Video link: https://www.loom.com/share/aa1b629ecce44523b57f6fa4979730b1
MVP and Ads
Here is the link to my MVP: Productivity Studio
My platform of choice is Facebook.
Here is my ad design:
Key Takeaways
From this assignment, I learned that people do not need to be rewarded for motivation. My idea is to create an app that helps users procrastinate less and become more productive. Initially, I thought rewarding users with coupons would help them procrastinate less, but after doing research on my primary and secondary competitors, I realized that coupons are a weak incentive to motivate someone. Not only that, but rewards are also not needed for motivation when it comes to productivity. For instance, there are website blockers that help users block out distracting websites to help them stay focused on their work. There is no reward in blocking out these distracting websites, yet it helps users stay focused and become more productive because they are forced to do so.
I also learned that people can become motivated by external factors and that it is not limited to personal gain. For my initial idea of rewarding coupons to users, it was more geared towards personal gain where I believed they would become more motivated if I rewarded them with coupons because it is something that they can use for themselves personally. But after doing research on my primary competitor the Forest app, I realized that a lot of people are motivated by external factors, such as helping the environment. There are probably people out there that can be motivated by personal gain, but there are also a lot of people that are motivated by doing something for the greater good.
Competitive Landscape
For this petal diagram, I compared my app to other productivity apps that are out in the market. There are a lot of categories for productivity apps that help you procrastinate less, such as game focused, website blocker, music based, prioritization, and motivational/inspirational. The game focused category are apps that help you become more productive with the approach of making users feel as if they’re playing a game; they don’t make them feel as if they are forced to become more productive because it feels like a game. Website Blockers are extensions that help users block out distracting websites to help them stay focused on their work. As for the music based category, they are apps that help you focus better on your work with music that is curated specifically to help you actually focus better compared to regular music; they use technology to put users in a mentally productive state. For the prioritization category, these are apps that help users prioritize their tasks in order so that users can tackle each task with ease without worrying about where to start. As for the motivational/inspirational category, these are apps where it intrinsically motivates users to be more productive, such as providing daily inspirational quotes to spark their motivation.
Interview Reflection
Factual part:
The competitor I spoke to was the community manager of Momentum, and I asked them 5 questions.
- Have you ever dealt with severe customer complaints about your app? If you did, how did you handle it? Did it cause you and your team to make significant changes to your app?
He said of course they have and that complaints are inevitable; although that may be the case, he enjoys hearing about them because it is a way for them to learn and improve on their Google extension. They talked about how they changed their Metric feature because of how their users did not like Momentum’s initial way of displaying numbers after the decimal point. In the end, Momentum took their feedback into consideration and made a changes for them to round their numbers if needed. Attached is a before and after they made changes according to customer feedback.
Before:
After:
- What does your most frequent user look like? Does it actually match your target audience, or does it go out of range?
Their target audience is anyone who has a computer; they do not have a specific age range or anything, just anyone who owns a computer and people who want to be productive. - How were you able to effectively market your app? How did you make them feel compelled to download your app and keep them as your loyal customers?
They have only done a slight amount of marketing, nothing too major. They said that the most important thing they have done was creating a good product which helps to bring in customers. Not only that, but because their extension is free to install, it makes them super shareable among others. They are often featured in ‘Top X browser extensions’ articles which helps to spread their name. Lastly, they said that they announce new features and updates on their social media, which lets users know they’re still working on Momentum. - What was the first failure you experienced from creating this app? How did you learn from that experience?
The first failure they experienced was trying to get approved as a Google Chrome extension. They started off as a personal project with low expectations, and it was not something they wanted to create for users, but more so for the founder himself, which was creating a space for focus reminders. But, they were able to overcome the Google Chrome extension problem by learning more about the approval process for Google Chrome and making changes accordingly to get approved as an extension. Overall, they define failure as making the same mistake twice; they view mistakes as a good thing, since it provides them as an opportunity to learn and grow. - How do you know your most frequent users love the app? Do they personally email you compliments or leave reviews? Do they refer friends?
They know their most frequent users love the app because they get encouraging emails and reviews very often from their users. In those messages, they often hear that their users share Momentum with their friends, family, and coworkers.
