Team: 2 Product Managers

Duration: 2 Weeks

Customer Discovery:

Based on the preliminary interviews we conducted with 8 couples traveling in SF, and 40 replies to surveys, we identified the following problem statement:

Problem:

Travelers want local insiders’ tips and reviews from their friends when they visit new places. 

Product Idea: Build an app that provides you with unique & incredible travel experiences recommended by local insiders and your friends.

Below are some assumptions and risks we identified

Assumptions:

  • Users want insider tips of their travel destination
  • Users want friends recommendations of their travel destination
  • Users want to discover untravelled places
  • Users will book accommodation and restaurants from Travel.Insider
  • Local insiders will provide reviews if relevant incentives were presented.

Risks:

  • Locals do not provide insider tips
  • Low traction on the app
  • Low bookings via app can impact monetization.

Initial MVP: To validate our product idea, we interviewed tourists and local insiders

 

Case - I: Tourists Interview:

Adam and Sandra from Amsterdam booked flights and hotels last minute and flew in to San Francisco for a vacation. They rented a car in SF and started driving around places mentioned on Lonely Planet. 

When we pitched about our product idea, they were glad to hear that they can actually visit places which are recommended by locals and their friends. Also they happily agreed to recommend places in Amsterdam for us to visit. This validated our assumptions about travelers. :)

Case - II: Local Insider Interview:

We interviewed 5 locals in SF to know whether they will ever recommend places in their city to other travelers when reached out by some travel company. 4 out of 5 local travelers mentioned they would love to do this program as they wanted to leave a footprint.

But few locals who are traveller do not really provide recommendations or reviews . However, when they got to know about our incentives in return of their recommendations it encouraged them to provide these, which validated our assumptions in regards to insiders.

Assumptions & Risks                                       Validation

Users wanted insider tips                                 Validated

Users wanted friends recommendations        Validated

Locals do not provide insider tips                    Validated

Local insiders will provide reviews
if relevant incentives were presented.            Validated

Conclusion: After validating the riskiest assumptions the following hypothesis we can conclude that users need a Social Travel app which is unique and provides incredible travel experiences recommended by local insiders and your friends.

 

                     Lean Canvas Model

                 Invision Link to the Prototype

Travel Insider - Pitch Deck

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