Table of Contents
Introduce the Idea 2
AssignmentTutorOnline
Nature of the Opportunity 2
Defining the Problem 3
Problem Solving Process 3
What is the size of the problem? 3
Is it a priority to solve this problem? Why? 4
Would people spend money to solve this problem? Why? 4
Is anyone already trying to solve this problem either inside or outside the UAE? 4
Market Estimate 4
target customer 4
opportunities or trends 4
Technology Adoption 5
Technology used by our product 5
Impact on Market Size and Product: 5
Appropriability 6
Business Model Characteristics 6
The Business Canvas 6
Team Overview 7
SELF-Assessment and Next Steps 7
Changed in your business idea as a result of your research 7
Gaps in knowledge or risks, and advantages 8
References 8
Introduce the Idea
Our SLE project is called WAKIB, which means “keeping up” as we aim by introducing a platform that encourages people to continue with their development regardless of the circumstances and challenges faced every day. Since each one of us have a different skill, we have decided to gather around our skills & ideas to work on a platform that will serve the educators everywhere but with a focus on the local level. In this report we introduce our product, Wakib online learning platform, the goals that we want to achieve by making this platform and touch on other information such as our targeted audience and how it benefits them. Wakib is an inclusive online platform that allows people who seeks knowledge and skills, academic and non-academic, to have direct contact with experts and professionals regardless of where they are based, scheduled at a time that fits these people’s daily life.
Nature of the Opportunity
Based on the previous classes we were introduced to two types of Innovation; the Market Pull & Technology push. Market Pull is where the market is in need for a product, so designers make a product to meet the needs (Technology Push & Market Pull., n.d.). The best example of market pull is cameras, due to the fact over years they have got developed cameras to be even smaller, and have been put into cellular phones, then as humans desires to change (people wanted to take photographs of themselves) they developed even smaller cameras and then moved to the front phone camera known nowadays.
However, technology push is when you have the technology and have to design a product that would use the technology (Technology Push & Market Pull., n.d.). The best example of this is touch screen generation, it was first developed as a normal display screen & then in the 80s the enterprise Hewlett Packard picked up on this era and taken out a touch display computer. Over years the technology has end up increasingly advanced and now found inside the majority of cell phones, laptops and computers.
Each innovation has different characteristics, the Market Pull innovation is a process that is derived by the need & its highly necessary & the goal of the market pull is the market satisfactory. Moreover, we have to be able to identify the customers. The Technology push Innovation is a process derived by an idea or a discovery & it’s not highly necessary & the goal is the satisfactory of the technology. Finally, a large research & Development investment will be on the product since they are going to Innovate or Introduce a new products or services.
As for our product it is considered a Market Pull as the characteristics of this concept apply to our platform. It is identified by people’s need of this product as in our current time it is highly necessary for people to continue learning and developing and try to fit this into their already busy schedule, which means we can already identify the type of customers focus for our product and categorizing them to two parts and finally the use of technology will be satisfactory to achieve our goal. We are designing an online platform to meet this need and can be applicable anywhere for the convenience of people.
Defining the Problem
Using the material learned in the Innovation course we identified the root causes of the problem through the Problem Definition / Detective Mindset using the five W’s. Starting with identifying What is the problem, where we found that it was the challenge of communicating at a time and place of convenience. Then identifying Who it affected which where tutors, specifically Freelancing tutors and learners. Where this problem lies was identified as in the UAE which is our focus region. When this problem happened was identified as daily through the busy schedule of people or under unusual circumstances which would not allow people to physically move to a place of learning such as the current situation of the lockdown under the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, we identified Why this is considered a problem that needs to be solved is because people are getting busier each day with packed schedules so trying to look for a place of learning or teaching, moving to this place is both time and money consuming as well inconvenient considering how busy people already are.
With that we could define our problem in the following statement:
“It is challenging for freelancing tutors and professionals in the UAE to connect and communicate with people seeking knowledge in life skills, hobbies, academics and self-development at a time and place of their convenience to fit their busy daily schedules, budget and unusual conditions.”
Problem Solving Process
Using the material learned in the Entrepreneurship course, the “6 Stage Problem Solving Process” was used to answer few questions related to Problem Observation / Explorer Mindset. We started with the first step which was to Define the problem as the difficulty of tutors and learners finding a meeting time and place for the learning sessions. The Root Cause was the busy schedules of both, Locations that could be too far and time consuming to each and for these two parties to connect or find each other. The third step was to brainstorm or research Alternative Solutions to this problem as we came up with a few including for the two parties to connect online then meet face to face in order to hold the learning sessions, this could be a little inconvenient and time consuming. Another solution was to rent workspaces to these two parties to meet at, which could be a little costly. The last solution was to connect the two parties and hold the sessions online with all transactions and scheduling done online two. The last option was the Solution Selected which was to build an Online platform to connect and hold classes virtually. Implementing the Solution would require some technical and operational aspects to be done mainly. Evaluating the Outcome can be done after building the platform by monitoring and collecting data of platform’s performance along with feedback from users to evaluate the customer satisfaction with the platform and what might be lacking.
What is the size of the problem?
Some answers to the main questions addressed regarding this problem where to specify the size of the problem, where our main focus in UAE as mentioned was the population aged 15-54 years old, approximately stated as 7.5Million of the total population of the country (Global Media insight, 2020) where we considered the 1.26 million High school graduates, and 35,000 higher education graduates (Federal Competitiveness and Statistics Authority, 2017) as our specific target since it is the main learning and workforce population of the country which could either seek or present knowledge to the society.
Is it a priority to solve this problem? Why?
Would people spend money to solve this problem? Why?
Is anyone already trying to solve this problem either inside or outside the UAE?
