ai.ly Prototyping Report

Prototyping Report

Ifah Pantitanonta, Andrés Galicia, Akanksha Shrivastava

Initial Concept

An AI companion chat interface with voice recognition that uses motivational interviewing with positive psychology to develop positive habits for life & learning with plan program designed by certified coach.

Branding

Features & Functionalities Prototype

Tone of Voice Visual Branding

Business Model

Users Subscription

Coaches and Brands

Motivational Interviewing

AI-Technology

Product Voice Interaction

Reminder, Metric and Progress Tracking

Branding 02

Branding Areas to Prototype

Tone of Voice

Testing the narrative alternatives that make users feel comfortable and open up to enforcing the positive behavioral change

Branding

Testing design and visual language that communicate the brand and value of ai.ly

Workshop1

Workshop 1 Finding the Right Branding Tone of Voice

participants

27

Purpose:

1. Creating and setup for Ai-ly's brand visual and narrative direction for interacting with users in the most effective possible.

2. The outcomes and results from this workshop will be used and applied to design the product and service.

Method: A/B Testing through online survey format which divide the testings into 3 parts

1. Brand tone of voice

2. Brand visual design

3. Product interaction tone of voice.

Part 1: Personality

What we want to know:

if Ai-ly were a person, what ai-ly personality would be like and which of the personas do users like to talk and engage with better

How:

Develop 2 distinguish personas that could be the best fit personalities to the represent Ai-ly's branding as well interact and communicate effectively with user

Charlie

Keywords: Friend, Witty, Fun

He is your FRIEND who has a lively personality, brings joy to those around him, and effortlessly combines humor and support to create an uplifting atmosphere. He firmly believes in the power of positivity and is always available with a kind word or a witty joke to brighten his friends' days.

Charlie employs fun and inventive methods to motivate his friends, inspiring them to chase their dreams and passions.

Emma

Keywords: Professional, Calm, Comfort

She is EXECUTIVE COACH, guiding her clients toward their full potential. She is empathetic and supportive, always finding ways to encourage and motivate her clients.

Her calm personality, infused with wit, makes her clients feel comfortable and at ease when collaborating with her.

She offers constructive feedback to help her clients succeed.

Part 1: Personality Highlight and Outcomes

Overall results are higher selected "Emma" persona in all questions. Users prefer to be coached or instructed in a professional-liked however, in engaging and interacting, users still need hindsight of friendliness and humor.

Part 2: Visual Designs

What we want to know:

What would be the look and feel of Ai-ly with visual branding from color to design elements

How:

- Designed two designs logo and color palettes in developing the visual style for branding.

- Frame the questions separately for each elements

Logo Direction 1

Trendy, Geometric, Edgy-corner

Logo Direction 2

Calm, Soft, Rounded-corner

Color Direction 1

Vibrant, Colorful, Warm

Color Direction 2

Calm,Soft, Cool

Part 2: Visual Designs Outcomes & Highlight

The design with rounded-edge and corners has a higher selected number. Based on the feedback response, the design looks light, calm, and soft, which makes the users feel easy to approach and engage.

Part 3: Interacting Tone of Voice

What we want to know:

The tone of voice use in copywriting, conversational contents that would users would feel more comfortable and engaging with better

How:

Generated and crafted two styles of copywriting/content for nudging, affirmation, reminders and tracking to see the tone of voice use in communicating

Track of goals

Positive-Professional Funny-Sassy

"Missed your goal? Let's refocus."

"You haven't worked on your goal in a while. Are you trying to break up with it or what?”

Compliments for working hard

“You look more attractive and bold chasing your dreams.”

"You're not just a pretty face, you're also a badass with big dreams."

Keep going "No delay, work on goals!" "Get off your lazy butt and take action towards your goals!"

Don't stop "Stop waiting, time for action!"

"Procrastination is not a good look on you. Get to work!"

Part 3: Interacting Tone of Voice Outcomes & Highlight

Positive-professional style of communication has a higher preferable selected choice for the user

Final Takeaways

With all outcome results from all parts, the synthesized result shows the right tone of ai.ly leans toward the professional-calm tone, 70%, which we take over into visual and how the product interacts with users.

However, the result also showed 30%, ai.ly need to have hindsight friendliness and funny, which we can incorporate with the copywriting and some visual elements.

