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Reflections - Tiaki

I feel as though there are a few things we have done well. Firstly, I believe that as a team we have great discussions together, generally most members quickly understand one another, and we can make quick progress. With this in mind, I believe group discussions will be key for the next half of this semester.

I feel however we need to document these discussions better. I made a point of taking minutes for our video call, however, didn’t think to do so (or allocate) whilst we have been having our discussions in studio.

I feel as though I need to adapt my management style to individual members of the group. I have found that some members will begin a piece of work and not mention anything until they have finished, the problem being they have deviated from what was agreed and time has been wasted.

All in all though I feel like we have a lot of exciting work ahead of us!

[jcherrybct]

Rapid prototyping - Tiaki

We will be using several different methods to iterate and improve Tiaki, one such process we have done so far is lo-fi prototyping. To see more information on this, click here.

Having come up with our idea and discussed features, I felt as though the team was on slightly different wavelengths as to what our features actually meant. With this in mind during a mid-week meeting I let the team know that next studio we would be drawing up our visions of what each main feature would look & work like.

We came up with several different examples as you can see, however this exercise was great to bring us together and put ideas to paper. Making them more real, but also making it easier to understand the thoughts of other team members.

We have since begun digitally prototyping more aspects such as icons/avatars and their placement within environments.

[jcherrybct]

Team Roles - Tiaki

As project manager I will be trying to guide all team members in the same direction & keep everyone on the same page. This has already proved not to be that straightforward as a group with five creative individuals can come up with very good opposing ideas. It has been interesting to find ways to compromise and merge ideas together to best suit the team in the long run.

I have already set up our shared online space for documentation and collaboration. This year we will be using a Google drive, in which has folders on all the large processes we have undergone so far. I have also arranged for the team to call during the week so that we know what we are doing during our studio time together so that it is most effective. This also allows a catchup with any team members that may have outstanding tasks.

Furthermore the google drive contains a list of tasks to be carried out, this allows all members to keep on top of who should be doing what and by when.

Finally and I believe most importantly is running to an overall schedule, I have set this up in reverse from our targets (Submissions) in order to ensure all tasks that need completing before we have assignments due can be given adequate time to be completed properly.

[jcherrybct]

Ideation - Tiaki

Having successfully brainstormed our problem, Tom began a new whiteboard for our ideation process. Once again, I officiated the process, making sure everybody spoke and encouraging any ideas at all to be shouted out, all going onto the board.

We were discussing large features like a map feature showing all of the possible locations you could visit and interact with Tiaki, small features such as being able to earn badges similar to fitbit rewards and everything in between. We were interested in how VR and AR could begin to solve more problems such as decay to landmarks through tourism.

After our initial brainstorming session, I took to creating a mood board in order to take inspiration from what is currently out there but to also begin to articulate my ideas better to the group.

With this mood board I began looking at methods of using AR that intrigued me, capturing them and showing the team so that I could explain easier what I was trying to say. For example, it is easier to describe having virtual pins in AR whilst looking through your camera, marking locations of significance when I show the top left image.

Then in similar fashion to the problem, I asked the group to go away and find some research on features they would like or inspiration from other existing uses of AR.

After ideating, I showed team members the first few sections of a lean canvas, explaining that it is important to keep reminding ourselves that our solution is meant to solve our problem. Also, that we are designing for a particular group of people, I explained that we would go into that in more detail another time. Since then I have been in touch with contacts I made at storytech https://www.storyte.ch last year through the X Challenge in order to attempt to receive another package, which we will now be able to do in week 6 or 7.

Once we were set on a few of our main features (which have changed since this point), we began discussing what our goals would be for this year. We decided that coding this application in half a year would be ambitious, and with help from Claudine we decided that we would produce a polished ‘advert’ style video for Tiaki in which we would showcase a few of the main features of the app. For next semester however we would commence the actual development.

