I got THE idea! (and it was already taken)

This month I want to tell you a story. It’s all about two guys, me and Mr. A (obviously this is not his real name, but for the sake of the story It will suffice).

It was at the beginning of the last year, 2013 for the records, I was right in the middle of my living room tidying up all the christmas stuffs in a box, when I got an epiphany: lightbulbs lightened up, angels sang and I GOT THE IDEA.

You know, I’m talking about THE idea, the one that was supposed to change the whole world, to disrupt any kind of existing service, to become the next big thing in the new era of social network. It was, for me, right like the flux capacitor.

Early in Back to the Future Doc describes his inspiration for the flux capacitor (the essential component of time travel in the series) as a “vision” which comes to him in 1955, after he slipped off his toilet while standing on it to hang a clock and bumping his head on the sink.

First thing first:

Found a Problem

I started with a very simple observation of facts:

no matter how and no matter what, people never get what they want for christmas.

That was the needs niche I began with to force my idea into something more real, appealing and structured. I was quite a freshman as a UX freelance, but I had done my homework, so I tried to be more rationale as possible by double checking with “Innovative Ideas 101”:

Step 1

Is it a real problem? Yes, it is.
Sure? Yes I am
It’s affecting you? Yes

Step 2: Ok, recite the mantra

I’m not the user
I’m not the user
I’m not the user

Step 3: Now,

I would use it
I’m sure (IMHO) that someone would use it
It is perfect for a friend of mine, she will totally use it

Did you say one of these sentences while trying to explain your idea to someone else? Yes? You are out.

Fortunately I was still IN 🙂

So what were the causes that led me to not have what I desired?

My wishlist was not clear enough or wasn’t accessible or findable, the items I wanted were to expensive for a single person or hard to be bought. My friends or relatives didn’t want to be obvious or predictable and they try to make a gift they think it was tailored for me.

Was there an answer than can resolve all these issues?

Find YOUR Unique Selling Proposition

I really believed I found an elegant all in one solution: My idea was a sort of a “crowdfunded wishlist on steroids”™, never seen before and bright example of a new buying experience built upon existing products.

Users just had to add item to their wishlist and their friends could finance a fraction of those items with a small quota.

Simple as that.

Actually there were a lot of side dynamics which are not relevant (yeah, I may use them for other projects, so I won’t to spoil them to much.. who knows… )

Do a Market Benchmark

We spent at least 7 days man googling back and forth, searching for competitors, services look alike, threats, entrants… we did S.W.O.T. analysis, hypothetical scenarios, projections.

We though we found a blue ocean, since no real competitor had yet to be found.

Mh.. Since It sounded too good to be true, we decided to consolidate the idea, if something is not already on the market:

It is not needed
It is already born and dead
It exists but your benchmark failed to pick it up
It is truly a discover

After all, we believed that we failed to isolate our direct competitor… It had to be something similar out there and if we couldn’t find it, it means either that it failed to go mainstream or my google fu is weak.

Anyway, we decided to go through a a consolidation phase, in case of success it would had strengthened our UPS in preparation for an eventual challenge or a rapid pivoting.

Consolidate

With A, we tested all the critical thinking framework I knew.

We focused on applying SCAMPER, we traced down our personas (three primary and three secondary) and their customer journeys. We tried to design the opposite service to try to find some faults, but, in the end the idea came up to be pretty solid… it just worked.

So What Happened?

A prototype was planned, along with user testing and other nifty things to allure something more… and then everything stopped.

What happened?

Happened that King (the company behind Candy Crash Saga) trademarked the word “Candy”, which was the codename for the project.

I tried to find another name, a more powerful one and I ended up with the word Givt, a combination of Give and Gift, which is and sounds perfect.

Perfect until I tried to snatch the domain (I assumed it was free since it was not active) and found a company named Givt which enables users to gift heir friends of coupons and offers… Who cares? They are quite different…

I then tried some variation and I finally discovered “http://givted.com“.

“GIVTED IS A LUXURY GROUP GIFTING SERVICE ALLOWING FRIENDS AND FAMILY TO POOL FUNDS FOR AN UNFORGETTABLE GIFT. GIVTED WORKS IN THREE SIMPLE STEPS: THE GIFT PLANNER CREATES A GIFT CARD CAMPAIGN, CALLED THE GIVTCARD AND INVITES OTHERS TO CONTRIBUTE BY SHARING A LINK. EACH FRIEND WRITES THEIR GREETING LIKE ON A TRADITIONAL GIFT CARD AND CONTRIBUTES TOWARDS THE GOAL AMOUNT ONLINE. ONCE THE GIVTCARD IS DELIVERED, THE RECIPIENT THEN TRANSFERS THE COLLECTED AMOUNT OF MONEY INTO THEIR BANK ACCOUNT FOR THE PURCHASE OF THEIR DREAM GIFT. STOP READING AND GO CREATE THE PERFECT GIFT CARD!”

END OF GAMES.

What now?

Well, we have to change our UPS, and deliver something different. Honestly having your idea validated by an actual product up and running, is rewarding by per se.

It just meant that your idea is not stupid at all (and my Google Fu is weak).

We just have to do better. Maybe next time 😛

Hoang Huynh

Experience Strategist at PRSD

I'm an ill fated romantic technonerd with a passion for anything that makes lights and sounds, I live in the future and I have a very clear point of view on the definition of “experience” , “design” and “innovation”, but I use to talk about it only during coffee breaks.
I often lose myself into infinite activities where I can live, work, teach, learn on how people interact with the future.