Ai.ly : "Missed your goal? Let's refocus."

Business Model 03

Business Model’s Areas to Prototype

Users Subscription Coaches & Brands

Testing the pricing point and the subscription model of the business concept

Testing commission model for the coaches and brands to be on board with the platform

In this prototyping area, we firstly focused on gauging interest in the product and determining willingness to spend on it, developing subscription model. By combining the $20 challenge into this testing, we hope to bring higher lead outreach.

Financial Model

Description

Salaries and benefits for the team, including developers, designers, and customer support staff.

Costing

Developers (3): $120,000 to $150,000 each

Designers (2): $80,000 to $100,000 each

Customer support staff (3): $40,000 to $60,000 each

Total: $560,000 to $720,000 per year

Total estimated costs for Ai.ly: $54,166/month (not including any taxes or unforeseen expenses)

Server and cloud hosting fees for the AI platform.

Licensing fees for any third-party software or tools used by ai.ly.

Marketing and advertising expenses to promote the platform and reach potential users.

Costs associated with data privacy and security compliance.

Payment processing fees for transactions.

Customer acquisition costs, including commissions paid to coaches or affiliates who bring in new users.

Professional services fees, including legal and accounting expenses.

Research and development expenses to improve and expand the AI platform.

Rent and office expenses, if ai.ly has a physical location.

Legal and company registration:

$1,500 to $5,000 per month or $18,000 to $60,000 per year

$2,000 to $10,000 per year

$5,000 to $20,000 per month or $60,000 to $240,000 per year

$10,000 to $50,000 per year

2.9% + $0.30 per transaction (average rates)

Commissions paid to coaches or affiliates: 10-20% per sale

Other acquisition costs: $50 to $200 per acquired customer

Legal: $5,000 to $15,000 per year

Accounting: $2,000 to $10,000 per year

$50,000 to $200,000 per year

$5,000 to $10,000 per month or $60,000 to $120,000 per year

Initial setup cost of $2,000 - $5,000

Total estimated costs per year: $766,000 to $1,430,000

Pricing for Subscription model

$20 Challenge

Spent it for the leads!

We addressed this challenge by assessing the desirability of our product and experimenting with pricing and business model strategies. We allocated funds to promote marketing materials to attract and engage potential users with ai.ly. This approach helped us gather valuable insights to optimize our offerings and better connect with our target audience.

Marketing Assets:

● Organic traffic: Print Assets

● Social Media Posts: Instagram + LinkedIn

● Landing page + Form

$20 Distribution Budget

Phases: Spending Distribution Plan:

Organic Traffic

Print outreach

We developed a variety of print materials with different types of copy to assess user behavior and drive traffic to our website without incurring additional expenses. This strategy allows us to evaluate the initial response to our marketing efforts and make data-driven decisions for future campaigns.

Instagram

Promoted Post

We invested $3, evenly distributed among three different post types, to evaluate their success and identify the most effective approach for driving traffic and generating hype for our concept product. By analyzing the performance of each post, we can determine the best practices to apply in future marketing efforts; predominant visuals and questions-base copy as the #1 content base strategy to follow.

Company Profile Page

We created a polished corporate image and website for our company to enhance brand credibility. While recruiting for a technology co-founder, we gained valuable market insights and discovered the desirability of being involved in AI-driven narratives. These findings will help inform our strategic decisions and business development efforts.

Landing Page

With a clearer understanding of user behavior, we observed traffic and lead actions on the landing page, which received approximately 87 overall views. However, the number of users interested in joining the waitlist or engaging with the business model options was disproportionately low, (approximately 1.15%). This highlights a need for further optimization to improve the conversion rate.

Form insights

Inconclusive Feedback

Given the low conversion rates observed across various platforms and sites, we conducted tests to understand customer preferences for our business model options. We decided to gather more accurate and precise data before drawing conclusions. However, the initial inconclusive feedback indicated that customers tended to lean towards the "I'm still undecided" option, suggesting the need for further clarity and refinement of our concept.

$20 Challenge Takeaways

Concept is ambiguous and challenging for users to comprehend

The current concept appears ambiguous and challenging for users to comprehend. Establishing clear goals and actionable steps is crucial for better understanding.

