like : “we plan to collect resources from many different areas of expertise, not just one” –> How do you plan to do this? What kind of areas of expertise that one can look forward to with your platform?
Lastly, from what I understand you said the website would be free to use: so what are some of your revenue streams? (I’m sure we will find more about that as we go forward but something to ponder).
Overall really good job like always Karin. Look forward to seeing how you make it even better going forward. Keep up the good work.
Best,
Tausif Razeen.
This is excellent! You just switched ideas 2 weeks ago and you have caught up very nicely.