My main personal contributions:

-       Officiating and partaking in brain storming

-       Mood board creation and articulating my vision for Tiaki

-       Instructing the team to carry out research on our solution & what inspiration we could draw from existing AR usage

-       Secure Storytech workshop to complete with team at a later date

-       Help deciding on assignment goals

[jcherrybct]

The Problem

Once we had chosen our topic, the team became very excited about the possibilities of what we could create, with at least one member beginning drawing up an idea they had had, and others discussing what technology we could use.

Being the beginning of our process, I called the group together and explained that we should begin by finding out what the problems around tourism & culture were, and what problem we would actually be able to solve.

We began by brainstorming; Tom took control of the whiteboard and we took turns at pointing out historical issues we had had with these locations. We quickly discovered that we all believed there was a very analogue nature of displaying information surrounding interesting historical and cultural sites. Plaques and boards were subject to damage and ware and sometimes would be illegible, moreover members of our group informed that they found these boring, reading long blocks of text, breaking the immersion of being in a historically significant and interesting environment.

I then suggested that we used a process that I had learnt last year, the 5 whys explained further here (https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_5W.htm). Asking why the problem exists five times to get to the root of the real problem. At first, we didn’t have much success because we found that the initial problem we had selected (Culture being lost through time) was a problem with generating interest in native culture and the best solution for that was through a paradigm shift in education within New Zealand. We didn’t quite have the time for that.

Through further conversations with both our team members and peers withing creative technology, we came to the understanding that our problem was lack of immersion and information at historic and cultural sites.

After we had come to this conclusion, I suggested that we should all go away and find a piece of research that we can discuss when we next met to discuss further.

My main individual contributions:

-       Bringing the team to the same wavelength to discuss the problem we are solving

-       Taking part in group discussions & articulating the final iteration of our problem

-       Helping officiate the conversations we were having, keeping us on track whilst encouraging even the, ‘craziest,’ ideas

-       Instructing the team to carry out research on our problem

[jcherrybct]

UI & UX development

At the time of submission for the first studio assignment, I had created a number of basic wireframes. Received feedback on them and reiterated. Below you can see the outcome:

These app designs although basic display in good detail what the contents of the app will entail.

However, wanting to improve upon these I began exploring app prototyping software. Having spoken to a few TA’s and looked online I began looking into how to use adobe XD. Much like with illustrator this entire concept was new to me. It will take far more usage to begin to create coherent designs.

I began by undertaking a beginner’s walkthrough creating the following:

This app obviously not the direction I would like to take Vehicle Mate, yet good to begin to grasp the concepts of XD.

My first attempt looked very amateurish as you can see below:

After discussing how to improve the design, firstly in terms of appearance and secondly specifically for the users I came up with the following:

Despite not being very happy with this design, it was a notable improvement. I began then playing around with how the user flow may work, creating other screens, getting feedback from them and then iterating.

From there I then began putting into place the prototype feature of XD, seeing how a user may actually interact with the application.

This process was incredibly useful in seeing how the design can impact the way a user would interact with the app. How the more important features can become more visible. Unfortunately with the practice pitch night and other more pressing features than design, I couldn’t spend too long working on XD.

Since the Practice pitch, I have been communicating and working alongside James Shaw (See expanding team section) to come up with some new designs, we have begun experimenting with new colour schemes and layouts to test on potential users for feedback. We aim to take the feedback and create better designs. Below is one of the recent designs we plan to test:

We plan to continue working on the simple UI & easy user flow as they are two components that will become paramount to VM’s success.

[jcherrybct]

X Challenge Workshop & Mentorship

Two of the prizes from being an X Challenge finalist were to attend a startup workshop & receive a new mentor.

The X Challenge finalist workshop was incredibly helpful. With speakers firstly on Startups, why they fail and why they succeed. How to set out a business plan and what you need to look into. The lean canvas was introduced in this talk for example. As you may remember from my first assignment this is something, I had already undertaken with the help of my previous mentor Jarek.

