Tech Thoughts

[Week 07 - Techthoughts]

Week 7 - Effective Communication and Storytelling and Lesson Learned Pitching Template

Communication plays a critical role in a startup company. Still, more than that, it plays a vital part in effectively conveying our purpose and the message that we want to reach our target market through our navigation application, NavigaTour. 

As a startup company working to put our name out in the market for our audience to recognize, we place significance in communication well not just on the external faces of our product but as well as on the internal - meetings, discussions, deliberations - all of which help us hone our skills, understanding, and perspective as distinct individuals working as a team for this project.

For this week’s activity, we interviewed three individuals to gain insights into their viewpoints as users of a navigation application. We presented them with our MVP and asked what their opinions and feedback were about it. We also had the chance to ask about the following:

Frustrations when going to malls

The time it takes for them to find their desired store/facility in the mall

Their thoughts on having a portable navigation application

Their desired features on a navigation app

Their views on using the application in the future

[Week 06 - Techthoughts]

Week 6: MVP and Wireframing

MVP and Wireframing are crucial aspects that a startup company should consider. Based on my learnings from Ms. Rhea Suzette Haguisan, a development technique in which a new product is introduced in the market with basic features but enough to get the consumers' attention. 

In our Minimum Viable Product, we presented the most fundamental features that our application includes, which cover the following:

User-generated

Route tracking and optimization

Location marking

Powerful search and discovery

Accurate Mapping

We also included the most robust features that could be included in the build-up of NavigaTour. In this part, we ensured to enlist the following features that we best believe our market is looking forward to:

Voice Assistance

Shop Categorization

Display of Real-time and Updated Operating Hours 

These features will help generate sufficient value for our early users to buy our application (NavigaTour). 

We also created a wireframe to help us gauge what we want our application to look like for the users. While a wireframe doesn't entirely represent the complete design of the app, it gives a guide or insight into the key screens and interfaces elements that we would like to include in our application. 

[Week 05 - Techthoughts]

Week 5: Customer Segmentation

In my understanding of how customer segmentation works, it is dividing a customer base into groups of individuals similar in specific ways relevant to marketing, such as age, gender, interests, and spending habits.

For ATOM, we did our customer segmentation for NavigaTour by conducting in-depth interviews with three individuals who represent our customer persona. We purposely interviewed individuals who represent our intended market from distinct age groups. Hence, we have one elderly, one teen, and mall personnel to represent the mall management at large. If we had one more room for an interviewee, we would also love to interview a visually-challenged person to understand their demands more intently when it comes to the usage of navigation applications.

The interview went well; we learned about their backgrounds and how they perceive the use of a navigation application such as NavigaTour for accurate indoor mall mapping. We got to ask them questions about their frustrations and motives when going to malls. We also learned their viewpoint regarding the features that they think would be beneficial to users as offered by a navigation application, aside from its main navigation feature.

After that, we created the customer workflow, which was quite technical, and we somehow had a hard time attaining it. But we were able to discern how to do it. We realized it should be significantly based on the information gathered from our interviews with our customer persona. As a startup company, we understand that a customer journey flowchart will help us increase our customer engagement and provide a holistic view of interaction with customers across different contact points of our application (NavigaTour). Besides, it also helps create comprehensive customer profiles based on customer engagement through multiple channels.

[Week 04 - Tech Thoughts] 

Customer Discovery: Interview Planning and Hypothesis Testing

Week four’s discussion, which was also the first of the live lecture series was initiated by Ms Diane D. Eustaquio, an insightful discussion about customer discovery. She mentioned the critical points of formulating the right questions to familiarize better and know the target market of any startup company and how the hypothesis helps in visualizing the outcomes of the product/service from a customer’s point of view.

We were then tasked to interview three strangers to represent our general market and formulate the right questions and construct a hypothesis. Our team took time to interview these individuals and ask them the questions we thought would help us get to know them better as individuals and prospective consumers of our application - NavigaTour.

We asked about their demographics, why they visit malls in CDO, their choice of malls, their decision making processes, and their wants, desires, or goals. We then aligned our product according to the responses of the people we’ve interviewed. Further, we created a hypothesis that mentions what would have happened if our consumers utilize our product.

The task was sort of time-consuming as we had to take the time to understand their perspective and analyze their responses and ensure whether or not they aligned with the team/company’s goals and objectives.

[Week 03 - Tech Thoughts] 

Creating Value Proposition Canvas and Business Template

Engr Marbert Jael headed the plenary class for this week, in which he discussed the importance of creating a value proposition canvas and business template in a startup company. 

The discussion was insightful, and I have learned about the process of creating a VPC and business template and the significant role it plays in building a startup company. The Value Proposition Canvas is a business model tool that aids in positioning a company's product or service around the values and demands of its customers. A business model's Value Proposition Canvas is crucial. It aids the company's decision-making and product positioning. It's more than a visual representation of what customers want. Businesses can tailor their strategy to meet the needs of their customers. This can aid in the creation of a product that customers desire.

Creating a value proposition canvas has several advantages:

1. Focused Planning

A Value Proposition Canvas serves as a visual reference. It guarantees a focused approach to creating a high-demand product.

2. Increases the reach of marketing

Launching a new product necessitates a significant amount of marketing and branding effort. It entails informing customers about how purchasing the goods will meet their demands—this aids in creating a solid brand image in customers' eyes. A Value Proposition Canvas is a powerful tool for identifying client needs and developing a plan to address them. With this in place, promotions and advertisements may easily attract the attention of customers.

