The document provides an agenda and overview for a market research lesson. It includes topics such as sharing app ideas, learning about video player components, conducting product market research, and customer development. Activities include brainstorming app ideas, taking a video tutorial on app components, creating a customer survey, and wrapping up. The lesson teaches concepts like conditionals, variables, procedures, and the importance of understanding customer needs to avoid startup failure. It provides examples of sample customer surveys and has students create their own survey and collect responses to analyze their potential app's market.
2. Agenda
Topics
Activities
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App Ideas
Video Player components for the App
Product Market
Customer Development
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Share App Ideas – (30 mins.)
Video Wall 2 tutorial – (30 mins.)
Create a customer survey – (30 mins.)
Wrap-up – (10 mins.)
3. Check in: Share App Ideas
What app ideas are you working with from your
brainstorm?
Which one are you leaning toward?
4. Decide on an App idea for your team
• Ask the girls to vote on the app ideas discussed by
each participant
• Identify the top ideas
• Select the idea your team wants to work with. Allow
the girls time to talk about their decision
• Make sure that the whole group feels included in
the final decision
5. Video Wall 2
The Video Wall app tutorial demonstrates how you can control the size of a video playing
in an app by using the Video Player component's Width, Height, and FullScreen features.
The Video Wall uses media assets (videos stored in the app itself), but you can use the
app to display videos from the internet as well. http://tinyurl.com/n6hjpd5
This tutorial assumes that the girls are familiar with the basics of App Inventor-- using
the Component Designer to build a user interface, and using the Blocks Editor to specify
the app's behavior.
6. Conditionals
• Only do the action if the condition is true
use an if statement
IF (condition is true) then (do something)
Examples:
• IF Simon says “Simon says” then do the command
• IF the weather predicts rain then pack your umbrella
• IF the user has more than 10 points then she wins!
7. Conditionals (Cont.)
• You also tell the program what to do if the
statement is not true
Use an if-else statement
If (condition) then (do something) else (do something else]
Examples:
You are asking someone to go to a party. What happens if
they say yes? What happens if they say no?
If it is raining then do homework else go to soccer
practice
8. Nested Conditionals
You can also put conditionals inside of other
conditionals
• IF (condition # 1) then (do something)
else if (condition # 2) then (do something
else) else (do something else)
Example:
If I get into IIT, I will go there. Else if I get into NIT, I will go there.
Else if I get into BITS Pilani, I will go there.
9. Variables
• Values that can change while your program is
running
• Want to track that value, so we store them in
variables
10. Procedures
• Blocks of code that may need to be reused in
other parts of your program
• Often have inputs, sometimes have outputs
• Example: laundry – the process is the
same, what changes as input is the clothes.
What results is clean clothes
11. Video Wall 2 Questions
• How could you use these concepts in your
app?
• What is an example of a real life variable that
you want to consider in your app?
• What is a real life conditional that could
happen when using your app?
12. Why do startups fail?
“The vast majority of startups fail NOT because
they could not build a great product or
technology, but because no one wanted the
product!” - Steve Blank
13. Know your customers and market
• Many companies spend millions of dollars
making a product, only to find out no one
wants to use it
• If there is something about your idea or
product that can be improved, you want to
know as early as possible
14. Know your customers and market
• What problem does your app
solve?
• What groups of people have
these problems?
• How big is this group(s) of people
(i.e. your market)?
15. Customer Development
“Customer development is not asking customers what
they want—it is seeking to understand what they
need, how they work, where their pain points and
highest priorities are. ” - Cindy Alvarez
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would
have said a faster horse.” - Henry Ford
16. Get to know your customer
• Does your target audience have the problem that
you think they have?
• Is your solution (your app) the only solution to the
problem?
• Would your target market pay for a solution like
yours? How much?
• You will never be sure until you ASK (through
surveys or interviews)
17. Understand your market
Here are some questions you can ask to better
understand your market:
• Where is there a need for your app?
• What currently fills that need?
• If your app existed, would people use it? How
often?
• How much would people pay for it?
• Which features are most important for your app to
have?
18. Activity: Survey questions
Sample surveys for Angry Birds & Shazam
Brainstorm and list questions
Write as many questions as you can for the
potential customer of your product
What would you ask your ideal customer?