Reflective part:
After reading through Momentum’s responses to my questions, I realized that mistakes are an inevitable part of the road when it comes to starting up any business. As much as I want to start up a business, my concerns about failure keep popping up in my head, which prevents me from starting anything. But after reading through Momentum’s responses, I realized that failure can be viewed in a positive light too; failure exists so that you can learn from it and use that experience to your advantage for the future.
Next-steps part:
After reading through this interview, I still think that my idea of creating an app to help people procrastinate less is still a good idea. It will be a difficult road to get this app on either the App Store or Google Play, but even so, procrastination is still a huge problem among students to this day; there is no ‘one shoe fits all’ solution when it comes to procrastination, so I think that even though there are already a lot of productivity apps out there, it does not hurt to add another app onto the market because one app may work better than another for certain users. Everyone is different, so one app may work better for one user, but not the best for another user. I hope to create an app for those users that have yet to find a solution to their problem of procrastination.
My current idea of offering coupons as an incentive for users to be more productive is not the best approach, but for sure I will still tackle the same problem but with a different approach. Just like how the Forest app helps their users become more productive by planting real trees, I want to create an app that helps not only the users, but also for the better good as well.
Competitor Interview Questions
Competitor: Momentum
My competitor Momentum is a desktop extension for Chrome that helps their users to be more productive. When users open a new tab on Chrome, it won’t be just any new tab, but it will be replaced with their own personal dashboard, which includes a to-do list, weather, and inspiration. The purpose of this new tab is to help the user become motivated to be more productive throughout the day. This helps user become less distracted, since when people open a new tab, that is when they want to distract themselves from doing work and finding something else to do. But, by having a personalized dashboard replacing the new tab, it reminds the user to stay focused and be more productive throughout the day.
My main competitor is the Forest app, but they did not get back to my email, so these questions are directed towards Momentum:
- Have you ever dealt with severe customer complaints about your app? If you did, how did you handle it? Did it cause you and your team to make significant changes to your app?
By asking this question, I hope to learn more about how they deal with customer complaints and how I can use this knowledge towards my future venture. Many unexpected customer complaints can arise over time, and by learning more about how they handled complaints can help me prepare for that when the time comes. - What does your most frequent user look like? Does it actually match your target audience, or does it go out of range?
The reason why I asked this question is because I want to know if their target audience is actually their main users. We may have a target audience in mind for our venture, but we never know if we may end up targeting a few people that are outside of our target audience instead. - How were you able to effectively market your app? How did you make them feel compelled to download your app and keep them as your loyal customers?
The reason why I ask this question is because I want to know how they were able to market their app effectively and have their users stay loyal with them. It’s easy to say how you plan on marketing for your future venture, but execution may not go as well as you planned it, so I hope to learn how they were able to market their app effectively, and being able to keep their users as their loyal customers. - What was the first failure you experienced from creating this app? How did you learn from that experience?
From this question, I hope to learn more about how they dealt with failure when they first launched their app. We may think that we will not face as many problems after testing prototype after prototype, but there will always be unexpected problems that arise even after official launch of your product. It is a frightening experience dealing with failure especially when you just launched your product, so I want to know how they dealt with failure and were able to make their app successful to this day. - How do you know your most frequent users love this app? Do they personally email you compliments or leave reviews? Do they refer friends?
The reason why I ask this question is because I want to learn more about how they get feedback from their users. I mainly see people leave reviews for apps, but I also want to know if they get personal emails from their users to show how much they enjoy their app. I also want to know if they have ways to see if their users indirectly show how much they enjoy their app, such as referring their friends to download the app as well.
Competitive Analysis Reflection
After researching more about my competitor the Forest app, I realized my app is lacking a strong incentive. Initially, I thought that if I were to just offer coupons for every hour our users lower their screen time, they would be motivated enough to work harder and procrastinate less. But after doing a competitive analysis on the Forest app, I realized that not everyone will be motivated just by offering coupons. Some people look at the bigger picture; for instance, the Forest app creates an incentive for their customers to be more productive by planting virtual trees. Each tree planted represents the amount of effort you put into being productive, so it makes the user want to work hard and see how their tree grows over time. Not only that, but users can earn coins that can be used toward growing real trees in real life as well. When users know that they can help the environment by being productive, they will definitely be willing to put in that effort, because they feel as if they can help the earth by investing time into this app. Whereas for my app, it is only for personal gain and does not help the environment or any other aspect at all. The Forest app kills two birds with one stone, which is something I want to achieve with my app. I am probably still going to make an app that creates an incentive for people to be more productive, but possibly with a similar approach to the Forest app, where their incentive is for the greater good, not just for personal gain.
