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Week 17. It's the final week, and this is also my final blog post. The Final Pitching Experience is the most awaited day. We were feeling the pressure as we finished off all of the preparations for the final presentation, knowing that we were running out of time. Even though we struggled during the preparation, I am happy that we were able to surpass all of our plans. It was the 15th of January in the year 2022. Finally, we were able to present our Pitch Deck as well as our Prototype Demonstration. It was a success, and all of us, the 3R3, put up our best effort. As the designer, I am confident in my ability since I put all of my energy and creative ideas into the project throughout the preparation phase. I am glad to have groupmates who are always willing to lend a hand.

I admit that the entire process was really difficult, but I recognize the positive impact it's had on my entire semester. As a result of the many experiences we had, we have learned to value and appreciate the differences of our viewpoints and perspectives.  We learned about our strengths and weaknesses, made some new friends, and heard a variety of stories from a variety of people.

Week 16: The Week of Preparation When it comes to designing and completing the materials that we will be using on our Pitch deck, I would say I've gained a lot of knowledge this week. Our teacher informed us that we would be attending in consultation and that we would be required to provide some mock-ups of our PowerPoint presentation as well as a prototype demonstration. Teamwork is the most important factor to consider because it is difficult to complete all of the tasks without teamwork. Regarding this, our team is looking forward to the completion of this chapter of our journey. In our free time, we do research and hold multiple meetings; our group chat is highly busy, and our social media platforms are also very active in connecting with our potential customers. We also advertise our App on a continuous basis.

Until the consolation happened, I am satisfied with the consultation process since the team is complete and we are able to consult effectively and efficiently. As the day passes, I firmly believe we will complete all of the tasks by the end of this week, and I am constantly manifesting positivity.

That's all for now; see you in the last blog post.

Week 15. It is different from previous weeks since our instructor did not do a consultation with us this week. She instructed us to proceed with our task. As a result, our team decided to polish the prototype and begin drafting our upcoming pitching presentation. On the other hand, a pitching or pitch deck, also known as a slide deck or start-up deck, is a presentation that gives a short yet useful summary of the company's products and services. This would be very difficult work for us, especially during the preparation phase of the project.

Aside from completing other tasks, we concentrated our efforts on developing a plan for achieving our objectives at the final presentation. I was asked to design and edit the PowerPoint presentation. Every now and then, I have a mental block because I don't know what to write down. In fact, I am not confident enough in my editing skills to proceed.

Week 14: We're back on track! The team chose to focus their time this week on our prototype. Because I am the group's graphic designer, I will be the one who will make changes to the appearance of our app. Because this is a collaborative project, I encouraged my teammates to contribute to the content and so on. In order to get the desired result, we undertook thorough research and held several meetings in preparation for the huge work ahead of us. We all agreed that we would stick to the color scheme that we had used since day one and that we wanted to create a user-friendly Ukay App since people between the ages of 30 and 50 were interested in using it.

As an editor, I am quite receptive to comments and modifications. As a result, I urge my teammates to be more open since I value their cooperation. Because of our collaborative efforts, editing the prototype is not nearly as difficult as I had anticipated.

We presented our work to our instructor at the end of the week, and we were pleased to receive some compliments as well as some ideas that would be really beneficial to our project.

Week 13. Still in the progress of improving the page and the promotions. I'm feeling a little pressure because I'm the one in charge of creating all of the posters that will be used to promote our app but luckily I have a team that is supportive and helpful. In connection with this, I need to complete putting the finishing touches on our prototype for the upcoming presentation. I was able to begin working on my project, but it has not yet been completed.

During the live lecture on Monday, we gained a lot of knowledge, and we were assured that we would put all of the knowledge to use. Until Wednesday morning, I had only heard of Typhoon Odette on the news. Because I live with my family in a flood-prone area, I was unsure whether or not I would be able to complete the editing of the prototype on that given day. Until Tuesday arrived and the typhoon made landfall in Mindanao. We were affected, and the water level in our area was higher than a person standing at 6 feet. There is no electricity, no internet connection, and etc. That was the main reason why I was unable to complete the task assigned to me.  Now that I'm in trauma but I'm doing everything I can to stay motivated and continue working on the prototype.

Week 12. This week, we'll be evaluating the progress of our website, page which was released during the previous week. Surprisingly, we manage to acquire a large number of page likes and follows in a very short period of time. It was quite successful for us to promote it on a consistent basis and introduce it to our friends. We also need support from a local influencer in order for our page to get attention.

