business model, business model canvas, columbia, customer development, lean launchpad, lean startup, steve blank

1. Book travel like a Guru in seconds
CUSTOMER DISCOVERY INSIGHTS
Number of Interviews since January 14: 50
Number of Interviews since to date: 121
TEAM: Laura Kornhauser, Sigyn Jonsdottir, Dhruvkumar Gopal Motwani, Shakira Adigun-Boaye

2. Revenue Streams
SPENDIE – BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS – Day 5
• Allow customers to make
smarter purchasing decisions
using an Design a decision
making algorithm for
purchasing travel
• Allow customers to search for
experiences
• Software and usability
design
Credit card companies
• Special offers
• Point systems
Specific Rewards
programs sites: Travel
& Hospitality
Providers
• Airline – Saboteurs?
• Hotels
• SPG
• Agents
Payment networks
• E.g. MasterCard,
Visa.
Aggregators /
Saboteurs?:
• Kayak et al
• Reward wallet
• Points guy
Website/App/Database/Algorithm/Optimizer:
• Build
• Maintenance
• Updating
Cost of sweepstakes and additional rewards
Referral fees e.g. cost of endorsement from experts, users
• Freemium/Potential for <$5 fee for application?
• providers – fees from referrals Credit card company affiliate
fees, when over certain # > threshold of users
• Direct marketing packages – e.g. package vacations
• Concierge service
• Monetizing data collected (SAVE initially)
Direct
Website (primary),
Application (mainly
search & discover),
Direct marketing via
Email
Indirect
Corporate travel
department partners
Payment networks
• Relationship
management
• Web and Email scraping
algorithms Software
developers
• Optimization
experts
• Database experts
• UX Designer
• UI Designer
Key Partners Key Activities Value Proposition
Customer
Relationships
Customer Segments
Key Resources
Channels
Cost Structure
3. Rewards Novice:
Frequent traveler who
does track points care
about SMART TRAVEL
2. Rewards Enthusiast:
Frequent traveler who is
obsessed knowledgeable
with points SMART
TRAVEL
4. Credit card
companies
5. Travel & Hospitality
Providers (e.g. Airlines,
SPG, Travel
Wholesalers,)
6. Payment networks?
7. Car companies?
Portal: Aggregate
program data &
computes the best way
to spend/ earn
miles/points
Enable user to better
track, spend and earn
when travelling. If using
dollars, which credit
card should I use to earn
the most points on the
transaction and when?
Grow user base / increase
engagement and share of
wallet and engage with
frequent travelers not
currently using their
services
Monetize currency
previously not valued
unused
Better UI than existing
products, reduction in
search time
Proactively reach out to
customers with
personalized
recommendations for miles
and points utilization
1. Rewards Guru:
Frequent traveler who is
obsessed with extracting
every bit of point/mile
value
GET: Algo-thon
Get: Word of mouth key!
referrals and incentives
Keep/Grow: Reach out
with “No Cash Options”;
Deliver Savings /
additional functions e.g.
travel suggestions based
on previous behavior
GET: Show them the
money they are wasting

3. Day 1 Days 2-4 Day 5
 Spoke to 22
customers about
their travel behavior
 Redefined customer
segments into two
parts:
 1) Frequent flyers
who use points
 2) frequent flyers
who don’t use points
 Realised we needed
to better articulate
our value proposition
vs. kayak et al and
where we sit within
the competitive
landscape
 Learned about views
of airlines and flight
search aggregators
 Redefined market,
revised market size
and focused on
“points ethusiasts”
for MVP given and
expertise openess to
product
 Asked customers
how to appeal to the
mass market?
 Joined “Miles Meet
Up” and posted on
travel forums to
source volunteers for
our feature set
 Spoke to 70 customers in 3 days and
recognized wide range of pain points
/ features wanted (e.g. wallet, alerts)
 Tested the willingness to pay for the
app – still in testing
 Asked customers what it would take
to get them to download AND USE
 Redefined customer segments and
value propositions for “points
enthusiasts” and “points novices”
 Save time for “points enthusiasts”
 Extract unused $ value for “points
novices”
 Customer / Provider feedback
suggested user acquisition through
SEO, word of mouth and referrals.
 Interviewed hotels, gurus,
aggregators to test revenue model:
Identified credit card referral fees the
most likely revenue stream
 Spoke with optimization expert on the
dynamic of our pricing algorithm

