Context and Challenge
Ida Giannini (opens in a new tab) and I decided to work as a team for protohack (opens in a new tab) in San Francisco on April 9th 2016. We had 12 hours to mock a basic prototype and create a 90 second pitch. The pitch was measured on the following criteria:
- Explain your business problem and what steps you took to prove it today.
- Show key slides/storyboard of your prototype design
- Talk about your next steps and business model
Idea
Brewster was an idea that came out of something I wish I personally had. The concept came from my experience with Weave (opens in a new tab) which sets up professional coffee dates between you and a stranger. I love Weave and I wanted something similar in my personal life.
Research
User Interviews
We conducted three in person user interviews. Our key takeaways from these interviews were:
- Scheduling when and where to meet with a friend can be a pain.
- The location of everyone also made meeting up difficult. I.e. if someone lives in San Francisco and their friend lives in San Jose.
Similar Products
We reached out to 4 users of Weave (A service that sets up coffee with someone with a similar profession as you in your area) and asked them about their experience with that product. We also asked them if they would want something similar in their personal life and they all said yes.
Prior Art
A study at the University of Michigan (opens in a new tab) showed prolonged usage of Facebook makes people lonely and have a less positive outlook on life. In order to reverse this, studies found that human interaction does increase happiness and outlook on life.
Final Design
The final design of Brewster was a chat-bot that would set up a coffee date with you and one of your nearby Facebook friends. You can see the full experience and pitch deck in this presentation (opens in a new tab).
References
The logo/icon for Brewster was a modified version of "Butler" by riyazali from the Noun Project