Week 4: Customer Segment Specification
Intro: Meeting Issues and Team Bonding
This week was truly one where we were able to narrow down our customer segments and pinpoint specific aspects of our business model that would be relevant in the setting of sub-Saharan East Africa we are looking at. The week was began with a very productive Monday — we interviewed three healthcare professionals, updated our business model canvas, added some key features for our minimum viable product, and prepared a presentation for Tuesday. However, the days that followed seemed very different, as the interviewees we had scheduled were not showing up. Although we experienced this, it did not hinder our focus. We researched more about our device and its technical aspects, sent out more cold emails, and played Brawl Stars :D
Our (Missing) Interviews
Our interviews for the week began with Dr. Hans-Joerg Lang and Dr. Mark Ansermino, two pediatric intensivists focused on bettering global health initiatives in southwest Uganda. The most important point that these two doctors gave us was to be sure about what context we should look at. This point of emphasis was a pivotal moment for us because we realized that our customer segment model was flawed and we needed to further specify the patients we are targeting, the physicians who will use the device, and what aspect of the device itself we are focusing on. After deliberation, we decided that our device would be best suited for patients who are in the middle age range of 36–55 years and intensivists, nurses, and interns present in the ICU. To further specify the location, we stated that our device would be for the referral hospitals located in Kampala, Uganda. It was important for us to hear this specific critique because it was something that we only heard explicitly in Rhonda’s meetings about condensing our customer segments. After listening to Drs. Mark and Lang, it hit us that we should be addressing the issue with a greater sense of urgency.
After talking with Drs. Mark and Lang, we had a very successful interview with Ingvar Sanyu, a nurse working in the China-Uganda Friendship Hospital in Uganda. It was amazing to learn about his experiences, and we desired to get as much information from him as possible due to our belief that the nurses would utilize our device most frequently. Our future, scheduled interviews however were not as successful because our interviewees, unfortunately, did not show up. As a result, we decided to create a Google Form consisting of typical questions we ask our interviewees and send them to those who were absent, and to their colleagues. This way, we will be able to gather a great deal of information without the hassle of scheduling meetings and internet connection issues. We will continue to work on our business model, and focus our efforts towards our presentation on Tuesday!
