Interview 11 Analysis

Semi-Structured Interview
Interviewee: 40 year old mother living in Barcelona, Spain. Is a stay at home mother of one and also is a home-stay mother for an American student currently.
Interview duration: 20 mins

For this Interview I explained Q-cocino and all of the features it would have to offer. I explained both what the freemium model would be and the advertisements that would come along. I then explained to her the Premium version and explained the difference between them. After that I asked for what she though and what she would pay if she would pay for the application.

Summary:
As a home stay mother she thinks that the concept of the product is great. Having to prepare 3 meals a day for the program makes it very hard to make a variety of meals and planning for the week is also very difficult. She said she however doesn't know if the product would work for because she says it sounded complicated. She said she would pay up to 2 or 3 euros a month if the product was simple to use, but though with so many features it would be to complicated and she would not end up using it. She also was very interested in the shopping list aspect because it would make planning for the week much easier. As I though she was losing interest in the product she explain that she had been on a strict diet due to health problems. I explained that she could specify this in the database in order to get meals fit for her circumstance. She said that finding meals and products will very low sugar and salt has been difficult and this would be such an aid to her, again, if it was easy and convenient for her. I asked if she had any recommendations of features that would make her decide to try and hopefully use Q-cocino on a daily basis and she said:
1. Make sure it is simple so that older people will be able to navigate the application
2. Include video clips and pictures of what the ingredients and final products look like so people know what they are shopping for.
3. Be able to share with friends your profile and what you have cooked as recommendations of what to eat.

Interview 10 Analysis

Semi-Structured Interview
Interviewee: A 22 year old male. Living with his girlfriend and a student in Barcelona Spain.
Duration of interview: 20 mins

1. Learning about his cooking and eat habits:
He explained that this is his second year living in Barcelona and will study for two more years here. He and his girlfriend(also was present during the interview) explained that with so many expenses as a student and living on their own, they prepared most meals at home and usually was very basic and cheap. They ate out once or twice a week and usually as a special occasion on the weekend. Both having different schedules attending different Universities finding time to cook and shop together was difficult. "We usually go together to the supermarket once a week and spend a lot of money and stock up the fridge for the week ahead". He tries to buy fresh vegetables and fruits and buy his protein fresh also, but it is normally to expensive for him and frozen food last longer and is less expensive. When I asked him what a typical dinner was like a said that normally they had pasta a few times a week or meat and a vegetable. They both explained that they knew the basics of cooking, but would consider themselves novices.

2. Introduction of Q-cocina:
When I told them that our group was developing a application that simplified cooking in so many ways, they both said they loved the idea but were aware of numerous other applications that provided a similar service that they had actually tried and never used again. The did however specify that they never have heard of programming the ingredients into the application and generating a library of possible meals. They both said that was something they really though could help them. Neither of them had any dietary needs but said they could see this being life changing to someone with an allergy or a vegan/vegetarian. They also focused on the shopping list that Q-cocino would offer to the premium members. They gave the idea that you could look through the database of recipes and choose a bunch of them for the week and the application would generate everything you needed to get on the one trip to the supermarket. He also said that neither of them have ever used cookbooks or the internet to get ideas from so this application would be hard for them to use in a routine. Which seemed to be a problem with many of the interviews conducted.

3. Explaining advertisements and costs:
After explaining both models of or application I asked them to put a price on what they would be willing to pay for it. Being students they said that they hardly every pay for any application and never have paid a monthly fee for an applications. They said that the features that would be beneficial to them would be on the premium model, but they would never pay monthly for it. They said for someone with an allergy or with more money they could see them spending 2-3 Euros a month for this service. However, surprisingly they said a .99 or 1.99 Euro one time price would be something they might pay for just for our freemium model, which was a huge surprise because they said they hardly ever pay for applications. I think there where some features that they really liked and would give a chance, but I got the feeling that they would not be frequent users and would probably end up downloading the application and never using again.

Jack Formica

Interview 9 Analysis

Semi-Structured Interview 9
Interviewee: 28 year old male. Living alone in Barcelona, Spain. Works as a voice actor from home. Approximate interview time: 15 minutes

1. Finding out about his cooking and eating habits:
    He explained that his occupation is very on and off and some weeks he will work 20 hours a day and others he will work only a few hours from home or have the day off. This job makes eating and cooking very irregular for him and he could not give a week in routine because " With a different client or job each week, Its very difficult to keep a routine especially cooking and eating". He explained that cooking has always been a passion of his so on his days off or when he isn't in the studio or the office all day and night, he prepares a very nice meal and invites friends over. He indulges when it comes to food shopping and buys ingredients of the highest quality because nutrition is of great value to him. He wishes he could go to the market and buy fresh everyday in order to prepare more impressive lunches and dinners, but with just starting his career, usually stocks up at the supermarket on Monday and will go to buy fresh ingredients from a market on Friday or Saturday. He wishes he could cook everyday like he does on the weekend and explained, " I am always trying to learn to cook new dishes and different types of cuisine".