3. A high level of customer involvement

A Value Proposition Canvas connects the process of identifying and meeting needs. This structure allows you to concentrate on the aspects that clients care about the most. As a result, there is a high level of customer interaction.

4. Easy to use and understand

A Value Proposition Canvas provides a basic summary of the company's operations. Analyzing the product strategy and performance becomes broad while remaining straightforward.

On the other hand, a business thesis template assists businesses in systematically organizing their thoughts and ideas. To define the business goals and how to attain them and identify any potential roadblocks. When the company gets busier, it gives a straightforward approach.

For our startup team, we’ve decided to settle and pursue a mobile application called NavigaTour. NavigaTour is a 2D indoor or mall navigation app that helps customers/tourists seamlessly and conveniently locate areas (shops or facilities) within the mall that they desire to visit.

[Week 02 - Tech Thoughts]

My Key Takeaways In Team Formation

Strong team formation is vital to the success of any endeavor.

This week's learning was a great way to initialize our team formation for the startup. After our discussion about our personality types (MBTI) and innovative levels (BIIT) test results, we decided to have the following line-up:

Hustler (CEO): Shiloh Mae Maghinay (Extrovert)

Hackers (Engineer): Gracela Acebu (Introvert)

Hipster (Designers): Sephia Mae Tabac (Extrovert), Alyssa Mae Ochate (Introvert)

We also had a few startup ideas in mind such as the following:

1. TempTress -  A temperature changing matress for bedridden people.

2. Book a Nanny - An app that provides convenience for all parents who needs immediate extra hands.

3. Pet Nanny - A one call away pet care and support services for fur babies.

4. Where to Rent - An app that conveniently helps users find a renting place.

5. RestoRev - An application that helps customers find, choose, review, and reserve restaurants.

I've come to a realization that partnering with great minds and doers breed success over time. The insights I've gained from the discussion of our speaker, Ms Rhea Suzette Haguisan are profound and meaningful. Indeed, the team you belong yourself in is a fundamental factor that impacts the overall result.

This does not mean to say, though, that misunderstanding and episodes of miscommunication will not occur. Along the way, these things will happen - they're inevitable. Thus, it is vital to partner with individuals who speak their minds irrespective of the situation as long as it sets the tone for the betterment of the circumstance and the ability to efficiently and effectively achieve our goals. 

They also mentioned in the discussion that you must partner with introverts and extroverts - true enough! It is important to understand that we all have distinct personalities and that our skill sets differ from one another regardless of the way we conduct ourselves around other people.   We may also opt to partner with people we already know - our closest friends. However, it is crucial to note that there should be limitations to interacting with them in the professional field. Professionalism is an ideal trait that allows individuals in an organization to work harmoniously to achieve the endeavors' vision, mission, goals, and objectives. It is evident that we may want to partner with people we are already comfortable in, but setting your mind into the possibility of embracing fears and struggles will help you overcome your comfort zone. 

Moreover, overcoming one's comfort zone allows one to grow into a better individual, explore what's out there, develop themselves, unleash their potential, and reach greater heights. 

[Week 01 - Tech Thoughts]

Technopreneuship: Result-Driven Assessments

The first week of classes for technopreneurship went great. The instructors for the course conducted a live discussion for students to understand and be enlightened of where we were heading for the course period. They guided us on what we should do to get through the activities. While listening to the discussion, I was enlightened by how great this course would be. Sure enough, it piqued my interest, although it seemed pretty challenging to me. Among the things they made us do are the following:

Form a group of four.

Join the Slack group for technopreneurship.

Take two tests:

Berkeley Innovation Index Test

Myers Briggs Type Indicator

In context, the Berkeley Innovation Index (BII) is a tool that helps people figure out how good they are at coming up with new ideas. Based on the answers to a survey about domain abilities, which are sub-traits that are thought to be necessary for innovation, the index comes up with a score. I took the test for this assessment, and the result came out pretty great. According to the evaluation, my personal innovation mindset level is currently at 89.04 out of 100 - which is already a great number, I guess. I got the highest scores on trust, resilience, diversity, belief, allocation, and comfort zone ranging from 91.67-100. With this test, I realized my strengths and weaknesses regarding the innovation mindset. It allowed me to spot the areas where I could improve myself and assess the relevance of each of the parts of the analysis and recommendations generated by the system.

Myers Briggs Type Indicator, on the other hand, is a self-help assessment test that helps people learn more about how they work and learn. It is a way to build relationships, become more positive, and achieve excellence. It drove me to a more personal level of connection with myself. The assessment is straightforward, and it made me think through my choices and how each situation affects me. For the result, I figured out I am a Protagonist - ENFJ-A. 

Basically, it means that my strengths rely more on the extraverted, intuitive, feeling, judging, and assertive side. It also allows one to explore their personality type, which I think is excellent because it enables us to understand our better capabilities and where we can match ourselves in various aspects and areas of our lives such as relationships, workplace habits, career, parenthood, friendships, and romantic relationships. This test is a great way to really take hold of ourselves and realize the potentials we have in us. It helps us determine the types of personalities we have and how we can utilize them to create great relationships with the people around us, use them to make and mark a positive change, and achieve excellence not just for ourselves but also for the betterment of everyone.