Creating the final logo and updating our Traction, which serves as a track of all of our learnings during the duration of our start-up. It was all covered in the work for the 12th day of the week. We took advantage of the chance to interact with our target customers by creating a page for them. We distributed a survey to them, and they responded. It was beneficial in evaluating our idea because one of our objectives is to reach out to our target clients. Additionally, we had several meetings with the team about the need of checking in on our page and the development process of this start-up on a regular basis so that we can also update our traction and other things that need to be updated.

Week11. As the day goes by I'm excited to reach our goals. For this week, we are encouraged to interview more of our target customers, this task is entitled Discovery Interview.  The Discovery Interview is a technique for us to learn more about our target clients, as well as their personal opinions about our startup, by identifying their thoughts and experiences related to our project.

For the past weeks, we focused on building up our idea from our understanding but now, we will base to our interviewee what decisions we will take.

We evaluated both valid and invalid statements from their points of view while building our hypothesis. We also gathered valuable information regarding their personal experiences, such as thrifting or purchasing items through online platforms or websites. Many of the target consumers we talked with had prior experience buying or selling on different social media platforms. They found our idea interesting since it is exclusively for Thrifted items only.

We recently discovered the most unique feature when evaluating their statements, which we would definitely use in our idea. Some of our clients have requested that we include functionality that is not available on other platforms. This concept was inspired by Google's lens. If a buyer wants to look for or purchase an item but is unsure of the name to use. They'll simply take a picture of the item, and our platform will automatically suggest items that are similar to the one they're looking for.

Week10. 

It's good to be back. After our midterm, I took a long break, which I feel enabled me to take a step back and prepare for the next phase of our project's development.

Last time during week 7, we survived one of the most challenging tasks, the pitch deck. Now for the continuation of our journey, we are assigned to make a Business Model Canvas where we need to identify our key partners, key activities, value propositions, customer relationships, customer segments, key resources, channels, cost structure, and revenue streams.

I was assigned to make the customer relationship, revenue streams, and key resources. Being unfamiliar with any of those terms at first made it difficult to understand. I did a lot of research and also I read the ppt given by our instructor. The hardest part that I encountered while making was identifying our revenue streams because I need to validate first what revenue type should we use. At the end of the day, I was able to provide answers and I also learned a lot while doing the Business Model Canvas.

Week 7.  It was the most challenging week so far. Our objective is to prepare for the midterm's major and final activity, which is to create a pitch deck. Aside with the pitching preparation, it was also exam week, which led to the exhaustion. Because we need to research it, we had a sleepless night. We have no idea how to pitch, so it's a little difficult.

We began our preparation by reviewing the week 7 lecture, Pitching and Storytelling. That lecture taught us a lot. The concept, the plan, and so forth.

I was given the task of designing the ppt and revenue model. Because computing is so crucial, I started scratching. For me to have a basis, I conducted a lot of study. In addition, my team and I collaborate. Because we are not sure in our ability to present our work, we made several changes for that presentation.

Week 6. We are still collaborating with the team and preparing for the major task ahead of us. In preparation for this week's task, we must prepare the Customer and Market Validation. It's not easy as a first step because this is the time we need to determine our target market, who will be covered, and how large the market will be. 

 After deciding on the type of customer segment that we would be using, which was the Niche Market because it was mentioned during the lecture that the Niche Market focuses on both sellers and buyers, we proceeded to create Customer Validation and Market Validation. Ukay App is in dealing with both the Seller and the Buyer. Our platform is an online platform that is only open to Ukay vendors and their customers. One of our objectives, similar to those of shopee and Lazada, is to act as a relationship between online sellers and their customers. We believe that the Ukay App will be beneficial to those Ukay vendors in the near future. 

In the process of developing Customer and Market Validation, we discovered how we validate our customers' responses to surveys. First and foremost, we must identify our early adopters, those individuals who are willing to test our product before it is made available to the users. It also serves as a means of getting ready for the upcoming launch.

As part of our market size, we worked on our TAM SAM SOM.

Week 5. During this week, we concentrated on developing the Value Proposition, which is a method for visualizing, designing, and testing how we provide value for our customers. We developed it based on the information that we gathered and analyzed.

We saw the value proposition canvas as consisting of two distinct components. When looking at this image, you can see that square one represents the design/features that we will be aiming for when developing the ukay application. And circle one contains specific information on the job of the customers, their difficulties in engaging ukay, and the solution or value that the customers will derive from engaging ukay.

This work is difficult to conceptualize, but we end up simplifying it and making it sabotable.

