Week 9 - Speed Mentoring Event & Scenario (23-30\12)

Summarize speed mentoring feedback, fix our "how might we", indirect user survey and defining the motivation and incentive of the users.

This week opened with the Speed ​​Mentoring event we have been waiting for and preparing for over the past week. Despite the existence of the event through Zoom, we were surprised to find that there was no problem in having a fruitful dialogue and discussion with the experts.

In addition, we were pleased to find that the experts believe that the need we strive to address is clear, strong, and necessary today in the rental market.

"When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But when you listen, you might learn something new" (Dalai Lama)

In addition, the experts referred us to discuss critical questions and concerns for the continuation of the process and focused us on continuing the work during this week.

From the variety of feedback provided during the discussions, this can be focused on a number of main points:

• Select a particular area/city/neighborhood and start the pilot of the product there, a place that will allow us to get quantity to improve the quality later on.

• Focus on our: "How Might We".

• Discuss the question of motivation/incentive.

1. Hence, we met for a brief meeting to discuss and focus on our "How Might We", following the feedback we received from the experts. Finally, we focused the question as follows:

How might we reveal assets ’history and hidden properties in order to raise a tenant’s certainty and security, during the rental experience?

2. Next, we formulated a survey designed to help us get to know our users in-depth while examining the motivation that drives them, their opinion on the rental market, what information they think is important to emphasize from their in-depth knowledge of the subject, where we should focus on location (where there is high responsiveness) and more.

Attached is a link to the given survey:

https://forms.gle/yUMsNnBaB4VuA7DRA

Currently, about 121 past and present apartment tenants answered the survey, in a variety of cities across the country. Attached is a number of slides from the variety of findings that emerged in light of the survey:

3. The survey findings sharpened the question of the incentive issue for us:

The motivation of the users is to get information that is not accessible to them in order to make an informed long-term decision. Due to the need to obtain transparent information, which is not currently accessible, about properties that are of interest to them during the frustrating search process, in exchange for a brief sharing about at least one rented apartment, where they have lived in recent years they will be able to get the missing information.

4. Following this, we formulated new scenario:

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As you can see this week was busy with a variety of tasks following the feedback of the experts.

It is important to note that this week we have strived to think beyond what is required and to start looking forward to the continuation of the process in order to formulate the thought more towards the solution and its implementation properly.

Week 8 - Ideation Part C (16-23\12)

Context of use, indirect stakeholders, possible value tensions, relevant metaphor, 4 step flow and prepare for a speed mentoring pitch.

The week opened with a positive feeling, after an in-depth study of models of companies in the market, we felt that we are at a good point in the process. In addition, there were many tasks, which required us as a group to have many discussions while conducting brainstorming that helped us reach the desired result.

"If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself" (Henry Ford)

In our first group meeting, we had to think about the context of our technology. Therefore, we relied on the persona we presented in the previous weeks, and we concluded that the use of the app itself takes place at a variable and dynamic time, depending on the user's free time, and after conducting a search and finding several optional apartments for rent. However, at this point, he feels helpless because he is unable to obtain in-depth information about the apartment.

After that, we had to Indirect stakeholders and their relevance to our problem. Stakeholders discussed include property owners, real estate agents, realtors, architects, municipal employees, renovators, lawyers, etc.

In our second meeting during the current week, we discussed possible value tensions 3 values tensions that are expected to occur in our app and how we think to resolve them.

Also, we were looking for a metaphor / mental model (from the physical world) that would help us imagine our product. Therefore, at this point in the process, when we imagine our application, it is still difficult to see how we combine all the above information into an experiential, simple, and intuitive user experience for the user. However, if we have to think of a metaphor from the physical world, the first example that comes to mind is IKEA.

IKEA is unique among its competitors due to the shopping experience in it. From the moment its customers enter the store, IKEA takes them through a pre-guided route and actually takes command of the navigation and shows them the direction, through the variety of options it has to offer. Therefore, the great similarity between IKEA stores and our product is the variety we have to offer the user, and the main goal we put before our eyes is to create the same unique experience that draws users and creates an acceptance to the digital and interactive world, in our app.

Then, we met for another session in which for the first time we focused in-depth on the question of how the descriptive things we have discussed so far will be practically realized of the solution and how it will actually take place in the app. To accomplish the task we used the 4 steps flow, this allows us to focus on the 4 main actions that our user actually does in the app itself, what the system will do behind the scenes following the action, and eventually what feedback the user will.

To be honest at this point, we got a sense of shock, because the immediate transition between theory and practice may be much immediate. However, throughout the process, our growing desire to reach the solution stage has been strong, and therefore, we feel good and full of excitement for what is to come.

Before

After

To sum up the week, we prepare a 1-2 minute pitch for the speed mentoring session that will take place next week. The pitch including the need, our user, and our solution. Also, we think of open questions to the mentors in order to learn and get the most out of their experience.

Week 7 - Ideation Part B (09-16\12)

Deepen Our Understanding Of The Problem While Trying To Solve It By More Insights Research

After the excitement of coming to the lab last week after a long time, we started this week focused and purposeful to continue the solution process.

"If you define the problem correctly, you almost have the solution"(Steve Jobs)

Firstly, we created a timeline script based on the principle of: "When it starts and When it ends״, which describes the steps in the process from the beginning in which the user has the need we defined in the previous weeks to the end where we help him answer it and realize his need.

After creating the timeline, we concluded that we need to understand how we can actually meet the main need of our users, how we can get information about the history of rented apartments which unfortunately at this point is not in a particular database but is currently in the crowds' possession.

Therefore, at the beginning of the week, we assigned individual tasks to each team member in order to allow an investigation into many areas quickly and find a solution.

• Roei - Research about the "Midrag", Moovit and Glassdoor platforms and learn how they manage to gather information from the wisdom of the crowd as inspiration and a possible model for implementation.
  

• Eitan - Research as an inspiration about the government's national vehicle price list and the way data is collected.
  

• Idan - Explore as an inspiration about the way the ״Fairi״ app has collected data based on the wisdom of the crowd and how they succeeded in achieving the task we strive to achieve: Obtaining 5,000 apartments as a basic initial database.
  

• Noa - Research about models and ideas for possible incentives that will help encourage people to share information on their own initiative.
  

• Daniel - Research about possible collaborations with key companies that have vital databases in the field.

Eventually, we met for a concluding zoom video call to exchange insights and adjust to possible courses of action to continue the process.

To sum up the week, we found out for ourselves that sometimes it is okay to divide the work and that each team member will be responsible for a particular topic in order to accomplish many tasks in a short amount of time. We undoubtedly feel that we have learned a lot from this week and we look forward to seeing how we apply what we learn to the best solution for our users.