Cherisher
Analyze the safety of the streets through large data to empowers young female solo travelers to prepare their travel with confidence and ease.
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Empowers young female solo travelers to prepare their travel with confidence and ease.
CHALLENGE: Reduce the risk of solo female travelers during travel.
SKILLS: User research, Interviewing, UI design, Prototyping, Storytelling
TOOLS: Zoom, Figma, Mural, Google PowerPoint, Video Scribe, Paper, Pen
TIMELINE: 12 Weeks, September 2021 to December 2021
TEAM MEMBER: Qi Luo, John Cho
PRODUCT
An app helps to make safe decision with facts and experiences.
Feature
Safety Comparisons
Compare the safety of the area
Use data from local police department
Review
Review how you felt with your stay in your destinations
Landing Page
We created real web page as our Landing Page and used it to conduct our Acquisition Test.
Ideation
We used "Molecules" to find our ideas, a special structure that includes target audiences and problem. After a discussion, we found issues that we were all interested in. Violence against women is an epidemic. No one would disagree that women would be more likely to be chosen as targets for random crimes than men. And the massive increase in solo female travelers in recent years has highlighted the lack of travel safety information organized for the information women need.
USER RESEARCH
Survey & Interview
29
Survey Response
5
Female
8
Interviewees
We decided to use Survey and Interview to confirm that our Molecules are indeed present. After searching through various channels we got 29 feedbacks and selected the right ones for interviews. In the end, we conducted eight interviews, five of which were with female, and three with male who also shared their thoughts on the subject.
Persona
We used our user research to create a prototype persona that fit the target audience. Her name is Helena, and she wanted to go on a solo trip, but she was worried about the safety of her neighbors. Because on the Internet, the results are focused on entertainment, or sometimes there is affiliated content, or the information is outdated.
Analysis
1. Participants were concerned about safety, especially those experienced safety issues while travelling.
2. Participants lack a reliable source of information about their travel destination and its local neighbourhoods.
3. Participants want to know the safety of travel destination but also the knowledge to keep themselves safe.
MARKET
Market Sizing
To confirm whether our chosen target was swamp, ocean, desert, or wall, we conducted a survey on the current status of solo female travelers. What can be seen is that the number of solo female travelers is increasing. And then, we have Total addressable market of approximately 18 million US solo travellers, and we narrowed it down to Serviceable obtainable market of 839 thousand 18-24 years old US female solo travellers, which is approximately 1.8 percent of total addressable market.
Comparative Research
- No service shows the statistics of the specific neighbourhood
- More access on free tier
- Mobile Friendly
- Sufficient Numbers of Users (Facebook group or app)
- On site assistance for travellers (Sitata, bsafe/Available on Paid/Premium Plan)
- Have accumulated Travel Information and tips (Solo Female Traveller Club)
We searched for a variety of web pages, applications, and services for solo female travelers, and compared them.As displayed in 2x2 graph, We have our business to targeted to young solo female travellers, who are familiar with devices. Compared to the existing competitors, Cherisher has opportunities as there are no service show the statistics of the specific neighbourhood unless the official administratives, more features to free tier, and become mobile friendly.
BUSINESS PLAN
Business Mode
After careful comparison, we have carefully chosen for our business that our business will use an LLC, B2C format, to become a niche player and re-divide the existing female solo travel market. We will earn profits from subscriptions to mobile apps and monthly magazines to generate a steady stream of revenue.
Acquisition Test
We performed an acquisition test to measure the realistic estimate on actual target audience, by using our landing page and sign up form, with follow up email for signing up for beta. Out of 14 visitors, 1 person replied to our welcoming email, implying 7.14 percent of the serviceable obtainable market who were heavily interested in our product.
MVP
Our first minimum viable product would be sharing feedback, which emphasise user participation to achieve certain amount of feedbacks about destination. then track the number or percentage of people who submitted their review versus who opt out.
The second mvp test on the comparison feature based on our customer research would be critical to decide whether our product is viable or not as it assess the effectiveness of crime stats on the travellers.
Burn Rate
Need $506,606
56 thousand dollars/month
9 months
Til V1 Launch: Including Additional MVP, Aquisition Tests and Beta service
Let’s shift to do some math then. We estimate that our burn rate would be approximately 56 thousand dollars per month while the rent would be able to cut down, which means we need five hundred and six thousand dollars till the official launch.
Revenue and Profit
Once we achieve the goal of more than sixty thousand subscribers, then our profit would be thirty seven thousand and seven hundred dollars per year, based on annual plan of sixteen point ninety nine dollar.
Timeline
Reflection
Before this project I can say that my mindset was more towards simply designing a certain product. Although I was also conducting research, it was actually completely different from the founder's point of view and from the designer's point of view. The founder's perspective starts from the market, from where he likes to focus, and is keenly aware of the lack of the market. After comparing this, they focus on the possibilities of the market and use concrete data to think about the size of the market, rather than simply focusing on the market they are interested in. Such a commercial mode of thinking is really what I lack.