4. Why did we enrol in Lean?
Our Goals..
Learn about the competitive landscape and
understand the pain points for a frequent flyer
Explore about what features would users want to
see and what would convince users to change their
habits – not an easy task – and adopt our new
method?
Learn more about how to reach and convert the
“non believer” who currently thinks points and
dollars are useless
Explore the partner and revenue model of
developing a product for this market

5. Day 1
Before Class:
10 Customer Interviews + 35 Survey Responses

6. Frequent travelers:
business / personal
and who book their
own travel?
• Allow customers to
make smarter
purchasing
decisions using an
algorithm
• Software design
and usability
Spend Smart
Should I purchase the
item with dollars or
points?
Rewards
If using dollars, which
credit card should I
use to earn the most
points on the
transaction?
Credit card
companies:
• Special offers
• Point systems
Rewards programs:
• Airline
• Hotels
• Agents
Aggregators:
• Kayak
• Reward wallet
• Points guy
Website/App/Database/Algorithm:
• Build
• Maintenance
• Updating
Cost of sweepstakes and additional rewards
• Premium
• Direct marketing packages
• Concierge service
• Monetizing data collected
Direct: Website,
Application, Direct
marketing via Email
Indirect: Corporate
travel department
partners
• Relationship
management
• Web and Email
scrapping
algorithms
• Database creation
• UI Designer
Get: referrals and
incentives
Keep/Grow: savings
/ additional functions
SPENDIE – BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS – Day 1

7. We went in search of the business
traveler… and followed him/her
We Asked 25 questions including:
“How do you currently book?”
“What would do you love/hate”
“How often do you use miles/points?”
We Heard:
“WE HATE THE
AIRLINES!!”
“MILES ARE TOO
COMPLEX TO USE”
“I JUST CAN’T KEEP
TRACK OF IT ALL”

8. Day 1:
What did we learn?
 Need to focus our message and articulate
succinctly
 Segmenting our market by business/non-
business traveler is not the right indicator of
behavior and customer needs
 Almost everyone is not satisfied with their current
process
What did we do next?
 Decided to focus on a different customer segment
– people who travel frequently (12 or more flights
per year) – and conduct extensive interviews
 Created petal diagram to help visualize
competitive position

9. Head for Points
* Search results shown in dollar prices only
Reward Aggregators – Programs & Wallets
Travel Advice/Blogs
Searching Tools
Reward Maximizer
Recommenders
Acquired
by Yahoo!

10. A travel portal – tracks the users
rewards and works out the best way to
spend & earn miles or points
Why are we different...
No one does the math for
YOU in a few clicks!
What is…

11. So we’re making smart travel easier
But we need to:
● Hone in our customer segments and understand what
their distinct pain points are and features they prioritise
● Understand if there is value in solving these problems
● Figure out the revenue model and continue to test if
users are willing to pay
What did we do next?
● Further define our customer segment
● Test appetite for app fee
● Investigate hypotheses on additional revenue channels

12. Days 2-4
Day 2 - 22 Interviews (33 Total)
Day 3 - 11 Interviews (44 Total)
Day 4 - 27 Interviews (71 Total)

13. 2. Frequent
traveler who
does track
points
1. Frequent
traveler who is
obsessed with
points
SPENDIE – BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS – Day 2
Frequent travelers:
business / personal
and who book their
own travel?
• Allow customers to
make smarter
purchasing
decisions using an
algorithm
• Software design
and usability
Wallet/Portal
Aggregate all reward
program information
for the user in a single
wallet
Should I purchase the
item with dollars or
points?
Based on my entire
rewards portfolio how
can I purchase /
obtain perks when
travelling
Earning
If using dollars, which
credit card should I
use to earn the most
points on the
transaction and when?
Credit card
companies:
• Special offers
• Point systems
Specific Rewards
programs sites:
• Airline
• Hotels
• Agents
Aggregators:
• Kayak et al
• Reward wallet
• Points guy
Website/App/Database/Algorithm:
• Build
• Maintenance
• Updating
Cost of sweepstakes and additional rewards
• Freemium?
• Travel portal generates leads for providers – fees
from referrals
• Direct marketing packages
• Concierge service
• Monetizing data collected
Direct: Website,
Application, Direct
marketing via Email
Indirect: Corporate
travel department
partners
• Relationship
management
• Web and Email
scrapping
algorithms
• Database creation
• UI Designer
Get: Referrals and
incentives
Keep/Grow: Savings
/ additional functions
Key Partners Key Activities Value Proposition
Customer
Relationships
Customer Segments
Key Resources Channels
Revenue StreamsCost Structure

14. We targeted potential customers in midtown at
1) Hotels:
2) Grand Central:
3) And Coffee Shops
where we got our first capital offer
Day 2: In Search of the Frequent Traveler

15. Day 2: Key Insights
The majority of professionals (usually older) use only 1-2 sites to
book travel and do not recognize the value of their points –
“points novices”
Some professionals enjoy booking travel, and spend significant
time researching using travel blogs e.g. Points Guy – “points
enthusiasts”
Validated that both segments unwilling to pay
Still a wide range of product features being requested
Key Decision:
Refine the value proposition for both segments and establish
revenue model.

16. Grow user base /
increase engagement
SPENDIE – BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS – Day 3
• Allow customers to
make smarter
purchasing
decisions using an
algorithm
• Software design
and usability
Credit card
companies:
• Special offers
• Point systems
Specific Rewards
programs sites:
Travel &
Hospitality
Providers
• Airline
• Hotels
• SPG
• Agents
Aggregators:
• Kayak et al
• Reward wallet
• Points guy
Website/App/Database/Algorithm:
• Build
• Maintenance
• Updating
Cost of sweepstakes and additional rewards
• Freemium
• Travel portal generates leads for providers –
fees from referrals
• Direct marketing packages
• Concierge service
• Monetizing data collected
Direct: Website,
Application, Direct
marketing via Email
Indirect: Corporate
travel department
partners
• Relationship
management
• Web and Email
scrapping
algorithms
• Database creation
• UI Designer
Get: referrals and
incentives
Keep/Grow: savings
/ additional functions
Key Partners Key Activities Value Proposition
Customer
Relationships
Customer Segments
Key Resources Channels
Revenue StreamsCost Structure
Wallet/Portal
Aggregate reward
program data in
one portal &
computes the best
way to spend/
earn miles/points
Enable user to
better track, spend
and earn when
travelling. If using
dollars, which credit
card should I use to
earn the most points
on the transaction
and when?
2. Rewards Novice:
Frequent traveler
who does track
points
1. Rewards
Enthusiast: Frequent
traveler who is
obsessed with points
3. Credit card
companies
4. Travel &
Hospitality
Providers (e.g.
Airlines, SPG,
Travel Wholesalers)

17. Frequent flyers on the Newark AirTrain
Confirmed value proposition is:
● Point Enthusiasts need us to save time – USABILITY
Point Novice we can create value – but do they care?
Reward Programs:
Realized all travel and hospitality providers could be
potential revenue partners
Need to demonstrate growing user base
> critical threshold of +200k users
Next step: Interview aggregators, airlines and credit card
providers
Day 3: We Spoke To...

