Project Overview

A product team asked us:

How might we help Gen Z take more action on social causes they care about?

A team needed help validate their MVP (a link-in-bio site). We designed a four-week, multi-method research plan to evaluate their MVP's product market fit and develop a "Plan B" in case of failure.

Our objectives included: 

• Evaluate MVP's core value proposition & product market fit
• Identify target audience segments, their needs, and journey
• Recommend product pivot 
• Develop action plan for team to execute on pivot

We answered:

We designed a three-part study, beginning with a 10-day-long mobile diary study done in parallel with product testing. This allowed us to not only understand participants' organic use of the product, but also their thoughts and feelings about the product in real-time. The diary was followed by a series of follow-up in-depth interviews to supplement the findings with additional context and detail.

The diary study included 45 participants across the United States, with 6 interview participants.

Product Impact:

We found that our client's MVP did not meet user needs - and as a result lacked product market fit. 

However, through our research we identified nuanced user segments, how they try to take action, what unique roadblocks they experience, and product opportunities to better meet their needs. As a result, we created a set of guiding principles to develop a new product as well as an action framework for our client to build and test their new product direction quickly and more efficiently. Together, our work helped launch the MOVE and ActUS app.

Specifically, our research identified:

• Three distinct user segments of Gen Z activists, ranging from the newbie to the expert
• Unique needs and challenges users experienced when trying to take action on causes they care about
• A fragmented tooling space and a plan to de-fragment and create unique value-add