Lean Canvas
(Note: If picture is too small, open the picture in a new tab and it should be visually better; PDF is also attached below if needed)
PDF: Wendy’s Lean Canvas
Problem:
To this day, many college students tend to procrastinate even when the deadlines are coming close, the reason being that it is hard to actually motivate students to stop procrastinating instead of doing work early. As much as they all want to be more productive and get more work done, it is difficult when there are so many deadlines ahead of them, which can be quite overwhelming. Because of how overwhelming it can get, a lot of them depend on procrastination to get deadlines off their minds. They all treasure their free time, which they don’t have much of because of the workload they get from classes.
Solution:
The solution I came up with is to create an incentive for students to procrastinate less by rewarding them with coupons. Initially I thought about deducting money from their bank account to get users feel forced to do work, but I think it is important to use positive motivation instead of negative. Not everyone is committed to lose money like that, which is why I think it is the most logical to reward users with coupons instead. I don’t want users to feel forced to do assignments, but rather I want them to do it so that they can be rewarded for their hard work and productivity. Punishing users by deducting money can be triggering for certain people, which is why I want to avoid the idea of negative motivation.
Unique Value Proposition:
We are different from the many apps out there because we actually reward users for being productive, whereas other apps either only assist users to help them finally get started on their assignments or they just block out websites to prevent users from procrastinating. Users may succeed in being more productive from these existing apps, but the real question is, will these apps be productive in the long run? Will these users stay productive in the long run if there is no actual reward in it for them? Results may differ per user, but I believe that people want to be rewarded for their hard work, so it is crucial for us to reward users for their productivity.
Unfair Advantage:
Our unfair advantage would be that it is hard for other apps to try to copy our app because major companies such as H&M, Zara, and others can’t afford to lose too much profit by offering too many coupons to these other apps that are trying to copy our idea. These companies can only offer to a certain extent where they won’t lose a significant amount of profit, which is why it might be difficult for other apps to copy our idea.
Customer Segments:
This phone app is mainly targeted to Baruch college students around the ages of 18-24 because it is mainly college students that deal with procrastination. College students always have a lot of deadlines ahead of them and that causes a lot of stress, which makes them want to procrastinate so that they don’t have to face reality at the moment. Adults with jobs do not really face the problem of procrastination because at work, they have priorities that have to be done on the spot and can’t be left for later. Whereas for students, they are assigned a due date in the near future, which makes us feel that we can always leave the assignment for later.
Existing Alternatives:
There are only two alternatives at the moment, one of them being students trying to use their brain power to stop procrastinating, and the other one being that they use apps that help them become more productive. The first alternative is not that helpful unfortunately, as there are many students that struggle with procrastinating to this very day. There are also apps that try to help students be more productive, such as apps that block out addictive websites or apps that help students to finally get started on their assignments, since getting started is definitely the hardest part of trying to be productive.
Key Metrics:
The key activity that we measure is the student’s daily screen time on their phone. It is quite unexpected, but we spend more time on our phones than we think we actually do. When students go on their phone for a “quick break,” they think they take around five minutes, but time flies quicker than we think it does. Before they know it, they have been on their phone for over an hour or so. Phone apps like Instagram and Twitter can be quite addicting to be on, which is why time flies by quicker than usual. Because of this, it is crucial that our app tracks our user’s screen time, with hopes that they can slowly lower their screen time over time.
High-Level Concept:
The reason why I say my app is a better version of the Forest app is because this app gives you actual rewards, such as coupons that can be used to spend on shops. The Forest app only shows your achievements based on how productive you are, but it does not give you a reward that you can use in real life. You may feel accomplished looking at how productive you have been, but I think it would be better if users actually got a reward from their hard work.