2. Introducing our product:
    I explained to him that a group of a few students and I were developing a mobile application that would allow for him to learn different recipes and be able to generate a list of recipes with the food available within his kitchen. After explaining to him all the other features our application would offer, he seemed very interested in the product. He said that when he has the time to cook he personally enjoys looking through cookbooks and planning out meals. Time and ingredients are not an issue for him because he bases his day around shopping cooking and entertaining his friends. However, during weeks where he has a project that requires ridiculous hours of work straight, this would be a lifesaver to him. He said "when I am busy I often just take out a pizza or make a sandwich for myself, whatever is quick and easy". He said if he was able to program what was available to him and they could make a meal in a short amount of time, that was healthy and delicious he would absolutely try the product and use it on the weeks where he was swamped with work

3. Discussion of advertising and pricing:
    I explained how we would have a freemium application that would have the basic features, but we would also have a premium account which would cost a fee, but would offer so many more features. He said that he would absolutely download the free version because that would solve the problems that he faced. loving to spend time and cook when able to the premium version would not really be what he was looking for because he enjoys looking through cookbooks and taking the time shopping and preparing. He did say however with the smart phone "boom" he could see his friends who are similar to him using the application and paying up to 2 euros for the service. When I explained advertisements on the free version, he had no problem that as long as it didn't completely interfere with the service the application provided. " Every free application has advertisements, but people still use them, so I don't think the free version having them is a problem at all".

Jack Formica

Empathy Map Analysis

LET'S GET CLOSER TO OUR MARKET: EMPATHY MAP

Since we start our project, we've been trying to identify and analyze our target market. However, it is difficult to get to know them deeply and understand their thoughts and behaviors. In order to expand our knowledge, we decided to do an empathy map including the three types of customers we target: the student, the business man and the mom. Here are some pictures of theses activities to give you an idea how this help us to be more involve with them.

The empathy map help us to identify four factors that influence the behavior: What they hear? What they feel? What they see? What they say or do? You may think that these are questions easy and maybe without connection about our topic, however, getting to know theses customers and understand why they behave, what are they decision factors and influences could help us to develop and create a more effective and efficient solutions for them. Let's get start!

We are going to continuo working on this and we are going to update it soon with more analysis and conclusions! 

By: Silvia Rubio and Eva Borisova

Interview 8 Analysis

INTERVIEW 8 Analysis

The interview proceeds as follow.

1- Introduction of the product to the interviewee.

Interviewee: Female of 45 years old. Mother of 2 children (5 and 7 years old). She works as Human Resource Manager in a multinational.  She lives in Barcelona, Spain.

Time of the interview: 25 minutes

Summary

1. Question about her routine in the kitchen and cooking habits.

She used to go to have lunch at home every Monday and Wednesday and, some cases, when she is able, she likes to go also on Friday. Her husband worked as a CEO of a big company and he never has time to go and eat at home, so she is used to cook for herself. Her children have lunch at school, but in some occasion she pick them at school in lunch time in order to have more time with them; she arrives very late every day and she does not have time to spend with them during the week. She likes to go once a week to the supermarket, every Tuesday she organizes everything to have at least 1 hour for this activity. She likes to plan what to buy and then plan the week lunch table in order to buy all at once and diversify in her food. However, she always ended eating simple and easy dishes, almost always with salad as a first dishes and a protein for the second one. She likes to take care of her diet and she tries not to eat to much carbohydrates, such pasta, pizza or hamburger.

2. Introduction of the service

We start talking about the service that I was offering. She was interested with the filters where she can choose among different categories. She was very positive because additional to that, she would not need to be worried about what she's missing to do a specify dish and also because she would get more easy and simple recipes.

She was worried about how to identify the food on the application. She suggested that the application could save the latest usage in order to not to introduce the food every time they open the application. She suggested that the application would start after the first use with the question "Did you buy anything else from the last day?. Also I added the suggestion of the "New fridge" when the users what to start all over.

3. Price and advertising

When we start talking about how much she would be willing to pay for such service, she was a little confuse. She did not use to pay for any application, but she knows that her husband does. I explain her that similar applications have a prices between €0.9 and €3.99 and she took a good reaction because she compared with a cookbook that can varied from €10 to €50, which she thinks is ridiculous. She ask more about the different service that the free and the premium account would offer, and she stayed that she would pay no more than 4€ if this app would make her life easy and give her more time with her children. She was very interested in this because every feature I explained to her, she looked to how this could help her to spend more time with her boys. 

Regarding the advertising model, she didn't like it. She complaint on how many adds she use to see every day all places and sometimes when she gets an add email, she gets frustrated. That's is why she was more convince that she will pay a little more in order to don't have advertising.

By: Silvia Rubio 

Interview 7 Analysis

INTERVIEW 7 Analysis

The interview proceeds as follow.

Interviewee: Female of 23 years old. Student and living alone. Barcelona, Spain

Time of the interview: 20 minutes

Summary

Introduction of the product to the interviewee.