Our next talk was from the head of Bridgewest high tech ventures. Discussing what it is that investors look for when hearing about a business proposition. This talk was very helpful as it is likely that without any funding from the X Challenge, I am unlikely to progress Vehicle Mate without funding from elsewhere. This talk also helped me to begin thinking about areas of VM that were currently quite flimsy that I need to improve upon.

Thirdly, we had a talk regarding creating a pitch. I talk about this later in my contributions.

Finally, Nick Licence, my new mentor gave a talk on the beginnings of brand story & strategy. He talked about how brand strategy should become before almost anything else. Anything you create going forwards from that point should align with your brand strategy and story. Nick’s talk also started going down the route of data collection. 1st, 2nd & 3rd person data collection and how important and relevant it can be. Nick then began explaining how you can create incredibly useful 1st person data from users of your app/website. Any media you own has the potential to generate data. With that data you can fine tune your customer. Who your app appeals to and how people respond with what you are putting out. This data can in fact be one of the most important tools in business.

Below are two of the double page spreads from my notes taken on the day:

The second prize was my new mentor, Nick Licence, Director of Ad Tech at Krunch. We arranged to meet every Monday at 4.30. This was a good match for me due to the fact I believe that I needed help on the marketing side of VM. I discuss some of the topics of our conversations in later updates. It is important to know that almost every decision and avenue gone down has been discussed and molded with the feedback of an industry professional. One of the ways I have kept on top of our meetings is through preparing for the meetings in advance taking notes throughout:

From this I generally formulated a weekly to do list as shown below:

These to do lists really helped me keep on track with my project. This is alongside the Horizons that I show later in my submission.

[jcherrybct]

Marketing Strategy & Go to Market Exploration

Marketing and a go to market strategy have been two completely new concepts for me. As shown in my first assignment, I assumed that advertising would just entail a few promotions on social media, shouldn’t cost that much and it’s what everyone else does right?

The Storytech workshop was very helpful in showing that this is not the case. Knowing what the business provides and for who is incredibly important. Firstly, it took me down the route of owned, earned and paid. This has led to me being in the process of drawing up my marketing plan, ‘eco-system,’ in which I look to structure how VM is presented in all forms of media. Anything to do with the company is a marketing opportunity and it is important to succinctly show what it is you do. This can be done by making your UVP/Purpose more visible.

I also found that given my respecified ideal customer, I should actually look to different places to advertise. For example, because my customer is now a busy business worker with two cars, I am probably better off to advertise on LinkedIn. Attempting to get shares off popular people and contacts rather than have targeted adds on Instagram that are also likely more expensive. I also should look to set out my social channels and website in a manner that showcases my UVP, Purpose or ambition alongside a, ‘history section,’ for my website.

[jcherrybct]

Practice Pitch Workshop

Following on from my last update, I had my practice pitch hosted by Andrew Patterson professional public speaker, coach and MC for the X Challenge for the previous three years.

This session began with tips and tricks to perform an encapsulating pitch. How to handle yourself on stage and keep the audience engaged. From gestures to voice tone and everything in between.

It was great to compare my pitch to other finalists to see the level of competition VM is up against as well as taking inspiration from the others. I received plenty of constructive feedback that lead to me having a clearer view of what to include and how-to better structure my slide content and script.

One of the main pieces of feedback that stuck with me was Patterson informing me that the pitch to judges is an, ‘invitation to treat,’ (Personal Communication, October 12, 2020). The pitch should be structured to get the judges hooked on the idea and product rather than on the financial side. These segments could be explored more in the 5-minute Q&A phase if the judges believe they need to know more. I was told that my pitch was good to an investor however the format is different for the X Challenge. This has given me plenty of food for thought and will shape my pitch deck in the coming weeks. On top of this I was told to focus more on building empathy with the audience, sell a story. With this in mind I will attempt to discuss my target customer going through the pain points that I am attempting to solve through VM at the beginning of my pitch.

My new updated pitch slide inclusions sheet is below:

[jcherrybct]

Pitch Deck & Script Creation

For the X Challenge final, I have to pitch to judges and an audience in an attempt to win up to $10,000 of business expenses.