Week 4. This week is challenging but definitely worth it. As I mentioned in my previous blog, we held a series of meetings before concluding that the information gathered during our interview was incomplete. We need to reach out to more people and collect more information. As a result, we move on to the user interview. We discovered that not all sellers and buyers are potential users of our app, we gained a lot of knowledge during the interview process.  Some of them are willing, but others have doubts. Also, there is a specific age bracket for our target users. However, we believe that we will be able to persuade them and speak with them about the entire concept in the future. That is why we listened attentively to the lecture on how to communicate effectively with users.

The following are the processes that we followed. First and foremost, we began our discussion by asking them about their lives. Second, we discuss specifics and simply listen to them while taking notes to gather as much information as possible. During the lecture, we also made use of the guide questions. We didn't ask them many questions, we just had a normal conversation with them.

Another thing we did this week was to put our ideas through their paces. The first step that we took was to develop a value hypothesis, which was followed by the development of the Test Card and Learning Card. The VH and TCLC were presented to our classmates and instructor during the class.  From that class, we gather some helpful information and advice.

For Week 3. We've been looking forward to taking the next step.  We held a series of meetings in order to guarantee that we did not miss any of the tasks that had been given to us. Additionally, we conducted interviews to gather data and receive some feedback that we could use to better our ideas in the near future.

Meetings twice to thrice a week are quite beneficial. During the third week, we addressed our own strengths in relation to the role we should take. We have decided to allocate different roles to different people, but we will continue to collaborate. Our team consists of five members: the manager, a designer, a developer, an assistant developer, and a tester, among others. However, we are still assisting one another, so this is not the end of our roles.

So far, I'm enjoying working with the people on my team. I appreciate how well we communicate and collaborate as a group. I believe that one of the most important factors in completing a great project is being surrounded by positive people, and sure, my teammates are striving for success.

The initial stage in our start-up was to form a group of four persons. We had a group before, but it was only three people. We decided to find someone who knows how to program because we are not programming experts. Fortunately, we found that one person early on, and we can now move on to the next step.

We started to open the suggestion as early as the second week of class when we opened a group chat. We come up with four different concepts and moved on to the next step, which is the interview. We conducted an interview with a random group of people and listened to everything they had to say. We listened and agreed with their suggestions. We also shared ours, and it looks that they are in favor of us.

We agreed to move on to the next step after deliberating as a group, which was to create the micro and macro matrix, but we didn't do it yet because we needed to understand it completely. After a week, our instructor explained clearly the matrix. As a result, we worked on it after class. We had a virtual meeting and talked about it. It is really helpful because we were able to determine which apps are the most effective and what their features are.

I'm grateful that every member of our group is connected to one another and that we always communicated effectively. Also, I'm happy, because we're already making progress toward developing a useful app for society.

This is my very first blog! I was both excited and anxious as to whether or not I would be able to write it properly. What I'd want to tell you about is something I did recently. I took the MBTI and Berkely Tests, which are personality tests. I responded honestly in order to determine my personality type. It was enjoyable and exciting, particularly after seeing the final result.

In Berkely, the outcome was correct. First Trust; I had a low trust score because I don't trust people easily, and to be honest, I've had trust difficulties for a long time, but I'm doing my best to ensure that people don't misinterpret me. Second, I scored 72.5 in resilience, which no longer surprises me. Yes, I hate failures, but I try to learn from them. The third was diversity, I got a perfect score for diversity, which I agreed with since, even if I don't trust others easily, I appreciate them. They are valuable to me. Even though we come from different backgrounds, I enjoy interacting and sharing with others. The next one is Belief, I was once a leader. I influence others and motivate them by doing the things that I believed its the right thing to do. Next is Allocation, I got 85.0. I always wanted to plan and organize things. I want to do it without any distractions to have a very good output. Also, I am efficient in many ways. The next one is collaboration; I got a high score which I believed is right. As I said I was a leader way back in High school and I love collaborating with others to let the organization grow. In Comfort Zone; I have a wide comfort zone but sometimes I couldn't see it. But it's okay, I'm willing to find my comfort zone anytime and anywhere. And lastly, I got a score of 100 in Innovation Zone and am interested in joining and taking the next step. entrepreneurship and innovation.

My MBTI personality type is consul. The first characteristic, which determines how I interact with my surroundings, showed a 54 percent extrovert score. It's right that I am an outgoing person. The next one is Energy, which shows that I am observant. In many ways, I am observant: I observe people and things around me, I observe how they feel, and so on. Because I am a soft-hearted person, I usually use my feelings in making decisions and dealing with my emotions. Another is tactics; I scored higher in judging than prospecting. Finally, when it comes to my identity, I am 65 percent turbulent. I am a perfectionist who is always looking for ways to be better.