We investigated why it was a priority to solve this problem and whether people would be willing to spend money to solve it. It appeared that it is a priority to solve this problem since there is a need to learn and continue developing in different areas. People are willing to spend money to save time and the inconvenience to achieve their goals. There are other people already trying to solve the problem identified where our research results in the UAE came with several online platforms such as “Madrasa”, “My Private Tutor” and “Almentor net”. While some popular platforms outside the UAE are “Udemy”, “Preply”, “Coursera” and “Khan Academy”.
Market Estimate
target customer
Our target and potential customers could be identified by two main types. First one is the Learners, who are people seeking knowledge but mainly have a problem of finding the time, the place to learn and moving to that place of learning which would cost time and money. The second type is the tutors, specifically freelancing tutors whose main problem is not having enough publicity and exposure as people belonging to institutes for example where they need a place to connect with their customers. And due to the situation of COVID-19 lockdown, everyone impacted could be a potential customer either seeking or presenting knowledge from their homes which is a good opportunity for our platform since a lot of people are already getting used to either working or studying online from their homes which is a trend that would be of a great advantage to us.
opportunities or trends
The main Customer pain we identified was for learners to search for tutors and cheap sessions aside from spending too much time and money on that. Freelancers have a main hardship of promoting themselves and their skills. Both would suffer mainly. from spending time, finding a place and transporting to connect or attend these sessions.
Aside from solving the customer’s main problem, they could benefit from a platform that combines all types of learning aside from existing platforms being specialized in academics or professional learning opportunities, to include life skills, hobbies and self-development. The flexibility of scheduling sessions according to each customer’s schedule, having access to a tutor that suits their needs and holding the sessions online would save them the time and cost of renting a place or spending on transportations. The payment online would be trusted form instead of payment personally between the two through unsafe channels. The online communication and scheduling would be convenient and documented for both parties which makes it a safe and trusted form.
Technology Adoption
Based on Technology Adoption as per Roger’s model, the classification of our product will be around Early Majority These people are seldom leaders, but they adopt new ideas well, before the average person (Bloomenthal, 2020). This shows that they are more open to new ideas and more active in community.
And from our perceptive, People will adopt our application easily since it’s the current preferable approach to the most people.
Technology used by our product
In fact, our product is mainly depending on technology. We will use online platform to provide the way of learning and spread knowledge through online platform. Consequently, with the expanding of these technologies our platform will be used cross various devices such as PCs, template, and smartphones.
Impact on Market Size and Product:
Actually, it might limit market size slightly, because some people still not prefer teaching online but nowadays, they start to accept it. On the other hand, through our discussion we observed that the using of E-learning through smartphones or tablets will have many advantages such as; it will be easier to the educators to reach the course or knowledge they want, and to the platform by using the technology. Technology is available everywhere and in the hands of everyone. Moreover, based on what we’re currently experience (COVID-19 pandemic) people are demanding for technology-enabled teaching.
This will influence on how we will sell the product, why? because it depends on technology innovation. Nowadays, platform will be a trending since there is no similar platform in the UAE, but in future we should keep developing our product with the future requirements and specific circumstances that’s why we called it WAKIB. and this absolutely will take time to increase the market size.
Appropriability
David Teece clarified that two factors – imitability and complementary assets – which will show us who have a strong influence in determining who will profit from an innovation (The Teece Model, 2006). The platform project is coming under High imitability & Highly complementary assests category.
Our platform has High imitability because it could be easily copied and the idea is very common everywhere specially here in the UAE such as (Madrasa, MyprivateTutor). But our focus will be on the type of tutors (freelancers), their quality and how to make all kinds of learning accessible in one place.
The Complementary assets is Tightly held as it has a unique content with good reputation, moreover any activity around it will enhance the product clearly in terms of safety and quality. So, we could do control it. As well, our private Terms will be hidden from competitor’s view and this adds value to the product.
As per the article we could conclude that if the Complementary assets are tightly held and if it was very important, when ,on the other hand the imitability at the same time is High, the holder of such assets will be the one who profiting on that innovation and will do success ( The Teece Model, 2006).
Business Model Characteristics
The most important characteristic of the business model is the price to the consumer of the product. We have identified four possible sources of income. The first one is Transaction revenue which would be generated from booking classes and tutoring sessions (between student and teacher).
The second is Subscription revenue which offers the students buying sessions in packages for better price. Then we have Paid Certificate revenue where it offers free classes and learning sessions for certain topics, however, to get an official certificate the student will need to pay some fees. Finally, selling ads revenue, once the business grows and gains a strong and wide user base, selling ads can be one of the important source of income for the business.
The Business Canvas
The business is going to provide the freelancers with additional income, and access to a large audience. While it benefits the student by providing one platform which combines almost all possible skills and knowledge that a learner may be looking for with the best tutors and professionals at very convenient prices. The business canvas below shows an overview of WAKIB.
Team Overview
Describe the area of specialty and competencies of each of the team members, and how each member is going to contribute to the business
SELF-Assessment and Next Steps
Changed in your business idea as a result of your research
There are many things that had been changed during the research. For example, the sources of income are now clear to us and we found extra possible sources as well. In addition, usually when a person thinking about starting a business and he/she has a great idea, usually, it doesn’t go through because for new businesspeople, they don’t have the experience, thus, obstacles results in shutting down the business before it even starts. To the point, having experience partner in the field of the business idea will increase the percentage of success for that business.
Gaps in knowledge or risks, and advantages
For our business idea, the advantage is due to Covid-19 and quarantine, people have tried to spend their time in learning new skills, languages, private educational lessons, etc. online. Thus, a large audience with a good idea of how online learning works. While the gap we have is to find qualified tutors and professionals.
References: