I Designed an App and It Failed
Part IV: Market Response
Welcome back!
In my previous blog, I shared BeeFree’s personas and user stories. We saw how the stories helped us design basic user interactions and the overall workflow. Now, I would like to share where I am with the project and some feedback I recieved from a few local vendors in Los Angeles.
Current Status
Below are the things that are complete:
- User-interface design
- Landing page
- Facebook page
- Email accounts
- Basic market research
Here are samples of what the user interface, Facebook page, and landing pages look like.
Market Research
I did a very simple and dirty SWOT Analysis on the tool to evaluate the market fit for BeeFree.
Strengths
- Calculated push notifications
- Virtual queueing system
- View estimated wait times by vendor
- Customer-centric data
Weaknesses
- Unfamiliar process for users
- Easily add and remove oneself from a queue
- Niche market — may not work for small venues,
- Customer acquisition (perfect for mom & pop stores)
Opportunities
- Time data avaiable for decision making
- Manage inventory like staffing and food
- Enhance customer and employee experience
Threats
Market Research
The market research process was also very simple.
Restaurants I visited
For the initial research, I visited restaurants only. I wanted to see if real restaurants and real people would be as excited about BeeFree as much as Beth and Ashley. Below are a few restaurants I visited in order:
- Crooked Duck, Long Beach, CA
- The Attic, Long Beach, CA
- Nick’s on 2nd, Manhattan Beach, CA
- MB Post, Manhattan Beach, CA
- Uncle Bill’s, Manhattan Beach, CA
Feedback
The feedback I recieved from all the restaurants were generally negative. One restaurant had me wait for 30 mins just to tell me that the owner had no time. It quickly became clear that restaurants weren’t going to adopt BeeFree as easily as I thought.
Even though restaurant feedback was negative, I learned that I can talk to complete strangers about my crazy ideas and survive the rejection.
I am also optimistic that there is another group of early adopters out there. For example:
- Disney — never wait in line for a ride
- Movies — midnight openers
- Apple (product launches)
- Banks
- Stadiums
- Border Check Points
- Ski-lift lines
- Government — Post Office, DMV
- Night Clubs
I did try to reach out to the senior Vice President at Disney, and he said, “I am not the guy and don’t have a contact for you.”
Things that remain unsuccessful:
- User acquisition: maybe a group worth reaching out to are college students waiting in lines (for anything) at their universities
More work also needs to be done to get attention. Possible outlets include:
- Blog posts
- Existing networks of startups and consultants
- Online communities (haven’t found any)
2. Developer: I still haven’t found anyone that would be interested in helping me program the tool. I did shop around for developers in the US, and the cost was anywhere between $70K to $250K.
Target Market
I am not sure if this is correct, but I have a hunch that the customer distribution looks something like this:
Early Adopters — College students
Early Majority — Government offices
Late Majority — Restaurants
Laggards — Entertainment venues
This is as far as I’ve gotten with the project. Thanks for joining me on this journey. After surviving rejection from restaurants and Disney, I think can manage failure. It’s been a fun ride. Even though I was only able to take my idea to the prototype stage, this experience will fuel any future endeavors I decide to pursue, and hopefully I can go a little further than before.
We will see what happens next. I have come a long way since being frustrated in San Diego about having to wait in lines. Thanks for indulging me through the design process. Hope you enjoyed this experience as much as I have and hope you take a chance on yourself to see what you can do!
Parts of past blog series can be quickly accessed using links below:
I Designed an App and It Failed: Part I