The pitch deck and slides have been in the works mentally since reaching the finals however were accelerated physically through the lead up to our first practice pitch night. Firstly, during the first X Challenge workshop we discussed how to build up a pitch.

Below are two images from that first workshop. Notes I took from Flavio Hangarter, who is in the business of growing startups.

He talked about a few books that would be worth reading (Pitch anything is one that I am beginning). We then got into the psychology behind a pitch, how to access certain emotional elements of the brain by leading up through a process. You have to build empathy to get your audience’s attention, trust to make them listen to you & then prove that you are the person to carry out the task.

This was then put into an easier to follow pyramid to which you can use to build up a basic pitch structure. This was then proved through looking at successful startup companies pitch decks to investors.

This was the basis of what I made my initial pitch deck up on. I discussed potential content and how to structure a 5-minute pitch with my mentor Nick. The main problem that I faced is that five minutes isn’t a long time to showcase the large volume of work and evidence around VM.

I used PowerPoint on google drive to begin mocking up what my pitch deck could potentially look like, this allowed me to think about how much detail I would like to put into each slide. You can see an image from this pitch deck below.

This 16-slide pitch deck included the following slides:

-       Intro

-       Problem

-       Solution

-       Toll Payments

-       Alert System

-       Insurance Checker

-       WoF Finder

-       REGO Renewal

-       Basic Vehicle Maintenance

-       Opportunity

-       TAM, SAM & SOM

-       Future Opportunities

-       Revenue Streams

-       Competition

-       Business Case

-       Team

This slide deck is over extensive however my thinking is that it is easier to start with more information and cut what is not relevant. Once I had created and discussed this pitch deck with my mentor I began writing a pitch.

I began by writing down what I would like to say during the pitch, this allowed me to test run my pitch for time and to decide which areas to focus on. I became aware quickly that this pitch deck would take longer than the allocated 5-minute time slot.

I performed my first practice pitch on the 12th of October.

[jcherrybct]

Expanding the Vehicle Mate Team

Since reaching the finals of the X Challenge, it had become apparent to me that VM is bigger than just a one-person job. With this in mind I began looking for more team members. I have found two people that were on board and willing to help with VM.

Firstly, an AUT student from the communications degree. I have asked Georgia to look at heading up marketing and media creation. She is currently working on creating a video to showcase the main pain points that vehicle mate is solving. This aims to build empathy and easily display what problems can be solved to users. The idea of this video is to use on our smoke test website once it is up and running. Also, the video has the potential to build empathy with the judges on the final pitch night.

Secondly, an AUT computer science student. James has agreed to help head up the development side of VM. Helping design and potentially developing the full app if we win some money from the X Challenge. He will also accompany me during the Q&A phase of the final pitch night to help answer technical questions.

[jcherrybct]

Market Validation Statistical Analysis

Here I will show the main facts and stats that I have researched. This includes webpages, articles & Google trends data. This is a culmination of all the main components of my research that has then been refined as not to be too extensive.

From each section of the following list I have learnt many things. Firstly, my problem exists and it is big enough to solve. Secondly, people want it solved and also that the problem is not currently going away.

A significant portion of my research, including SWOT analysis of VM’s competitors can be found in my assignment 1 submission.

Toll road payments

Kiwis owe $10 million in toll road fines in the last 10 years (RNZ) - https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/384409/new-zealanders-rack-up-10m-in-unpaid-toll-fees

15,927,000 total annual crossings across New Zealand’s three toll roads (NZTA) - https://www.nzta.govt.nz/assets/resources/annual-report-nzta/2018-19/nzta-annual-report-2019-section-c.pdf

293,000 accounts active paying for 77% of toll fees (NZTA) - https://www.nzta.govt.nz/assets/resources/annual-report-nzta/2018-19/nzta-annual-report-2019.pdf (This means that 23% of yearly toll road payments happen by people having to search online to ‘pay toll road fee’)

12,000,000 crossings accounted for by 293,000 active accounts

Over 3 million annual crossings don’t have an account.

