CLARIFYING QUESTIONS

By cell phone, we mean a gadget similar to handset right?

Interviewer: Yes

Assumptions:

The cell phone is similar to the cell phone we use today in physical outlook

2 year old means a baby/child that is about 2 years in age that exhibits the following characteristics:

– crawls oftens and works seldomly

– can use both hands to pick

– beginning to make clear audible sound like ba..ba, ma..ma

– hours of sleep between 12 to 20 hours.

Are my assumptions about right?

Interviewer: Yes, they are about correct.

Myself: I will assme the following characteristics are euniform for 2 yeard old all over the workd but for the sake of this product, I will focus on 2 year living in the US.

Myself: One more thing, are we designing this product for  start-up company or an established company?

Interviewer: You can select anyone

Myself: I will assume the company is a start-up one.

So next thing, I will like to go over the user group.

I believe the user is defined already in the question as 2 year old babies. I have also chosen to focus on the US market. In addition, I will add the customers for this product to the user list for consideration. Parents and teachers (or School Administrators) are key stakeholders as they do not only buy, they also use the product as secondary users.

The goal of this product is to acquire users by having this product.

Next, I wil like to go over the user journey of a child using a cell phone. This will help me identify the pain points and needs of the users.

– A 2 year old will not have  arequirement of when to and when not to use the cell phone. So far he/she likes the product and they have access, they will want to play with it.

– A 2 year old will want to simulate use after people around using theirs. This means there should be some form of inerraction with the phone.

– Physically, it should be handy enough for a child; small and very light-weight.

– Physically, it must not be edible, suffocating or very brittle (easy to break)

Based on the above pain point, the following features will be my recommendation. The product should:

– have sound

– have batteries that are replacable or rechargeable

– “hibernate” to conserve battery

– interractive buttons

– physically – very light weight, not brittle, colorful and attractive.

– have  a tracker

Next, I will like to prioritize these solution based on effort and impact.

Solution – features	Effort	Impact
Buttons for different sound/song	Low (L)	High (H)
Buttons for sound level	L	Medium (M)
Buttons for turn on or off	L	L
Add a tracker or solar panel	M	L

SOLUTION

A cellphone that has power button, volume button, sound button very similar to an iphone since our market is a US market (The customer and secondary user most likely have an iphone).

A coord will be provided to charge and download songs into the cellphone.

No earpiece will be provided

The cellphone will have  a up to 9 buttons where each button can have  a sound or song selectbale from a simple App/software over a computer connection

EVALUATION

I will consider the number o successful users which means purchase and kept for over a month (where a month is the free return period). This will provide the total number of acquisition fot the product.

By estimation, our market is calculated using the following metrics:

1 in every 5 households have a 2-year old

100 households in US

20M households with kids = target market!

SUMMARY

We have a cellphone designed similar to an iphone but a very-light one with 6 buttons customizable with different sounds/songs to give 2 year old some interraction and fun.

1. Understanding of the use case:

a. A cell phone needs to be designed for kids of 2 years of age – Yes

2. Key Call outs which are unique to this problem statement

a. Parents as decision maker – Need to handle use cases where parents will see value

b. Kids not at a stage where they will be able to use standard interaction pattern of touch for engaging with the mobile phone or providing their inputs

3. Use cases that needs can be handled in above context

a. Device to add as information hub for information around child and parenting

b. Device to be used for Monitoring for child activities and his wherabouts

c. Device to be designed in a way which is non intrusive in nature and secure so that it is easy to carry around, does not have sharp edges

d. Device to capture key child moments so that if parents are not around they do not miss the moments

e. Device should support Device based input capability primarly to get inputs from kids

If we handle above use cases – I think the age consideration for the product can be spanned from 1 to 3 years because I beleive all these use cases are relevant for this age group also

4. Target audience

Parents who have a hectic life style and stay in nuclear step up. Potentially Tier 1 and Metro cities in India

5. KPI to track

a. Main KPI – Sales of Device

b. Secondary KPI – Usage of features within the app and Churn

PS: Have answered this question considering I have 20 mins to answers out of which 5 mins would go in thinking.

What is the objective of designing a cellphone for a 2 year old?

1. Keep child entertained

2. Keep it on the child as a beacon in case of losing child

3. Monitor child

I would like to focus on the 3rd objective.

How would you define a cellphone? Flip phone? Smart phone? Wearable?

I would like to focus on wearables as it would be difficult to consistently keep flip phone/smart phone close by the child at all times. A wearable can be placed on the child consistently.

Things to consider when considering the who the product is being used on:

1. Must not have detachable parts that are choking hazards

2. Must not have sharp edges to cause injury

3. Must be lightweight

4. Ideally should be durable and water proof

5. Cannot be easily taken off by the child

Who’s going to be purchasing/using this “cellphone”?

1. Parents who are working from home during the day

2. Parents with special needs children

3. Nurseries who are responsible for multiple children

I would like to focus on the last as it seems the most beneficial to have extra monitoring when you are being spread thin.

Solutions for monitoring:

1. Heartrate monitor – measures the heartrate of the child to make sure there are no extremes. Impact: High, Complexity: Low

2. Sleep monitor – tracks sleep for the baby, could also alert of the sleep pattern is off or no movement after long periods. Impact: Medium, Complexity: Low

3. Distress monitor – tracks the baby on distress like when they cry or yell. Impact: Low, Complexity: High

4. Thermometer – measures the temperature of the child. Impact: Medium, Complexity: Low

I would implement 1, 2, and 4. All of these are low complexity and provide good value. Nurseries could use these to track the children and possibly catch onto issues quicker and report back to parents to make sure they keep an eye on it if a child looks like they are not acting normal, getting sick, etc…