January 18, 2013
The UBC LeanLauchPad workshop #1: I am so glad that I joined the program. It was great listening to insights, hearing about ideas and experiences of the other teams and of course, having the opportunity to present our MVP-in-making.
We appreciate the feedback we received regarding the ZipThru platform and these views will certainly shape our way forward. We have decided that knowing customer needs and how they operate is going to be our highest priority. We are presently targeting large retail stores, it would be necessary to get introduced to decision makers at these organizations. We are also thinking of speaking to some of the smaller, independent retailers in Vancouver.
After the workshop, we had a training session with a partner company, a technology company based in California, which provides an API needed for our navigation product. We have arranged a test venue to conduct a test to assess performance of the location API. The test is a two-step process – the first step will be held on Saturday, January 26th.
January 19, 2013
Woke up early today after sleeping only 4hrs for the last couple of days. Fresh with insights gained at the first LeanLaunch Pad workshop, I decided to work in earnest on knowing the potential customer. But first, we need to strengthen our team from the present team of two. We are looking for a mobile application developer to help us speed things up. We have applied to FounderDating.com. Hope to hear from them soon.
I discovered that one of my previous colleagues at the Research In Motion knows a senior executive at a large grocery store in the US. I have requested an introduction. Most retail stores are closed on Saturday. I’ll have to start earlier in the week.
January 23, 2013
Customer discover day! Finished a class on International Law at noon and set out to meet potential customers today.
I had a nice chat with Mario of LighHaus, who is our mentor. It was quite encouraging and he expressed confidence in our idea. We plan to meet within a week to discuss details regarding the customer segments and possible partnerships that may need to be explored.
I visited a few retail stores and spoke to store managers at these stores today. Henry, the Store Manager on duty at IKEA Richmond was enthusiastic about the product search and navigation aspects of ZipThru. He also appeared to be impressed by the advertising possibilities. Apparently, each IKEA store has an IT professional managing the local IT infrastructure. This is not a key decision maker, but someone who can provide valuable feedback nevertheless. Key sales decisions are made at the central office in Ontario. For starters, I will be contacting the IT professional at IKEA Richmond to get his opinion.
When I visit stores like IKEA, I try to take some time strolling around and observing customer behavior. I hit upon a customer, Ben a real estate investor, who seemed to be a little lost in the warehouse downstairs. I asked him if he would be interested in a retail store navigation mobile application that would help him locate products faster. Ben initially seemed to be a little wary and suggested that his daughter, who uses mobile application often, might use it. He became more interested when I mentioned that ZThru would allow him to view other products that were on sale in the aisle where we were standing. Ben would use the application as long as it was not priced at around 1000 dollars.
On to Home Depot. I met the Asst. Store Manager, who seemed more interested in highlighting that Home Depot earned billions of dollars in revenue last year. He seemed quite concerned that ZThru would potentially render hundreds of his store associates redundant. As expected, all sales and IT decision at Home Depot are made at the central office in Toronto or at the head office in the U.S. There are no local IT professionals at each store. Sales information is apparently stored centrally using SAP.
After speaking to store managers, I get the impression that it might be better to reach out to decision makers at the IT departments at head offices. However, the staff on the ground can provide useful feedback
Next on target was Whole Foods in Vancouver. At Whole Foods, my efforts were directed to obtaining end-user feedback. I met two customers, one of whom said that she would be interested in using the application at a larger store. Apparently, Whole Foods is small enough for customers to find most of what they want without much of a search. Generally, I do think that sample size was small. I got distracted by an Apricot-Blueberry cake at the bakery counter.
On the way home, I hopped into the neighboring Save-on-foods. Nice store, I enjoy shopping there every week. I met one person in the aisle who seemed not to be in much of a hurry. Tom, a Mechanical Engineer at BC Hydro, said that he would certainly use the ZThru application, if it was free. He would consider using it if it was a paid application. He seemed genuinely interested in how the application would work as he often finds it difficult to locate some products in the store. Having received enough positive feedback for the day, I headed back home. More on Friday.