Inspiration Through “This Is Tucson”
Published By Justin Wylie
When deciding you want to develop a product there are many aspects of the creation process that one has to take into account. When Irene McKisson from “This Is Tucson” and “The Arizona Daily Star” came to share some insight from her development process, there were a few takeaways that hold true for me.
This Is Tucson was an idea that Irene and her team came up with to provide the community with the information in the Tucson area that could spruce up a family’s dynamic. Giving content that introduces the Tucson residents with all the best events, restaurants to eat at, along with news reports to stay up to date. One thing that I retained from our meeting with Irene was that creating an idealistic person who you want your product to conform to can help centralize ideas. This allows the team during the brainstorming period to understand the audience they are trying to reach along with the feedback that could possibly come from the product. In “This Is Tucson’s” case, Jessica is their idealistic person, Irene and her team use Jessica to base their ideas off of and determine the value it would bring to an audience member that has the same type of interest as Jessica.
Irene explained to us that the type of content you are developing to give to your consumers is a major factor on the success of your marketing. Knowing when to deliver content and how, are just as important as the product itself. For “This Is Tucson’s” case, the type of articles that get the most hits, or the specific photos or videos that gather the most impressions, are viable metrics to keep into account when publicizing a topic. I believe that knowing which form of media your consumers interact with can dictate any type of product in a marketing aspect. By using social media platforms, your product is able to reach many more possible clients than it would be just having a newspaper ad.
Just from experiencing this session with Irene, impacted the way I plan on including certain features into the product that I plan on developing. From the marketing aspect, to the format of a pitch, to the potential avenues that are available to create a revenue. All the insight she equipped myself and my classmates with, will be incorporated in the infrastructure of our designs.