(Optional) If the participants have their
Student Workbooks with them ask them to
record their ideas on
page 9 of the workbook
19. Sample Survey - I
Angry Birds is a mobile app game
Survey Questions:
The goal of this survey is to find a group of people
that can give you information about your idea/
product / market opportunity
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Do you enjoy puzzle games? (yes or no)
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How satisfied are your with your options of
mobile phone games? (1= not satisfied, 10 =
very satisfied)
How can we contact you to talk further about
this?
Resulting Metrics (data we received):
Divide the number of people who responded in a
selected way by the number of people who took the
survey.
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30/50 said yes, they enjoy puzzle games
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12/30 reported a satisfaction level of less than
7
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40/50 included at least one way to contact
them
What we learned:
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We have a good size market for our app
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Most people are fairly satisfied with their
options of mobile games
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People are interested in talking to us about it
20. Sample Survey - II
Shazam is a mobile app based music identification service
Survey Questions:
The goal of this survey is to find a group of people
that can give you information about your idea/
product / market opportunity
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Do you enjoy listening to music? (yes or no)
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How satisfied are you hearing music you like
but you do not know the title of? (1= not
satisfied, 10 = very satisfied)
How can we contact you to talk further about
this?
Resulting Metrics (data we received):
Divide the number of people who responded in a
selected way by the number of people who took the
survey.
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45/50 said yes, they enjoy listening to music
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22/30 reported a satisfaction level of less than
4
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40/50 included at least one way to contact
them
What we learned:
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There is a large market size for our product
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Most people are not very satisfied listening to
music that they don’t know the title of
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People are interested in talking to us about it
21. Activity: Create a survey
• Good surveys are short
• Pick the top 5-7 questions on the list
• Multiple choice questions with checkboxes are
easier for people to answer
• You can allow for more than just one answer
(Optional) If the participants have
their Student Workbooks with them ask
them to create the survey in
page 10 of the workbook
22. Survey Distribution
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Twitter: @username Would like ur feedback on
[product/problem/solution] – shd only take 2mins [URL]
thanks! “
Facebook: “Has anyone heard of an app that does ____?”
Email
Asking in person – create survey forms for circulation among
friends and family
Online survey platforms - http://www.surveygizmo.com/ for
creating free online surveys
Share Survey on WeTech Technovation Facebook Group http://tinyurl.com/mmzjwed
Email survey link to WeTech team for help with collecting
responses – wetech@iie.org
23. Task List
• Determine the market for your App
• Finish creating your survey and have at
least 20 people take it
24. Next Week
• Share results of the survey during the next
session
• Browse Colored Dots tutorial before next
lesson - http://tinyurl.com/k2qahq7
25. Template for Recording Survey Responses
Survey Question
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7.
Summary of Survey Results
26. Wrap-Up
• Share a photo of your session with WeTech at
wetech@iie.org
• Share team name with WeTech team at
wetech@iie.org
• Encourage participants to join WeTech
Technovation Facebook group to stay
connected with the larger community http://tinyurl.com/mmzjwed
Notas del editor
Today, we are going to learn the next step after coming up with an idea for a product. We are going to learn about market research, which helps us answer the following questions: Are there enough customers for my product? What if you make a product and no one wants it? Customer development is the concept of learning about your customers’ needs and making a product that meets their needs or solves a problem they have. We start today’s meeting with participants sharing out ideas for apps. Later, the team will brainstorm questions for potential customers to try to understand our customers and their needs. From these questions, each team will create a survey to distribute outside of class to potential customers. Before session is over, the team will have their survey questions ready.
Go around the room and ask each girl to talk about the story/app idea that she thought about after the last session. Ask the girls to give a basic idea of what the app will do and what features it might have. Ask the girls what inspired their app idea.
Work on the Video Wall 2 tutorial with your teams- http://appinventor.mit.edu/explore/ai2/videowall.html The Video Wall tutorial introduces the girls to the following concepts:ConditionalsNested conditionalsVariablesProcedures
Conditionals are also called if statements because they start with the word “if”. We use conditionals in life all the time – If something is true, then something else happens. If you have class, you go to class. If your mentor is here, you say hello. If the escalator is broken, you take the stairs. Conditionals control the flow of execution in your program – if the condition is false, you do not do the thing. If you are thirsty and you have water, you take a drink. If you do not have water or are not thirsty, you do not take a drink. You only take a drink if you are thirsty and you have water. If you have class, you go to class.
