Validation 1

1. How we identified the problem

When shopping for parties, hikes, trips, etc., the purchases are made jointly and after that each one looks at the receipt and pays his share. This becomes time-consuming when there are larger groups of people or when shopping is done in several stores. You had to calculate who owed what, then go through the tedious task of collecting money from each person. A lot of time is wasted on calculations and, often, the first time, the calculations are not done correctly and the person who paid does not get all the money back.

2. What we thought is a solution for the problem

Our solution is to make an application that is able to manage group shopping, keep track of products' prices over time and calculate the user's total spending. In addition to this, we want the receipts to be scanned through the application and every user can see his spending.

3. Customer discovery (short overview)

To validate the idea, we wanted to know if more people consider this problem to be a time-consuming one and if such an application would be useful in organizing various events, outings or daily shopping. We created an online form to find out the opinion of as many people as possible, from many backgrounds and of different ages.

4. Customer discovery (process in detail)

In order to identify the customer segment, we created a form that was shared in the online environment on several Whatsapp and Facebook groups corresponding to various age categories/occupations, in order to include as many types of possible customers as possible. After filling out the form, we found out what are the main age groups interested in such an application and what are the requirements of possible users. The form received 49 responses.

Form

The majority of people who answered this form are between the ages of 18-25, followed by those between the ages of 25 and 29. Thus, we identified the main age category.

We have noticed that most of them, when they go out, buy on the same receipt as their friends. And more than 90% make common shopping lists before buying.

We have identified the occasions when users most often use joint shopping lists with other people. Most of them answered that they make these lists for parties, lunch at work or family gatherings.

After analyzing the results, we also noticed that the distribution of the products and splitting the bill do not proceed very easily in the case of traditional lists and we identified the main inconveniences in creating these lists.

Splitting the bill becomes more difficult as the number of people in the group increases. This was confirmed by the fact that almost 90% of the people who responded to the form answered that they recalculated the amount of money at least once after splitting the bill.

Users responded positively to the idea of having an application that calculates costs after scanning a receipt.

Regarding the functionalities, we noticed that the most useful functionality was considered to be the one for calculating the costs of each user in the application, followed by the creation of lists that any user has access to modify.

5. Description of how these insights have affected our product.

These insights had a positive impact on the product, because we understood better which are the main age categories, which are the basic functionalities preferred by the users and in which contexts the users can use such an application. Thus, further personalized developments can be made depending on the most common events.

6. Are we ready for Customer Validation?

After analyzing the answers received to the form, we identified which are the most useful functionalities of the application, which are the main problems of possible users and what are their expectations for such an application. We noticed that more than 85% of the people who responded to the form consider that the main inconvenience when making a common shopping list is that the price of the products cannot be consulted in advance.

Following the results of the form, we consider that we are ready for the Customer Validation stage. We received positive feedback from potential users and the app's usefulness was appreciated by them, the majority answering that such an application is a useful one.