Case Studies
Fireside
Purpose:
To write people’s biography as they live it so they can share it with their loved ones and future generations
Legacy: Personal Biography
Purpose:
To write people’s biography as they live it so they can share it with their loved ones and future generations
Problem Space:
A year after my mother passed away, I had learned quite a few stories about her from others that I really wish I had the chance to hear from her directly. I have also had some of the best and most meaningful conversations with friends and family over long coffee dates, dinners, and reunions where I learned from them through the telling of their life experiences. With as much as I travel and move around, I found it hard to maintain and deepen relationships in the same way because I didn’t have a chance to see people in person.
Solution Space:
By instigating online conversations that are deep and meaningful people can write their own memoirs while strengthening their relationships to the people they care about. To test our hypothesis of deepening a conversation, we did in person tests with our conversation prompts in non conducive settings or with people that didn’t know each other well. To test our hypothesis of online conversations, we built a tool through email where people could sign up themselves and another person or group. Everyone would get an email with a prompt to respond to in a form. We tested out a few variations where if someone responded, other members of the conversation may or may not be notified and we may or may not notify them who had yet to respond. Responses wouldn’t be sent out until everyone in the conversation had responded to that prompt and at that time a new prompt would be sent. The responses were sent to everyone in a group message so they could respond and comment from there.
Testing:
8, 30 min interviews
Learnings:
An email product puts a person in the frame of mind for completing a task not connecting with someone.
A conversation collapses when even a single person in a group fails to respond because all responses are held back
A form to submit answers is clunky
People varied greatly with their response times and number of reminders before responding and sometimes caused a perceived imbalance in the relationship
Knowing that others responded was more likely to get people to respond
The technical limitations of building an email only product were an issue (limited actions to trigger on, limited notification options, etc.)
Circles - Web App
Purpose:
To foster stronger relationships between people by instigating deeper conversations, primarily on desktop to not alienate older generations
Problem Space:
In our previous email product, the actual interface was clunky and the user flow was difficult to get through. People would either forget they had a question waiting (buried in their emails), get roadblocked because someone else wasn’t answering, or not answer because they didn’t like the question or didn’t know how to answer.
Solution Space:
Based on this information, we knew we needed to shift from email (associated with work/completion) to a digital space that felt more dedicated to connecting and thinking deeply. We were fairly confident that it would likely need to be a native app eventually but decided to start with a web app because it was a lower initial cost and shorter time to build but would still allow us to gather customer feedback. We decided to build as lightweight of a platform as we could with a simple login, ability to invite a person/people to a “circle” where they would be fed questions to spark conversations. We had gotten feedback that users liked that someone has to answer the question to see others’ answers so we kept that feature in the product and added the ability to comment on each other’s response (sparking more conversation). Finally we needed more effective notification for users to return
Testing:
a
Learnings:
Email and text notification doesn’t work
Different answering speeds kills circles
People see the questions as checklist not a conversation
People don’t want to login to a web app, especially younger users
The wrong question can kill the circle
Circles - Native App
Purpose:
To cater to younger generations and improve usability by allowing people to have deeper conversations on desktop or mobile app
Problem Space:
a
need an easy sign in process and more fluid UI
Solution Space:
a
Testing:
a
Learnings:
a
Conversational Structure
Purpose:
To allow for more flexibility and a deeper immersion into conversations about personal topics for better relationships.
Problem Space:
a
Solution Space:
a
Testing:
a
Learning:
a
Journey - Personal Development
Purpose:
To help users introspect about their personal preferences and challenges in their relationships.
Problem Space:
a
Solution Space:
a
Testing:
a
Learning:
a
AI Texting
Purpose:
To give users a confidant to talk through for all their dating and relationship challenges.
Problem Space:
a
Solution Space:
a
Testing:
a
Learnings:
a
Valet App
Purpose:
To provide a native app for valet staff to quickly check-in and manage valet parking.
Problem Space:
a
Solution Space:
a
Testing:
a
Learnings:
a
In-Lane Checkout
Purpose:
To simplify and accelerate customers entry, exit, and payment of parking.
Problem Space:
a
Solution Space:
a
Testing:
a
Learnings:
a
Validation Management
Purpose:
To give parking operators a way to manage and analyze validation usage between different departments.
Problem Space:
a
Solution Space:
a
Testing:
a
Learnings:
a
EV Charging
Purpose:
To give parking operators the ability to manage and analyze performance of EV chargers installed by 3rd parties in their garages.
Problem Space:
a
Solution Space:
a
Testing:
a
Learnings:
a
International Tolling
Purpose:
To give a Spanish speaking country the ability to automatically charge drivers toll payments to reduce wait times and lost revenue at tolls.
Problem Space:
a
Solution Space:
a
Testing:
a
Learnings:
a
Candidate Management
Purpose:
Problem Space:
a
Solution Space:
a
Testing:
a
Learnings:
a
Job Search
Purpose:
Problem Space:
a
Solution Space:
a
Testing:
a
Learnings:
a
Market Positioning
Purpose:
Problem Space:
a
Solution Space:
a
Testing:
a
Learnings:
a
Landing Page
Purpose:
Problem Space:
a
Solution Space:
a
Testing:
a
Learnings:
a
Alternative Onboarding
Purpose:
Problem Space:
a
Solution Space:
a
Testing:
a
Learnings:
a
Customer Portal
Purpose:
Problem Space:
a
Solution Space:
a
Testing:
a
Learnings:
a
Custom Membership
Purpose:
Problem Space:
a
Solution Space:
a
Testing:
a
Learnings:
a