Some conditionals are more complex – if the condition is true, then you do one thing, if it is false, you do something else. The something else ONLY gets done if the condition is false, not if it is true. So if the sun is shining, you sit outside. If the sun is NOT shining, you sit inside. You do not sit inside unless the sun is NOT shining. This is an IF/ELSE statement – it is a conditional too, because it starts with the word “if”
Conditionals can be more complex – sometimes you have more than one condition. In App Inventor, you do this by nesting if statements – you put the next if into the else statement. In some languages, you can actually construct multiple else if into one statement.
Examples : score display for mole mash, whether or not we’re zoomed in for video wall
What were the procedures in video wall2 and mole mash 2?Video wall – Resize video playerMole Mash – move moleWhat were the inputs and outputs of those procedures?Resize video player – inputs: video player, zoomed, resize button; outputs: noneMove mole – no inputs or outputs
Connect the concepts to the implementation of the app. For instance, a variable to consider is what age of the target market they are trying to reach, or location of the user, etc. The variable is part of coding but it also applies to the understanding the different needs of the customer and market the app is trying to reach.Let the girls struggle here if they are not sure. This is part of the learning process. Push them to think about how they will use conditionals, procedures and variables in their app development. It’s okay for the girls to ask questions that can be answered at the next session.Now we are going to move on to understanding your target Market and Customer – this is part of the DATA process in the Lean Startup method that we reviewed last week.
Steve Blank is a successful entrepreneur, responsible for founding and/or being part of at least 8 startups in Silicon Valley. He now teaches entrepreneurship to students at UC Berkeley, Stanford, and Columbia University. Remember to take his advice and make sure that there are people who would want your app. Ensure there is a market for your product before you build it.
It is important to know your market and the customers in your market before spending money to make a product that is not wanted. If there is something wrong with your idea or product, it is better to know as soon as possible and Fail Fast. Ask the girls what are their thoughts on failing fast? Encourage the girls to think that it’s OK to fail in the first attempt but entrepreneurs continue to persist with improvements to their original idea!
It is important to know your market and the customers in your market before spending money to make a product that is not wanted. If there is something wrong with your idea or product, it is better to know as soon as possible and Fail Fast. What are your thoughts about failing fast?
Cindy Alvarez helps companies build better products through understanding their customers, and here she shares this quote. Her quote emphasizes that customer development is about understanding what customers need. For an app to be successful, enough customers need to see your app as a solution to their problem. Henry Ford’s quote reminds us that customers may not always know what the solution to their problem is until they see it.
Does your app solve a real problem for customers? Another important question to ask is, Is your app the only solution to your problem? If there is competition, then it is best to know about that sooner rather than later. You can learn to make your app better than your competitors and therefore more appealing to customers. Would your target market pay for a solution like yours? How much would your target market pay? You want to ensure that your app is being sold at an appropriate price. If you charge too little you will not make a profit. If you charge too much, you may not have enough customers to make a profit.You will not know the answer to any of these questions without asking your customers. You can ask them in surveys or interviews.
By asking your customers in surveys or interviews, you can understand your market and build a better product or business. These questions (on the slide) help you understand your customers and will help you build a better product and business. (Read through the questions).Does anyone have any additional questions they would ask?
Now, ask the girls to brainstorm questions for the survey.There is space in the workbook on page 9 to brainstorm any questions to find out more about your customer. Pages 7 and 8 in the workbook are example surveys, these might be a good reference if you find it challenging to come up with many ideas.Student Workbook is available at http://www.technovationchallenge.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/2014_Student-Workbook_L1_6.pdf
Now that you have ideas for questions, decide with your team which questions you want in the survey. Multiple choice questions with checkboxes are easy for people to answer. You can leave questions with more than one answer if that makes sense in the context. There is space on page 10 in workbook to write out your team’s survey questions.
Now that you have ideas for questions, decide with your team which questions you want in the survey. Multiple choice questions with checkboxes are easy for people to answer. You can leave questions with more than one answer if that makes sense in the context. There is space on page 10 in workbook to write out your team’s survey questions.
You can find people who will answer your surveys on Twitter, Facebook, via email, or asking them in person to take your survey.
Finish creating your survey,gather 20 responses, and prepare to share them with the class next week. There is a column in the table on page 10 where you can write a summary of survey results for each question. Be prepared to share what your survey results say about your product market. If you want some inspiration, check out pages 7 and 8 of the workbook.
