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MA Presentations, 12 Dec 2018

MA Presentations, 12 Dec 2018

Crit #1 - Business/Cultural Context

Sasha (Oleksandra): Portal for Teenagers on Mental Health in Ukraine.

Current situation:

  • highest % in Europe (WHO)
  • low access to treatment and support

Solution:

  • educational portal discussing mental health reducing stigma

Audience:

  • Ukraine teenagers and young adults (TAYA) who have mental health problems
  • Ukraine TAYA interested in supporting others
  • Parents of those affected

Data:

  • things that TAYA are anxious about
  • things that TAYA value
  • financial status of TAYA

Simple user journey:

  • defined user groups/audience and motivations to visit website

Possible cooperations/collaborations to help with content and solutions:

  • Healthright International (global health and human rights)
  • The Village (Україна) magazine

Research other websites that offer similar resources (esp UK)

Thoughts/comments

  • great project idea
  • good use of data to highlight issues project addresses
  • interesting approach looking at worries and values
  • when using data good to show your sources
  • good to be thinking about audience, user journeys and content but don't tie yourself down to these early on (will cover more in commodity crates). the matrix for experience > thought > needs > solution is a good approach
  • am sure you will consider but worth providing information on prevention, especially user group 2 (although people very often will only seek help once they have a problem)
  • with solutions good to start thinking about wide range of options but as project progresses be prepared to refine them. always better to start with lots of ideas and cut them back than to start with one idea and try and elaborate on it.
  • re cultural context is this a global problem or specific problem to Ukraine? are younger people becoming less optimistic/more anxious?

Bishes: showcase creative talent in Nepal

Audience:

  • Youth: 11-28
  • Nepalese community
  • Creative-minded people

Competitors:

  • Youtube
  • Facebook / instagram

Issues:

  • loss of provenance for creators/authors

Content:

  • engaging and exclusive
  • challenge of business/competition

SWOT analysis is always useful but feels a bit generic in this context. Likewise with Revenue.

Thoughts/comments

  • context: what do you mean by Nepalese culture? native Nepalese or emigre? why define 'Nepalese' as a unique entity for this project aside from personal story? is this about roots? is this about a unique cultural product that Nepalese youth have to offer? is it linguistic?
  • define "creative talent"? wide range from artists to musicians to designers to illustrators to dancers to … Need to tighten up the scope of what you are offering and what people are using your project to deliver. not until business model realising you are primarily referring to video content (are you?)
  • interested in covering the issues that are driving a dedicated resource (loss of provenance) in more detail (cultural context)
  • are you offering content or offering a platform? a combination of the two? curation of content?
  • with business/competition not esp. valuable comparing what you are proposing with YouTube as audience and needs of site are completely different.
  • if you are offering video content there are massive technical and cost hurdles to overcome (bandwidth, storage, etc)
  • DW: what is the problem you are trying to solve?

Matteo: commence website for niche wines

New idea: Orange Wine (skin-contact wine)

Aims:

  • information about wine produced in Friuli region
  • promote and sell this wine (or link to sites that do - referral opportunities?)
  • reach wider audience than previous website (what previous website?)
  • create engaging content
  • suggest tours

Competitor sites but few focusing on orange wines in particular. Good summary of SWOT although think W and T could be more critically thought through.

Thoughts/comments

  • agree with reasons for shifting focus of project
  • like the tighter focus on a unique kind of wine and don't see this necessarily as a weakness (do one thing well) - DW: what is your audience? quality versus quantity
  • referral opportunities for revenue generation?
  • cultural context - be good to hear more about the history of this kind of wine and also how this ties into changing wine consumption (and more general consumer) habits (artisanal consumption, slow foods, etc)

Kirsty: Büzzing Manchester

Good (brief) summary of "scene" in Manchester (if showing data also show sources).

Competitor study: resources for bars and clubs in Manchester though exhaustive and featured listings skew results.

USP - interactive bar crawl

Revenue:

  • advertising
  • buyable content
  • membership schemes

Cultural context of Manchester:

  • really interesting overview of Manchester history, music and subcultures (trip down memory lane for older audience)

Thoughts/comments

  • good, thorough competitors analysis esp. highlighting that many are not Manchester specific (more general platforms)
  • gut feeling is like DW mentioned earlier that focus on quality rather than quantity is best approach here. curated rather than exhaustive. specific content generated for context
  • talked about a wide range of demographics in Manchester. interested to see how you focus down on these in next crit and perhaps target more specific audience(s)
  • from context perhaps be good to see if anyone doing something similar to what you are proposing outside of Manchester eg London or Edinburgh, although these are more generally around themes and guided (physically rather than digitally)
  • difficult to see the ultimate shape of your USP at this early stage but can see lots of fun potential here (and also technical challenges)
  • for cultural context be interested to see if any data more specifically on youth in city (university admissions, demographic data, etc). with economic growth are older generations moving out?

Alice: Queenie & Pearl

Personal project to sell handbags. Trend led handbags at affordable prices. Personal touch on sales and delivery as well as devote proportion of sales to charitable cause(s).

Cultural context on history of handbags and current marketplace.

Brand positioning, product focus and SWOT analysis.

Thoughts/comments

  • as with others provide sources for quotes and data/statistics
  • what mean by "on-trend"?
  • interesting and comprehensive approach to Brand identity especially around positioning
  • also good to see charitable donation - something a lot of brands are focusing around (whether than is manufacturing or donations, eg https://wawwaclothing.com/). where used elsewhere this is a core brand message rather than nice extra.
  • cultural context: good focus on USP, especially around brand positioning but be good to expand on how other manufacturers are offering similar, eg hand-made, specialised focus, "giving back"
  • with levelling up of existing business worth some consideration for costs associated with scale (ecommerce sales, running costs, transaction and processing fees, shipping costs, etc). these will need to be both across platforms (eg WooCommerce, Magento, Shopify) and also payment provider (Stripe, Paypal, WorldPay, etc).