The interviewee seems to identify the problem and explain me that she faces situations like this very often. She gave me details about a situation happened the previous week with his boyfriend. On Saturday afternoon, they were together watching movies in his apartment. They went out the last night so they woke up late and they haven't eaten anything for lunch. They were tired, exhausted and they did not want to go out from the apartment because it was raining. They decided to have a late lunch at home with the ingredients they have and no need to buy anything; a simple, quick and good lunch. However, they spend almost thirty minutes deciding what to prepare because any option they give, the other was not agree; because he/she ate last day or she/he did not want at that moment or it took a lot of time or they always ended eating the same. She stayed without options and, creativity or cook' experience are not their strongest skills. At the ends, they went to the restaurant in front his apartment. She would like to stay at home, she explains but "we would be ended in a discussion other way".

For her answer, she was very interest about the service that I was explaining. And she liked the idea to used the mobile because she is not to involved in cooking and she would not want to spend money and buy a whole book about recipes. She asked me if the service would be for iOS and for Android to, as she has a Samsung Galaxy 3. It is something to take into account, because it is not enough that our target market has a Smartphone, we need to know if they use iOS or Andorid. We haven't decided yet, and also there is the option to design the service for both, but first we need to analyze the cost of it.

After evaluating the service, we present both the free and premium model and ask them how they would set the break-even point between both services. The prices provided oscillated between 0.90€ to 3.99€, based on other type of products similar or related in the application market. She was not very happy about the fact that she needs to pay. She told me that because she is not too involved with cooking, she would not buy it for any price. But, I started asking her about the time she used to go home and cook by herself, or how many times she repeat the same dish in a week. She realized that the problem was more a need rather than a whim. But she would like to try first before setting a price willing to pay.

Then I went through the advertising model. The first reaction of her was negatively; because one of the most complains of other applications he uses is related with to much advertising. We need to take this into account when deciding the advertising model, because this is going to be one of our revenues channels but we don't want to make it uncomfortable for the users.  

 By: Silvia Rubio 

Interview 6 Analysis

INTERVIEW 6 (PROBLEM RECOGNITION)

This first interview was mainly focus to take more information about the targeted customer and analyzed more in deep the need and how we can provide a better solution. This interview is to add more information and go forward from the surveys. 

Interview 

Interview specifications: Male, 26 years from Barcelona, Spain. He works as a Junior Sales Manager in a start-up company.

The Interview proceeds as follows: 

Tell me how you or your household usually handles cooking dinner?

I live with two roommates, a girl and a guy. We used to have dinner together because it's the time to share what happen during the day. I work not so far from home as well one of my roommates. Sometimes we met at the apartment to have lunch together. The problem here is that I have to work mornings and afternoons and for me; lunchtime has become a space to take a break and be out of the office issues for a moment. I like my lunchtime but i can't think to go home and prepare my lunch because it takes a lot of time and sometimes I prefer to sit and relax and wait until someone come with the food. When I go to have lunch at home is because my roommate had prepare something and she calls me to pass over; but that happens once or twice a week. When we cook together, we usually divide the roles of the kitchen; one go to buy the ingredients, the other cook and the last he is in charge to wash the dishes. Despite the roles are very clear, we always ended doing all together. That happen when we plan a special dinner, but because my work and their daily activities, we haven't have time to do it for at least 2 months.

How often a week are you cooking a meal, either for yourself or others?

I really don't know. If I need to generalize I can say that I cook at least once a week for lunch. But there are some weeks that I cook twice or three times because I have time.

Have you ever tried any methods to improve cooking at home, such as cookbooks, other mobile applications, websites, classes?

Yes. When we first moved to the apartment, we bought a cookbook. Our plan was to cook delicious dishes and enjoy lunch and dinner time. Buy we used once if I'm not wrong. ("Why?") Because for each dishes it required many ingredients we didn't have and that we don't used them so much. And at then end, the rest of the food that it lasted and we didn't used it went directly to the garbage because we didn't know what else to do. Also because the dishes described in the cookbook are target for special events, and because our apartment is very little, we don't do too many reunions here.

We haven't try any other method rather than mom recipes or suggestions. Despite all of us are older than 25, we have a good family relationship and we still have contact with them; it is not unusual to call and ask for ideas or to know how to cook something.

If you could improve anything about your daily cooking routine, in which way would you improve it?

Well, I used to go to the gym at least three days a week. Now with my work it is almost impossible. I go once the weekend and that's it. I've not too much involved with diets, but I like to take care of my health.  Every time I go to restaurants I like to choose a healthy dish. But, you know, in restaurants and especially in random bar that I use to go, they cook with a lot of oil.

Interview Analysis

As the interview went through, the interviewee was becoming more and more interested on the topic. It is a perfect target customer as we described its problems and his needs. He has the problems that we already identified and additionally we find another factor that we can take use of: What to do with the food that you buy to do a specific dish and then you don't use it any more because you don't know how. This approach reaffirms one more that our idea could be used also to solve that problem.

The next interviews are going to be more related on the solution and not in the problem. Meanwhile, we are going to keep analyzing the market in order to get a specific market size, their attitudes, behaviors and routines in order to be more involved with them and understand more about their problems and how we can give them an effective and efficient solution. 

By: Silvia Rubio