18. SPENDIE – BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS – Day 4
• Allow customers to
make smarter
purchasing
decisions using an
algorithm
• Allow customers
to search for
experiences
• Software design
and usability
Credit card companies
• Special offers
• Point systems
Specific Rewards
programs sites: Travel
& Hospitality
Providers
• Airline – Saboteurs?
• Hotels
• SPG
• Agents
Aggregators /
Saboteurs?:
• Kayak et al
• Reward wallet
• Points guy
Website/App/Database/Algorithm:
• Build
• Maintenance
• Updating
Cost of sweepstakes and additional rewards
Referral fees e.g. cost of endorsement from experts, users
• Freemium
• providers – fees from referrals Credit card company affiliate
fees, when over certain # > threshold of users
• Direct marketing packages – e.g. package holidays, agents
• Concierge service
• Monetizing data collected
Direct
Website (primary),
Application, Direct
marketing via Email
Indirect
Corporate travel
department partners
• Relationship
management
• Web and Email
scrapping
algorithms
• Database creation
• UI Designer
Get: Word of mouth
key! referrals and
incentives
Keep/Grow: savings /
additional functions
e.g. travel
suggestions based on
previous behavior
Key Partners Key Activities Value Proposition
Customer
Relationships
Customer Segments
Key Resources Channels
Revenue StreamsCost Structure
2. Rewards Novice:
Frequent traveler
who does track
points care about
SMART TRAVEL
1. Rewards
Enthusiast: Frequent
traveler who is
obsessed with points
SMART TRAVEL
3. Credit card
companies
4. Travel &
Hospitality
Providers (e.g.
Airlines, SPG,
Travel Wholesalers)
Wallet/Portal
Aggregate program
data & computes
the best way to
spend/ earn
miles/points
Enable user to
better track, spend
and earn when
travelling. If using
dollars, which credit
card should I use to
earn the most points
on the transaction
and when?
Grow user base /
increase engagement
Monetize currency
previously unused
Better UI than
existing products,
reduction in search
time

19. Steve
VALUE PROPOSITION
• QUICK & ACCURATE TOOL
• SAVE ENERGY
• SMART POINT & MILE CALCULATOR
Who is he?
• Ex-Banker who left post crisis to travel the world
• Used to the perks of traveling with status but no
longer has the corporate card to fund
• Married with a young family
• Very good at math
What Matters to him?
• Optimizing - Making sure he earns the abosulte
most out of every dollar spend and every point or
mile used
• Time – would rather spend time with the family than
searching for travel deals
• Status – earning it and keeping it
Current Booking Process
• He cross references 10 sites when booking a family
trip – corporate sites, search engines and blogs
• He knows to the fractional penny what each type of
mile and each type of point is worth
THE EARLY EVANGELIST
THE POINTS GURU
Book travel like a Guru in seconds

20. REACHING EARLY EVANGELISTS
Book travel like a Guru in seconds

21. REACHING EARLY EVANGELISTS
Book travel like a Guru in seconds

22. Maya
VALUE PROPOSITION
SMARTER TOOL SIMPLIFICATION OPTIMIZATION
•
Who is she?
• 25-50 years old working Professional
• Frequent travelers (6+ trips per year)
• Control freak
• Comfortable with Math
What Matters to her?
• Optimizing - Making sure she takes full advantage earning miles/points
• Values her time
• Status – earning it and keeping it
Current Booking Process
• She books her own travel or specifically directs someone in her
company to book a particular itinerary
• She cross references more than 2 sites when booking
• She is smart about earning/using rewards
THE POINTS ENTHUSIAST
Book travel like a Guru in seconds

23. George Who is he?
• Over 35 year old working Professional
• Travels frequently (6+ trips per year)
• Doesn‘t take full advantage of miles/points
• Travels mainly for business
• Doesn’t know how many miles he has
• Doesn’t believe in loyalty programs
• Thinks miles/points are too hard to earn/use, status.
What Matters to him?
• Efficiency – time and energy
• Quality and reliable service
Current Booking Process
• Doesn’t book his own travel for work or pleasure
• Doesn’t look at converting miles or points
POINTS NOVICE
Book travel like a Guru in seconds
VALUE PROPOSITION
CONVENIENCE SHARED PROFILE FREE LUXERY
•

24. Keep Customers
Get Customers Grow Customers
Acquire
Activate
Up-Sell
Next-Sell
Cross-Sell
Referrals
Viral Loop – Users
advertise the extra
$$ found/earned
Viral Loop – Driven by users referring friends
and family and creating family profiles
Tracker of additional
value found/savings
earned
Curated
Travel Blog
Savings
competitions
& targeted
offers
CUSTOMER FUNNEL
Trusted Travel
Bloggers
Search Engine
Optimization
Algo-Thon
Additional
Savings for
Profile Expansion

25. Credit cards, Hotels, Aggregators and Gurus
From travel bloggers to Kayak and SPG to understand
the existing revenue model and customer acquisition
route
Also interviewed users with wireframe learning more
about the feature set and the channels required
Day 4: We Spoke To...