Jo: Little Rippers

Concept: class and coaching finder for under 7s in urban and extreme sports.
USP: other class and club finders but generic rather than specific to these sports or this age group.

Business context:

  • children sports, lifestyle community and culture

Competitors:

  • hoop activity finder
  • what's on 4 kids (not ability to filter or define kids age)
  • netmums
  • club hub (filtering but broad range of clubs covered)

SWOT analysis.

Cultural context: history of extreme sports > urban sports.

Thoughts/comments

  • like brand name and identity - good starting point
  • is USP too niche? like idea but any idea of what clubs do exist out there? how do people find these if they already exist?
  • DW: articles to support listings to make site more attractive
  • another potential weakness with User Generated Content is moderation
  • cultural context - be interested to know more about how extreme sports apply to your target audience (pre secondary-school kids) or perhaps on children's (or parents) attitudes and trends defying traditional clubs/activities (cubs, dance, music, football, etc)
  • additional content/resource? places where activities can take place (eg local skate parks)

Vanessa: Grow Urban

Platform for educating (busy millennials) on growing food in small spaces.

Problems:

  • lack of hub with engaging and relevant content
  • gaps in information (assumed knowledge)
  • cost/access barrier to organic foods
  • lack of space/affordable space for growing produce

Solutions:

  • educate on benefits of growing foods (financial, environment, personal)
  • written and video content to simplify learning
  • space for conversation on community and urban agriculture
  • longer-term provide tools to help

Context:

  • food imports into UK
  • environmental impact on food production and consumption
  • container gardening
  • quote > urban agriculture (Harkyo Hutri Baskoro)

History

  • self-sufficiency with WWII vs precious reliance on imports
  • modern movement to self-sufficiency (economic and lifestyle)

Competitors

  • blogs
  • websites
  • online gardening
  • instagram

Example websites:

  • vertical veg: great content but premium access (paid-for)
  • grow up farms (fish, vegetables and herbs): sales resource
  • garden design magazine: more general gardening website

SWOT analysis

Thoughts/comments

  • great, neatly defined project and outline of problems. very timely and self-sufficiency is so often associated with wealthy, middle-age and middle class rather than young and urban.
  • interesting Ikea has moved into this space > IKEA
  • with history look at explosion of self-sufficiency in the 1970s (the Good Life). partly economic causes but also part of growth of hippy movement and outwards influence of California
  • good SWOT and nice to see plans for growth eg through sales
  • on benefits do not underestimate the mental health benefits of growing foods (slow time, fresh air, working with nature)
  • be interested to see how brand could shape direction of project (guerrilla / campaign versus millennial / lifestyle, for example)

Agnes: an elephant on the hill

Concept: Random story generator to stimulate creative writing

Aims: Help amateur fiction writers and help develop imagination

Business problem: Few resources to stimulate creative writing. Maya Angelou: "Writers Dreaming". Unlock the mind by writing nonsense.

Proposition: Platform where writers can create nonsense. USP avoid private clique communities for writers: "online for all"

Competitors: various websites to help creative writing eg write for ten (more general app/tool), book fox (blogs), plot generator / writing exercises (structured parameters to start writing)

Focus: need to quick and simple generator to provide an easy and immediate solution to problem. Focus on story books ? Specific for younger writers and authors.

Revenue/value: value in what the service is offering rather than financial benefit.

SWOT analysis: simple and straightforward

Cultural context: writers block and poor reward for writers.

Thoughts/comments

  • is this a tool to trigger creative writing or a community for creative writers or both (or neither)?
  • good identification of landscape for similar solutions - no problem these exist as show a demand for service and opportunity to do better "revamp a niche market that has gone stale"
  • niche - specific kind of book? think you mentioned story books (might be mistaken). if story book focus possible for illustrators as well as writers?
  • younger audience - offer specifically as resource for schools? perhaps opportunity to tie into curriculum around creative writing
  • more on cultural context? if focus on story books then history of this kind of book? metrics on place in market today?
  • more idea of how will help do more than just "stimulate nonsense"? showcase? communities?

Felix: Dev News

Stay updated with the latest news in web development

Problem: quick summary of where we are (10 minute summary). Issue is there is so much information and from a wide range of sources. Limitation is no ability to personalise this information.

Solution: platform where devs can get latest news and personalised news for them.

USP: only receive news you are interested in (eg if interest more in design than in coding)

Context: focus on tech news (eg on programming languages)

Competitors:

  • tech crunch (too general)
  • hacker news (too niche and not personalised?)
  • DZone (themed information based on interests)

SWOT and advertising/revenue

Thoughts/comments

  • a really interesting proposition but have some concerns about how to achieve:
    • data - sources? where information coming from? how categorise or defined content?
    • "personalised" - how define? what kind of user preferences are you thinking of. how 'tag' content. this will need to be automated to some extent.
    • login - how authenticate?
  • where the cultural context? what other sites are there doing similar but in other sectors
  • be prepared that this project will contain a lot of technical challenges. you will need to decide quite early on your technical route (eg Javascript, Ruby or PHP for server-side choice) but be aware for non-PHP solution we can point you in the direction of resources and communities but cannot offer you direct help with these technologies
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