High-traffic but low-interest

users

After assessing the challenge, we found a mismatch between the generated traffic and actual results regarding tangible leads, revealing an imbalanced conversion rate for user sign-ups.Given this, investing in SEO at this stage would not be beneficial until necessary improvements to enhance clarity and user understanding are implemented.

Refining presentation and communication of product

While the product garners significant interest and acceptance at first glance, the overall number of users joining the waitlist for a trial of the actual product or business model falls short of expectations. By refining the presentation and communication of the product's value, we aim to bridge this gap and improve user engagement.

What We Could Have Done Better?

Clarify the Product Offer

Showcase the Value/Interactions

Provide a concise and easy-to-understand description of the product or service, including its features and benefits.

Highlight the key advantages and value that users can expect to gain from using the product or service.

Product 04

Product Areas to Prototype

Motivational Interviewing

MI techniques in positive psychology help to develop habits and induce behavioral change

AI-Technology

Voice Interaction

Reminder, Metric and Progress Tracking

AI and machine learning algorithms to customize the selected coaching plan according to the user's information and preferences.

Testing voice integration and interaction between the users and smart devices

Testing progress metrics such as goal completion rates, habit tracking, and progress summaries.

Prototype Division

Motivational Interviewing AI-Technology Voice Interaction

MI techniques in positive psychology help to develop habits and induce behavioral change

Prototyping through Workshop 2

AI and machine learning algorithms to customize the selected coaching plan according to the user's information and preferences.

Testing voice integration and interaction between the users and smart devices

Reminder, Metric and Progress Tracking

Testing progress metrics such as goal completion rates, habit tracking, and progress summaries.

Prototyping these areas together across through pop-up mini workshop

Workshop2

Workshop 2

Test the Positive Psychology and Journey

Purpose: This workshop will help us setup the appropriate approach used of positive psychology and find the direction approach to design the experience of the product

participants

11

Method: In-person, during class time.

Assets:

● Personas

● Onboarding questionnaires

● Decision tree of conversational journey

● Feedback form

Workshop 2: Plan Outline

Great minds at work

Workshop 2: 1st Exercise

Task: Paper prototyping walkthrough

Objective: Testing the initial onboarding journey of a user through a questionnaire that determines users preferences in terms of coaching, goals, preference for tracking progress. Also testing user journey.

Workshop 2: Assets

Persona for Ai.ly

Persona for User Plan setup

Workshop 2: 2nd Exercise

Pairing and Persona Assignment (10 minutes)

● The participants were divided into pairs.

● Each pair was divided with a motivational interviewing decision tree based on a specific persona.

● One person in each pair was asked to act as Ai.ly and the other as the persona.

2 1

Motivational Interviewing Practice (30 minutes)

● The pairs to followed their decision tree and had a conversation.

1 WORKSHOP 2

● Each person should take turns playing the role of Ai.ly and the persona.

Feedback and Discussion (15 minutes)

Takeaways

It’s proof method

the motivational interviewing does work and actionable in maintaining and enhancing motivation.

Repetitive questions

overall workshop design with questionnaires and conversation prompts is repetitive and board.

Difficult to understand the concept

We found that our concept is broad and difficult to understand which it’s presented in the workshop outcomes

Don’t see the actionable keys

Participants were lost and did not see the actionable keys of product and not well design to provide the value that promising.

Need to Pivot!!

After conducted the workshops and $20 challenge, we learned from the result and we crystalized that we have to narrow down the scope of focus to show the value and present the concept that people are easily understand

What we need to do

Influenced by Market and User's Input:

- Scope down the areas of focus based over the market that showed more interest in the product base on data: *Education, Design and Arts and HR management. *Age range: 18-34 / * Locations: NY/LA.

- Have a direct goal that actionable and present the concept journey base on user input about lack of direction and clarity regarding the concept.

- Be concise with contents design.

PivotingPoint

Pivoting & Brainstorming

Based on what we learned and the concept and approach need to pivot. We took a step back and look on what the core value of ai.ly provide

Personal development bring meaning to life and fulfillment

How do we guide to the Self-actualization?

How do we narrow down?

What would be the best direction to present the value we want to deliver?

