From Willy Wong

Notes per our conversations with Willy Wong
January 20, 2012, NYC & Company
January 25, 2012, SVA IxD Studio

AUDIENCE
Who is the right group?

Broad appeal: who will use it right away?
What do you get out of using it—when you first start playing vs. over time?
What happens at the plateau? When users get bored?
On point of boredom: what are the users relationship to other people; community and interaction keeps people engaged; it’s more about the community/interaction than the solo service you’re providing
Think about the look of the page on day 1, vs. day 2, vs. day 4, vs. a week later, vs. a month later

Theory of fun
Look at what other systems are doing to incentivize people (ex: coffee, airlines)

Size of audience: what % of bikers are interested in using it
Bike share would guarantee new users; wouldn’t be sustaining users over a long period of time

BRANDING
Map a landscape of visual language of related services and biking (trek vs. linus; sports in relation to biking; foursquare, gowalla, etc.)
Decide where you fit in the spectrum of visual language
Think about:
- color vs. industry type
- typography: griddy urban vs. athletic, etc.
- info design

Build mood boards to rationalize why it makes sense for your brand
status in types of bikes: lifestyle palette, taste
status in going places

SELLING BIKING
How do we make people say, “I can’t live without this!”
How does the service cause people to overlook the barriers?
What are you selling?
What is the myth of the platform?

We need a fun aspect in the manifesto!
How could I convince you to start roller-blading for transportation? Or the ferry? Or a moped?
- Think about how you would convince someone to take different alternative modes of transportation.
Notes: it’s less hassle than you think, it will make your life easier, you will get fresh air, it will make your life better, the chair will stop killing you, it’s easy to own a bike and take care of it and park it, it’s comfortable, you will feel free, like you’re flying

Check out NYC bike month campaigns

Statistics, what is our correlation between behavior and information?
Does awareness of information compel someone to take action?

How does an old piece of technology survive in a world full of new technology?

IS IT A BIKE DAY? (AND TWITTER BROADCASTING)
Tweet when you get on your bike
If we need someone to check the app every morning to see who’s riding
If a biker has to check the app every morning to see who’s riding, then give them a reason to check.
Note: giving clever weather reports are a good reason

We need the right media to deliver the message
Maybe it’s a clock that spins faster when more people are riding
What is more buzzworthy?

What do we need to develop to compel people to bike more?
Ex: Lotion, “if you try this, you will like it so much, you will buy it again”

AUDIENCE
How many people own a bike?
How many people use a bike?

For clients of a service, consider: acquisition, retaining, servicing.
Typical marketing question: How do you acquire them, retain them and service them?

Maybe the majority of our users only use the service once or twice? They participate in 2-week challenges as a way to get motivated to ride. A common analogue is Weight Watchers. It’s a program with a triggger for action and a prize at the end. We may still have super data and designer nerds that want to keep using the service as a record-keeping or journal tool.
Imagine the use cases.
Size up the market.
- how many people are riding in NYC (from DOT)
- talk to bike shops to see about how many customers they serve

Separate the movement and scaling audience from having a product that allows for scaling; it costs money to run the business (per user)

TAGLINE
Map/Record
Art
Bike
Social
Think of analogues for our key concepts. What happens if they have a baby? What does that give you? How can we use things that are familiar to our Grandma to explain what we are doing?