Frank

OVERVIEW

As a consultant for an early stage venture in Harvard’s Venture Incubation Program, I spent January and February 2017 doing market research, feasibility testing and early product design for a human resources company.

When I started work on Frank—then “Skillrocket”—the team was testing a B2C professional development product targeted at millennials. The goal was to use one-minute micro-lessons to teach new workers core workplace skills.

PRODUCT / MARKET FIT

Immediately there were a few red flags in terms of product-market fit. Having worked on B2C products in the past, I was acutely aware of the challenges such businesses faced with customer acquisition, retention, and monetization—particularly in a market as challenging as education/self-help.

The team’s extensive domain research (including over 200 interviews with managers and employees) highlighted many significant pain points for both managers and new employees—but lacked basic market validation: did millennials see a personal need for a professional self-help product? Would they personally use the product? Would they pay for basic access or premium features?

CONSUMER INTERVIEWS: TESTING THE TARGET MARKET

Before moving forward with any initial product design or prototyping, I wanted to get into the heads of potential end-users. I conducted a short, qualitative study of 15 millennial workers, with varying backgrounds and degrees of work experience.

KEY FINDINGS: MILLENNIALS

• Almost every user said the product would be valuable for a co-worker
• When presented with the basic concept, no US citizen I interviewed said they would use the product themselves (RED FLAG)
• Almost every non-native millennial Iinterviewed suggested this would be a helpful—or even essential—product for internationals working the US

Though not quantitative or definitive, these early results suggested that the team could a) focus on a niche target market (internationals working in the US) or b) pivot the product to find a better product/market fit.

BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD: CONSUMER RESEARCH & IDEATION

With support from the team, I returned to the drawing board to look for potential market opportunities for the product.

Starting with buyer interviews (HR / Managers) and user interviews (employees), I uncovered a surprising use-case for our product that integrated manager buy-in and solved a significant pain point for both managers and employees.  

After significant additional market research, including a competitive market analysis of a segment of the HR vertical, I presented my findings to the team. 

The team adopted my recommendations for a product pivot, resulting in a significantly improved product-market fit and path to monetization.

NOTE: To comply with my NDA, I am unable to further elaborate on specific product recommendations. The wireframes and mockups below represent a sample of work that does not relay any confidential product strategy.

NEXT STEPS: BRANDING & EARLY PRODUCT DESIGN

BRANDING

Based on the new product pivot, I developed a brand concept based around “Frank,” a personal professional coach in your pocket (think: “Watson”or “Oscar”).