In the second call with our client Pat Karen on Tuesday, April 25, we proposed our three product ideas in the form of our ideation summary. We went into the call believing our smartwatch was the best idea and an idea that could incorporate the other applications into it, but Pat almost immediately shot it down due to the intense popularity and established competitors in the market (Apple Watch, Fitbit). He did admire the need for the physician to prescribe the watch since the older population is resistant to commands. Our second idea, the schedule, was too close to a service like Google calendars, and Pat believed that it would not meet the needs of our target user. He had little more to say about the schedule, so we all though the phone call was a train-wreck. Fortunately, the online job board/job sharing service intrigued Pat the most. This surprised the group initially, but after talking it over it made sense to pivot away from the watch. He agreed with us that the product could fulfill the social needs of the user while also providing constant engagement, both physical and mental. Our initial worry was that the job board would only be accessible through internet friendly devices such as tablets and laptops that may not be easy to get a hold of, but Pat insisted that the job board should be available through all internet platforms. This phone call gave us a clear product choice from the client’s perspective to focus on.
Key Takeways:
- The smartwatch market is cluttered with products in development and huge competitors like the Apple Watch. Even though the wearable was initially our most promising idea, we have to pivot away from it.
- The job sharing service could actually succeed as a solution to some of the needs of our user, specifically social interaction and constant engagement with activities familiar to the user.
- The main thing to focus on in the prototyping stage is the incentives. While we have an idea for a rewards system, it is key to flesh out which ones users actually prefer.