Scoping down -Narrowing scope of MVP project

(Lesser value proposition)

Pre-existing competition in the AI- healthcare space

(Lesser value proposition)

Pre-existing competition in the AI- Fintech space

(Greater value proposition)

Categories are too broad

Scope to create ai-voice based chatbot for lifelong learning

Scoping down - Concept Generation

Leveraging

Ai.ly’s voice recognition USP to further narrow scope of research

Career Development

Ai.ly to help users prepare and ace job interviews

Wealthy

(Greater value proposition)

Skill Development

Ai.ly to help users gain skills and hobbies that they never had time for.

(Ai.ly for leisure)

(Lesser value proposition)

Narrow scope of research

Broader scope of research

Scoping down - New concept

1. Uses positive psychology to provide affirmations, insights, and reminders to users.

2. Conducts mock interviews with users by posing as a recruiter.

3. Provides insights and metrics on several factors such as the user's voice modulation, tone of voice, diction, etc.

Ai.ly is a voice-based AI chatbot that helps users prepare, manage, and excel in job interviews.

4. Connects to smart devices such as Alexa and Google platform.

5. Can schedule, remind, and track your interviews.

6. Can be used as a plugin during video interviews.

7. Assesses and provides metrics after the conversation of how the interview went.

8. Rewards overall progress and helps users achieve their dream job.

9. Provides a soft skills certificate that users can attach to their CV and send to recruiters.

New Concept

Unlocking your potentials with “ally”, the innovation AI-powered personal development platform through voice-interaction to help you prepare, manage, and excel in job interviews

Prototyping with New Concept

AI-Technology

Voice Interaction

Job Interview Concept

AI and machine learning algorithms to customize the selected coaching plan according to the user's information and preferences.

Testing voice integration and interaction between the users and smart devices

Reminder, Metric and Progress Tracking

Testing progress metrics such as goal completion rates, habit tracking, and progress summaries.

Prototyping these areas together across through pop-up mini workshop

Workshop3

Workshop 3 Interaction between users and AI-Technology together with tracking and rewarding system

Purpose: This workshop understand the AI-technology with voice based use interface experience with users and also testing the re-iteration idea of the workshop 2 and tracking and rewarding system effectiveness throughout the users journey.

participants

13

Method: Mini pop-up workshop, in-person

Assets:

● Conversational prompt and audio

● Screen design for reward and tracking

● Feedback Form

Workshop 3: Plan Outline

go through the mocking job interview with prompt given and ai.ly will give response accordingly

Rewards

Response to questionnaires accordingly to the showing screens of tracking

Testing Assets for Conversational Ai

User's Input Prompts Ai.ly's audio-base outputs

Example of Dashboard

Dashboard - Functions and Features

Example of Tracking and Rewarding

Summary report of recent performance

Notification: activity point rewarding

Assets for Audio-Base Nudging

Preliminar takeaways: Users prefer have interaction of Ai.ly not solely based on audio but to be supported by visuals/text.

Workshop 3 Takeaways

Users might want other forms of rewarding

● Users might want rewards more centered around jobs and job interviews, so external partnerships with job related platforms is key.

● Recommendations for providing soft-skills training certificate along after completing the ai.ly assessment would be more fruitful to interviewees as they can share it to other platforms.

Improvement on the Dashboard UI

● The UI of the dashboard seemed a little busy for the users therefore the navigation was not seamless. The UI journey of the dashboard can be improved

Rewarding System Feedbacks to Consider

Need to test the reward process for users: Which one do users want more?

NewFinancialProjection

Financial Model for the New Concept

Total estimated costs for Ai.ly: $937,900 to $1,112,700 per year (not including any taxes or unforeseen expenses)

Financial Model for the New Concept

Assumptions:

● The business will launch in the next 12 months and operate on a fiscal year calendar

● The target market size is 50,000 individuals and the company aims to capture 5% of the market share in the first year

● The business will charge a monthly subscription fee of $9.99 per user

● The churn rate is expected to be 5% per month

Reflection 05

Reflection:

● After pivoting the concept, direction and people understanding the concept is getting more positive reaction

● Users are able to grasp the concept in a better way which was initially a problem.

Next Steps:

● Focus on streamlining the product, improving overall UI experience and BETA ai.ly prototype

● Next challenge to conquer: Shifting the narrative to revolve around solving job rejection, fear of rejection and mental health issues surrounding job rejection

● Contact HR representatives and recruiters to enrich the overall ai.ly experience, explore B2B landscape opportunities.