Set & go/remind me

Interest over time for the search term Toll road. Cyclical around February peaks (recent data affected by coronavirus (Google Trends) - https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=NZ&q=Toll%20road

Service checks

Facts

Worn tyre tread leads  to 32 fatal accidents over the past three years - (NZ Herald)  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12026609

Phone interviews with garage workers - would car users benefit from reminders and simple tutorials? “For sure, definitely, helping with some basic stuff to help them look after their cars.”

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OtlrREnfDwVtPeN3Q9kF3AjqJxsl1RnN-vV24rCy8nE/edit

Average NZ vehicle age is 14 years - https://www.transport.govt.nz/mot-resources/transport-dashboard/2-road-transport/rd025-average-vehicle-fleet-age-years/

Insurance, REGO & WoF

Interest over time for the search term REGO. Positively ascending (Google trends) -

Interest over time for the search term REGO check. Positively ascending as more people look for a way to check their REGO expiry (Google trends) - 

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=rego%20check&date=all&geo=NZ

Interest over time for the search term WoF. Constantly ascending (Google trends) -

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=NZ&q=WoF

Interest over time for search term WoF near me (Google trends) -

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=wof%20near%20me&date=all&geo=NZ

180,000 WoF infringement notices handed out in 2011 (transport.govt) - https://www.transport.govt.nz/assets/Import/Documents/30c5ed6cf9/Cost-Benefit-Analysis-WoF.pdf

Overall Demand

93% of New Zealand households own a car (Transport.govt) - https://www.transport.govt.nz/mot-resources/transport-dashboard/2-road-transport/rd036-households-with-access-to-motor-vehicles/

1,771,300 estimated households in NZ (interest) -

https://www.interest.co.nz/property/100565/statistics-nz-estimates-number-households-renting-their-homes-increased-15400-year

1,765,100 households in nz in 2019 (stats.govt) - https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/dwelling-and-household-estimates-march-2019-quarter

New Zealand recorded 4.15 Million Vehicles at the end of 2017 with an average age of 14 years (Transport.govt) - https://www.transport.govt.nz/mot-resources/transport-dashboard/2-road-transport/rd027-vehicle-ownership-per-capita/

This represents 792 light vehicles per 1,000 people, one of the highest vehicle ownerships in the world. (Transport.govt) -

https://www.transport.govt.nz/news/land/we-are-driving-further-and-more-than-ever-before/

Meaning 1,641,450 Households with vehicles. Will gain value by using a vehicle mate.

Low end of market. Households with more than one individual owning a car would inflate this number. To illustrate this, almost 15 mill toll road crossings in 19/20.

References:

Martin, R. (2019, March 11), New Zealanders rack up $10m in unpaid toll fees. RNZ. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/384409/new-zealanders-rack-up-10m-in-unpaid-toll-fees

NZTA (2019), Financial Statement and Audit Report - https://www.nzta.govt.nz/assets/resources/annual-report-nzta/2018-19/nzta-annual-report-2019-section-c.pdf

NZTA (2019), NZ Transport Agency Annual Report - https://www.nzta.govt.nz/assets/resources/annual-report-nzta/2018-19/nzta-annual-report-2019.pdf

Google Trends (2020). Interest over time for the search term, ‘Toll Road’ - https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=NZ&q=Toll%20road

Service checks

Facts

NZ Herald, (2018, April 5), Worn tyre tread linked to 32 fatal crashes over past 3 years. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12026609

Personal research (2020) Phone interviews with garage workers -

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OtlrREnfDwVtPeN3Q9kF3AjqJxsl1RnN-vV24rCy8nE/edit

Ministry of Transport, (2019, February 12), RD025 Average vehicle fleet age (years). https://www.transport.govt.nz/mot-resources/transport-dashboard/2-road-transport/rd025-average-vehicle-fleet-age-years/

Insurance, REGO & WoF

Google Trends (2020). Interest over time for the search term, ‘REGO’ -

Google Trends (2020). Interest over time for the search term, ‘REGO check’ - https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=rego%20check&date=all&geo=NZ