26. Day 4: Insights
Revenue:
- Airlines are unwilling to pay significant affiliate fees
Possible backlash from Airlines as they want miles to expire
unused – still being explored
- Hotels and Car Rental referrals are another source of
revenue
- Potential Credit cards referral fees – fee structure is
opaque in the industry c. $50 estimate
Customers
- “Steve” Early Evangelist segment identified and targeted
for further research
- Go for early adopters / “points gurus” first - could also
explore endorsements from a travel blogger
- Preference for searching on app and book on web - prioritize
SPEED and ACCURACY for points gurus
- Kayaks et al use SEO, referrals and word of mouth
predominately to get new customers

27. Dedicated E-commerce
Platform App store
Social Commerce
Aggregators
Our Product Our Customers
CHANNELS
Potential affiliates

28. Dedicated e-commerce
Platform app store
Social commerce
Flight Data (IATA)
Reward Data?
CHANNELS USER SEARCH PROVIDERS
User Profile
Book
Recommend
Referral fee
costs
Affiliate fees from Providers?
Affiliate fees from Credit
Card
Infrastructure
& data costs
POTENTIAL REVENUE MODEL

29. Decision Making Process for Credit Card
Company Marketing
First groups to target
All Potential saboteurs???
CMO
(Data Science
Expert?)
Rewards
Platform
Technological
Integration
Partnerships &
Initiatives
Centers of
Excellence
Customer
Acquisitions
Portfolio
Marketing
Centers of
Excellence
Partnerships
Individual
Activities

30. Day 5
50 Interviews (121 Total)

31. Day 5 - Approach and Insights
BIG IDEA – Users may be willing to pay a minimal fee (<$5) for this
application (Over the course of all interviews, 35% of customers
said “YES! I need this”, 31% said “YES – if someone I trust
recommended it)
Spoke to More Credit Cards and Airlines, and Aggregators
• Credit cards have spend up $1bn on marketing and loyalty
programs are a strong hook – incentives from hotels, to flights,
car hire, priority tickets
• Forums which have a good user base but also strong conversion
best placed.
• Not threatened by redemption of rewards

32. Day 5 Approach and Insights Cont’d
Tested updated wireframe with 50 customers
• Received very positive feedback on the functionality
• Users particularly excited about the user dashboard
and recommendation page
• With the new and improved wireframe, 90% said they
would download it now and 75% said they would pay
for it

33. MVP

34. MVP

35. Next Steps
Get in with the Guru
• Jan 20th - Miles Meet Up – 76 Guru attendees
• Use Travel Forums and Interest groups to to find
more Guru to test feature set and algorithm
Development
• Start to build search and points & miles currency
algorithm
• Algo-thon competition with selection of Gurus
Partnerships & Revenue
• Continue to work through the complex
partnership model at credit cards and airlines to
refine the revenue model and partnership
strategy

36. APPENDIX
Book travel like a Guru in seconds

37. MARKET SIZE
• Target customer: Leisure travellers and
small business owners.
• 78% of total travel is leisure.
• Average credit card/person in US: 1.55
• Average ticket price: $400
• Total market in Dollars: $280 billion /year
• Market growth rate = 4 to 5 %
Market research
• Talked with 121 customers.
• Talked with 9 channel partners.
• Talked with 4 potential competitors.
1% = $3.3m
in Revenue
Total
passenger
trips/per
year (US)
700m
Total
lesisure trips
booked on
Website/app
330.4m

38. Loyalty/Reward points
40% of people never use miles
for their purchase.
1.25 % of American Airlines’ frequent flyer’s members contributed 26% of
revenue.
50- 70 % of frequent flyers miles go unused. Close to 2 billion lost in airline miles
every year in US.
1.25 % of American Airlines’ frequent flyer’s members contributed 26% of
revenue.
64% people saying frequent flyer miles less worth than 5 years ago.
Orphaned miles: Miles obtained by people who don’t travel often.

39. Thank you!