Channels:
I plan on having this app reach our users by emailing students through their Baruch email, since our customer segment is strictly Baruch college students. By emailing students about this new phone app that motivates students to be more productive, students that tend to procrastinate often may feel interested about learning more about this app, since they feel that they are often not productive enough. If the email about our app really does intrigue them, they will most likely download our app to give it a try.
Early Adopters:
Ideally, I want my early adopters to be determined and/or goal-oriented. It is crucial for them to have either of these traits, because if they are not determined to get any work done, they will not be attracted to this app. If they are not goal-oriented either, they will probably lack motivation to do any work to begin with, as they probably do not have any goals in mind. If they are both determined and goal-oriented that struggles with procrastination, they will most likely be interested in trying this app, since they have a goal to procrastinate less and be more productive.
Assumptions:
- Students are willing to not use their phone as often to decrease procrastination levels.
- Rewarding coupons will make students motivated to procrastinate less and be more productive.
- Students want to get their work done ahead of time, not right before the deadline.
Problem-Solution Idea
As an undergraduate student, I always deal with the same problem every semester that may seem minor, but it has been a major problem of mine for the past four years of my college experiences. I’m sure a lot of people deal with this, but I tend to procrastinate a lot. Even with important assignments coming up, I can’t help but procrastinate because it is a way to cope with reality in a sense. It is not the best way to cope and I know I should not be procrastinating because I have school work to worry about, but it is very difficult to get myself out of it. I am the type that does not get motivated easily, so I need some sort of trigger to get myself motivated.
The solution I came up with is to create a phone app that incentivizes you to procrastinate less by rewarding you with coupons. This app will track how often you procrastinate by checking your phone’s daily screen time, and with every hour that you are able to decrease your screen time, this app will reward you with a coupon. These coupons can range from $5 credit, or coupons to stores such as H&M, Zara, and others. For example, if my phone screen time is normally nine hours a day, and I am able to lower it down to eight hours over time, this app will reward me with a coupon of your choice. As mentioned, you can choose a $5 credit that you can use on anything, or it can be a coupon for a specific store of the choices you will be given on the app.
Personally, I think this is a problem that is very worth solving because college itself is already so time consuming; time management is a very important skill to have as a college student and unfortunately not a lot of us are good at it. Especially for students with part time of full time jobs, it is very difficult trying to manage both school and work simultaneously. Back when I had a job during pre-covid times, I would always struggle to balance work and school; whenever I came back home from work, I would be too tired to physically or mentally function, and because of that I would procrastinate so much more than I normally would compared to a regular school day. Hopefully with this phone app, I will be able to solve this problem of procrastination.
Tiktok blog post
Unexpectedly, Tiktok became the most profitable app in 2020. It just blew up out of nowhere, and it became even bigger during the beginning of quarantine. I think one of the reasons why it became so big is because it solved our problem of boredom. When quarantine began, many of us thought we would be okay, but over time we became very bored. Before we knew it, we would just go straight to Tiktok whenever we had nothing to do. Not only is it quick, but time efficient as well; instead of going on Youtube to search for a tutorial, people could just go on Tiktok and watch a 30 second to a minute tutorial to quickly find out how to make something. For funding, I believe they had investors invest in their app, and also from in-app purchases of coins from their users. Their users are mainly of Gen Z; people ranging from ages 16-24 or even older use Tiktok, which is quite a large range. According to BBC, Tiktok did not originate from its current idea, but it originated with the apps Musical.ly and Douyin; the creator of Douyin believed it would be a good idea to combine the apps together to create what is now called Tiktok. I could not find any old pitch decks of Tiktok, but I did find a slide of their recent pitch deck on Google, shown below.
Sources:
- https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-53640724
- https://www.chinabrands.com/dropshipping/article-tik-tok-business-model-16615.html
- https://www.investopedia.com/what-is-tiktok-4588933
- https://news.crunchbase.com/news/as-companies-battle-for-tiktok-a-look-back-at-its-funding-history/#:~:text=The%20company%20has%20raised%20at,China%2C%20SoftBank%20and%20General%20Atlantic.
- https://digiday.com/marketing/pitch-deck-what-tiktok-is-offering-european-advertisers/
(Note about this link: Could not access full article on Digiday website, so I was only able to get this pitch deck slide from Digiday off of Google.)