Sascha Demetris
Digital Service Innovation Class Project
New Startup Idea:
During this 8-week project, I worked in a team of 4 to develop a digital service startup concept. Teams were formed around the most popular concepts pitched by individual students. These teams then performed research and further defined their concept to the point where an MVP was presented at the end of the semester.
Within my team, I was the only MSPM student. This lead to me working heavily on researching the individuals and markets for the product, creating the business model, and helping narrow the scope of the MVP by weighing the benefits of different features.
Research:
Our concept originally started as a tool-sharing platform that would give users an option to buying tools or renting from stores like Home Depot or Advance Auto Parts. We looked to validate this decision using broad ethnographic research, then higher-level user research, as well as specific user interviews.
This process lead us to pivot to an outdoor recreation equipment lending platform. Broadly, outdoor recreation items were more likely to be lent by owners who wanted to share the enjoyment of their hobby with others.
I performed most of the ethnographic research and helped create the process that we would use to interview users. I also held several rounds of interviews with potential users to get their feelings on lending in general and then later specifically lending outdoor equipment.
Ethnographic Research PESTLE Chart:
High-level user Research Poll:
Speed-Dating User Interview Scenarios
Final SET/POG Diagram
Concept Development:
Once we identified the specific problem that we wanted to address, we focused on how we could deliver that solution to our target market. This included thinking through various sales models, revenue streams, and differentiating product features that would make our concept a successful business.
I facilitated the discussion around most of the business points that needed to be considered such as revenue streams and sales model. With the most business-oriented background on the team, I was knowledgeable of many different paths we could follow for each of these considerations and informed my team of the pros/cons of each.
Business Model Canvas:
MVP/Delivery:
After finalizing the service concept, we needed to consider how this could be delivered as an MVP with limited resources.
We worked as a group to decide which features needed to be present in the MVP and how we could implement them with as little effort and resources as possible. We settled on creating a marketplace on an existing storefront platform such as Squarespace or Shopify.
We would find potential lenders on platforms such as Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace and also cross-post items on those platforms with links to our website to take advantage of the traffic those websites see.
The pickup and delivery of the items would be then handled by our team members to reduce unnecessary costs and give us more insight into the transactions that were occurring.
We presented this as a video and slide deck to various guests as the final project of our semester.