Redefining search on mobile — business model innovation

PRESS: Jack evolved into Ozlo when it launched, which was eventually acquired by Facebook in Aug’17!

Overview

Jack—a startup based in Palo Alto, believed that the existing search standards were set 20 years prior and the experience wasn’t optimized for mobile. The results were biased and there was cognitive overload. Team Jack believed that consumer search needs were changing as users migrated to their phones. Jack would provide curated simplified search results for exactly what users were looking for.

Below was their starting point and hypotheses:

• Customer Segment — Mass mobile-device user base

• Value Proposition — Customers want a really great search on their mobile devices

• Channel — Word of mouth would spread product use
   

Scope

The request for our team was to:

• Validate the founders’ hypotheses for value proposition and customer segment
• Identify and develop killer use cases 
• Distribution model
• Identify product market fit
   

The process

I.  Customer Research and Development

Our first round of customer interviews were broad, along the lines of needs-finding. Based on our findings, our next round of interviews were more focused on mobile search and user behavioral patterns. We synthesized our learnings and developed personas and customer journey maps to further visualize the areas of opportunity.

Insights:

• From our insights three archetypes emerged—experimental, needs-based and influenced users
• We used design sprints to synthesize our findings and decided to focus on the top three use cases—validation/trust, bookmarking, cross-app applications
• All of the above eventually helped us define the golden circle:
• Your time is valuable.  We simplify results. You can find what you’re looking for

II. Design sprint

With these insights and redefined value proposition, we storyboarded our individual ideas as ‘Crazy Eights’ to support these three concepts, and based on our dot vote ranking, we headed into prototyping. 

III. Prototyping and validation

• We tested our MVP during our third round of interviews, to validate our findings and assumptions.

Outcome

In conclusion, our deliverables included a reimagined Business Model Canvas that detailed the business model opportunities, key value propositions to focus on, and a phased go-to-market strategy.
 

ROLE

Design Strategist and Product Designer
Team comprised of four other design strategists who focused on research, content and product management. Our team worked closely with the founders.
 

Product market fit video