Google Trends (2020). Interest over time for the search term, ‘WoF’-

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=NZ&q=WoF

Interest over time for search term WoF near me (Google trends) -

Google Trends (2020). Interest over time for the search term, ‘WoF near me’ -

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=wof%20near%20me&date=all&geo=NZ

Transport.Gov (2011) Cost Benefit Analysis WoF -https://www.transport.govt.nz/assets/Import/Documents/30c5ed6cf9/Cost-Benefit-Analysis-WoF.pdf

Overall Demand

Ministry of Transport, (2018, September 12), RD036 Households with access to motor vehicles. https://www.transport.govt.nz/mot-resources/transport-dashboard/2-road-transport/rd036-households-with-access-to-motor-vehicles/

Interest (Jul, 2019)  Statistics NZ estimates the number of households renting their homes increased by 15,400 in the year to June, while owner-occupied households increased by 7900- https://www.interest.co.nz/property/100565/statistics-nz-estimates-number-households-renting-their-homes-increased-15400-year

Stats.govt (2019). Dwelling and household estimates - https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/dwelling-and-household-estimates-march-2019-quarter

Ministry of Transport, (2019, February 5), RD027 Vehicle ownership per capita. https://www.transport.govt.nz/mot-resources/transport-dashboard/2-road-transport/rd027-vehicle-ownership-per-capita/

Transport.govt (2018, December 12), We are driving further and more than ever before -

https://www.transport.govt.nz/news/land/we-are-driving-further-and-more-than-ever-before/

[jcherrybct]

Amazon Web Services (AWS) Meeting

With becoming the finalist came a few prizes. One of these is support and credits with AWS. This is extremely helpful as they have the software and experience to help app development become far simpler.

I won’t be unpacking the entirety of the help I have received from AWS so far as that would take too long. However, I will go through a few of the main talking points.

We began talking about how AWS could help with business support and funding which was great, this is where the idea of using an OBD (On Board Device) as explained in an earlier post update was brought up.

The real help came from my first discussions with an app support architect. This opened my eyes to a lot of things I didn’t even know to think about in the first instance. For example, I didn’t even know what RPO’s and RTO’s were beforehand.

RPO – Recovery Point Objective. The amount of data that can be lost before significant harm is caused to the business.

RTO – Recovery Time Objective. How long can an application be down before significant damage is caused to the business.

RPO and RTO: Understanding the Differences. Enterprise Storage (2018)

I also was made aware that I need to think about the SLA’s that I would be providing.

I was then also told it would be helpful to have a feature priority list set and written down. I knew this was important to think about however I had a flexible list in my head. I then created the following:

Next we began the discussion of security. How will it work when it comes from holding user data and making payments through the app? The payments through the app would be ok as I am hoping to implement an external payment system so that the app store doesn’t take a 30% cut as the money never touches VM. This also means the liability falls on the external payment provider.

I was also reassured that the architecture of the app was relatively straightforward. Setting up API’s for existing systems shouldn’t be all that hard. It could be worth creating an abstract API however so VM can make changes without impacting the websites VM is pulling data from and vice versa.

Finally, we discussed the software for launch. It was suggested that I look to launch on one device, and through research it appears that launching on android will be the most effective. This is due to it being easier to float applications on the android app store and due to lesser costs.

There were more finer details discussed, ultimately, I am now in the process of setting up an AWS account for VM.

References:

RPO and RTO: Understanding the Differences. Enterprise Storage (2018) -

https://www.enterprisestorageforum.com/storage-management/rpo-and-rto-understanding-the-differences.html

[jcherrybct]

Brand Story - Revisited

After the storytech experience, one of the storytech members came into AUT to do a live workshop. This helped refine what we had come up with further and iron out any problems we may have had.

I asked about my problem of having two main customers to which it was suggested it is greatly beneficial to know your one main customer. The way that it was suggested that I did this if I still felt I had two customers was by setting up a test. Find the conversion rate between the two customers and that will show VM’s main customer.

Next we looked at re-refining the areas that had been looked at during the experience. Here are my outcomes.

UVP

One place, one click. Your auto admin in one click

Automotive upkeep made simpler - Test w/ customers

Automotive upkeep all in one place in a matter of clicks

Saving you money, time & keeping you safe in your vehicle in a matter of clicks.

Purpose

We exist to:

Keep Kiwis safe & stress free when it comes to their vehicles (save unnecessary money? Preventing spending)

‘Giving more time money safety less stress’

Help Kiwis live without worry.

Ambition

Create a world where:

Kiwis won’t have to think about their vehicles when they’re not in them. (more extravagant) Auto Admin is looked at in a more positive light

History

JC - Normal person (Empathy that normal person finding solution for normal people.

Personality

Concise, trustworthy & friendly

We then created a new story. This is the segment of the brand story canvas that I omitted in my previous update:

We’re Vehicle Mate & we exist to help kiwis live without worry.

We created Vehicle Mate for

35 year old decently wealthy owners of 2 vehicles with busy business lives. They spend their time being active and don’t enjoy spending their free time being bogged down with paperwork. They currently have multiple active subscriptions and don’t mind spending on QoL improvement products.

Because

Owning a car comes with x hours of admin a year & x preventable costs

Hours of frustrating admin and preventable fines & repair costs

Vehicle Mate is an application making automotive admin simpler.

We’re passionate about creating a world where automotive admin is as easy as sending a text

Vehicle Mate was created by James Cherryman, an ordinary vehicle owner fed up with unnecessary expenses and wasting time on automotive admin.

[jcherrybct]

Logo Design

Whilst creating the early iterations of my wireframes it became apparent that I needed a logo. I looked at fiverr and other sites looking for a cheap logo. However, I would like to learn how to make logos and grow my experience in graphic design. Having talked with one of my peers, Thomas Perese, I installed Adobe illustrator and got to researching.  

My research began by watching youtube. Going through popular graphic design youtubers, watching their crash course ‘how to’ videos. I took notes on all of these (shown above). I then began looking at youtube tutorials for illustrator and how to use it.

I then began looking into the technicalities, which colour scheme and if there was anything in particular, I could do with the wording. I quite liked the way that V and M can almost merge into one, so that was the idea I began to run with. I initially took inspiration from the Call of Duty Modern Warfare logo

I found illustrator far harder than I first thought it to be. This lead to a disappointing first attempt.

To me this attempted logo looked very basic and quite unprofessional. I didn’t like a lot of aspects. With this in mind I changed up a few things and tried again.

I much preferred my second attempt at the logo however I was still unsatisfied. My logo however was quite low down in my priority list and with that in mind I left illustrator behind for the time being with a view to revisit it at a later date. If I am unable to design a logo by the time VM launches its website I will likely commission one.

I did learn that I will need to invest a significant amount of time learning new software to be able to use it to a standard I am happy with.

[jcherrybct]

Storytech Experience

As X Challenge finalists we received a free usage of James Hurmans Storytech. Brand story made simple for startups. This course takes place over a day and leaves you with the foundations of a fitting brand story to be refined and re-evaluated later on.

The process left me with the following canvases:

Lean Canvas:

You may remember a lean canvas up myself with help from my previous mentor Jarek from before assignment one. It was important however to go over the areas again with expert guidance. A lot has changed over the last few months after all! On top of this, stortech informs that nailing your lean canvas helps in nailing your brand story. If you can’t say exactly what you do and who it is for, it is very hard to build a story around.

I largely reconsidered my customer segment, finding a more specific and concise customer.

My problem & Solution has remained largely the same over the entirety of VM, with technical tweaks & peripheral additions/subtractions. For the purpose of this exercise we were only giving an overview.

This was the first time I had looked at a Unique Value Proposition. At first, I struggled. I feel as though VM offers more than one sole purpose. However, we were encouraged to refine the UVP into a concise one liner. With this in mind I believe I succeeded to create a relatively accurate UVP.

The unfair advantage segment of the lean canvas and my projects process as a whole has been one I have largely struggled with. I have no protected IP & no industry expertise (yet) for example.

This exercise did help me realise however that the connections and partnerships I am still attempting to build will prove a huge barrier to entry for other competitors if I do succeed to pull them off. Furthermore, I feel as though once customers begin using an app such as VM they are unlikely to change. This paired with being first to market actually provides a large advantage.

Brand Story Canvas:

I have left the ‘Story’ section of this canvas highlighted as the formatting didn’t quite work with the answers I had given. I then reworked this in my next edition of my brand story research.

Here we began looking at how nowadays startups need a face. Faceless corporations are a thing of the past & customers now look to empathy in a brand, in who creates it and why. This brought up the history segment. I found this hard to do as I am an ordinary person solving a boring problem. However, that in itself is a strength. I know this problem exists just like anybody else and I will help solve something that nobody likes for everyone. Users can build empathy with the fact that I am just like them and the solution works for me.

I found giving a concise purpose tricky. This is the WHY from Simon Sinek’s golden circle. Through several iterations and readthroughs of the Storytech information pack I refined and decided on: Keeping Kiwis safe & stress free when it comes to their vehicles. That is the reason the app is being made; it isn’t a slogan it is the ideal outcome that can be achieved.

Next we looked at ambition, this was hard as I had to reverse my viewpoint. Rather than look at what the company is right now, a small app that doesn’t even exist, to what the possible end goal is. If everybody owned the app what good would come of it. I believe this switch in vantage point stopped me from coming up with a great answer to this segment on the day. I did, however, manage to improve upon this retrospectively.

Finally, we looked at what the personality of the brand would be. This is something I hadn’t even considered previously which is inherently important when it comes to creating anything related to the VM down the line. Be it any form of media or creating the app itself. It is important for me that the app focuses on speed and ease. With this in mind, I believe that the two main personality traits would be efficiency & Helpfulness.

Storytelling Canvas:  

Finally, we looked at integrating our newly created brand story into any form of marketing & media that we currently own or are looking to create.

This included injecting VM’s new personality into the website that I am looking to build as a smoke test. Using VM’s UVP, purpose and ambition to allow a snapshot understanding of what the app does, and much more.

As VM will be almost entirely online, the ‘real world’ segment wasn’t overly helpful to me. However, beginning to look at owned, earned & paid media really opened several new dimensions to what I thought I knew in a marketing respect. This was very useful to begin to get an understanding of.

Overall the Storytech experience was incredibly helpful and informative. I learned a lot that previously I didn’t even consider important & now feel that I have a much better understanding of the direction of what I would like to create.

[jcherrybct]

Brand Story Self Research

One of the discussions with my mentor lead to discussing brand story. How brand story is actually pivotal to any work done in terms of branding, design or creation of content. You have to relate to your brand story.

Nick directed me in the direction of Simon Sinek’s, ‘Golden Circle,’ TED talk. Explained in a nutshell by the following image.

The golden circle is in fact, a spiral - UX Collective (Apr 2019) 

I found it easy enough  determining the what and the how, however the why was significantly harder.

The conclusions of several iterations and discussions with family members were as follows:

Simplify the process of automotive admin (WHAT)

Centralising automotive admin & reminding you to check safety (HOW)

Believe in driving being about driving? (WHY)

Keeping automotive thinking purely about driving? (WHY)

Maintenance & upkeep shouldn’t occupy your mind for longer than a few button presses? (WHY)

Keeping in mind that I was to have a workshop and day long package provided by Storytech (James Hurman), having established a brief understanding of the principles and why they are important, I decided to wait until the workshop.

I recommend the Simon Sinek TED talk : https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action?language=en

UX Collective. (2019) - The golden circle is in fact, a spiral -   https://uxdesign.cc/the-golden-circle-is-in-fact-a-spiral-b25cc6602db7