Pitch: An Opportunity Platform!

PITCH! an opportunity platform FALL 2015

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insights and opportunity Professor Bruce Claxton | Fall 2015 DMGT 720 | Design Innovation Development Yang He | Stephanie Krell | Zhiyi Lin | Sara Martin

about this study This study showcases the process of finding a blue ocean opportunity in social networks from early ideation through to concept selection and prototyping. The result of this effort is the design of Pitch, a professional social network that strives to nurture and create real time authentic professional relationships through interest based matching leading to face-to-face engagement.

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our team

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Sara is a business design strategist from west of Philadelphia. She is currently enjoying the life of a grad student where she studies Design Management.

Stephanie is a media specialist from the Northeastern United States who is focusing on design strategy and innovation processes. She loves cats & dreams of traveling the world.

Yang transitioned from automotive design to user experience, seeking a career shift that would lead her closer to her ideal role.

Zhiyi Lin is a industrial designer from the south of China who is interested in design management and design thinking.

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CONTENTS suiting up

08 ............................................................pitch 22 ........................................................insights

the handshake

28 ............................................the competition

curriculum vitae

40 .....................................secondary research 42 ..........................................primary research 48 ..................................................user testing

the elevator pitch

50 ....................................................prototypes

follow up

54 ...................................................what’s next

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path to pitch early ideation The first step on the path to pitch was to create various concepts around the prompt of a new social media that would hit on a blue ocean in the market of existing social media applications. Three concepts (below) were developed and analyzed via the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats model (opposite page).

LBPN // Real Time, Real Connections A business-oriented platform where people can find connections for a face-to-face encounters through a primary, secondary, or tertiary network created from specific professional parameters. Location base professional network expands your contacts by seeking collaborative expertise within GPS proximity and in real-time. [Top]

InstaFriend // Let’s Go A social network platform that combines a broad membership base with real-time spontaneous events and GPS location technology. InstaFriend allows you to see who is looking for an exercise buddy, a dinner-mate, or a fellow movie goer.

This is combined with discounts through sites like LivingSocial and Groupon to help you decide where to go on your adventure. [Middle]

BRThere // Be Right There An entertainment application that facilitates organized planning for events, dinners, and outings within your current network of friends and peers. Foodies can view locations, ratings, and deals while using a forum to express preferences which allows groups to determine the entertainment for your evening. [Bottom]

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path to pitch blue ocean After initial ideation the next step to discovering and defining the leading concept was to analyze secondary research through sensemaking models that would highlight industry and cultural trends.

This would provide guidance to discover a gap in the demand and supply of social network service applications.

Initial Opportunity Map // What’s Missing?

Rising to the surface of our industry analysis were two key sets of attributes that allowed us to understand and define the competition and discover potential opportunity for our ideas. Cultural and personality attributes tend to dictate comfort in the RANGE of network while need or desire tend to influence the TYPE. [Top Left]

Trends Matrix // Seeing Patterns We conducted secondary research to uncover trends in patterns in culture around digital service offerings and how it impacts individuals socialization. We uncovered this potential trend of people rejecting the early years of networking being purely digital to now seeking out more genuine and authentic connections through faceto-face interactions with one another. [Bottom]

Convergence Map // Opportunity The range of features that we covered through our research share three main characteristics: Faceto-Face Connection, Real-time Application, and GPS Location Technologies. People are not only craving real interactions but they are also looking to make those connections efficiently as the pace of life continues to increase. [Middle Right]

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Idea #2 Instafriend

Idea #3 Be Right There

Idea #1 LBPN

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who is pitch offerings After selecting our first idea we had to define it. Pitch is a professional social network but more importantly it is a place for people to find others with common interests and ambitions. By connecting these individuals we will develop a community based on forward looking opportunity and personal development.

OAC // Where We Fit Evaluating Pitch! through an understanding of the activities and the environment that could create success, validated our original assumptions and uncovered additional service needs. We started to realize that it was important that we encouraged people to engage as often as possible in the face-toface meetings. [Above]

Core Service // What We Provide The Core Service Model was especially useful in that in uncovered the potential broad and narrow benefits that our service could provide. Knowing that this service would improve individuals interpersonal skills and ultimately their quality of life is at the core of what we hope to provide and motivated us on a larger cultural level. Strong relationships are critical to life quality and we hope to contribute to this. [Below]

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who is pitch branding

Using the ZAG 17 step method we further defined the concept of Pitch and how we would interact with the market. The service is a location based professionals network aimed at guiding individuals along their career path by exploring existing affiliations and creating global connections. Riding on the waves of social innovation, the on-demand economy and collective interdependence, Pitch fosters a more personalized and immediate interaction while competing with other networks such as LinkedIn,Meetup, and Tinder.

Highlighting the New // Why Are We Different?

Identifying how we are different from our competition will help us to effectively brand and create excitement around the concept. Pitch! is uniquely pairing a professional network with a move from a digital landscape to a hybrid environment focusing on face-to-face interactions.

Real Time, Real Connections! Pitch! (Professional Interactive Talented Connected Habitat) is an opportunity platform that goes beyond digital interaction to provide a safe, authentic, and mobile experience for people seeking connections and career advancement.

Forging Ahead // How Do We Get There?

Pitch! will partner with 1st tier existing structured networks that include large membership bases. Secondly, it will expand individual connections. Finally, we will continue to explore additional 2nd tier niche networks with smaller, localized memberships.

Pitch! will stay authentic by sticking to our original Vision, Value Proposition and Three Pillars. Interest and peer groups create confusion and will be kept from forming in order to maintain a quality network.

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Connecting and Engaging // Who is Our Customer?

A key piece of branding is understanding who you are targeting with your service and how you intend to connect and engage with them, what you hope they experience and how to foster long term loyalty.

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who is pitch value proposition We went through several iterations of our value proposition and business canvas model before coming to a final state.

Value Proposition // What is Our Mission?

For professionals who are looking to create global connections by networking within existing affiliations in order to find more personal and immediate correspondence leading to new business opportunities or career advancement. We do this by creating a hybrid platform that combines GPS technologies with a real-time interface facilitating legitimate face-to-face interactions. Unlike other professional networking websites, Pitch provides an immediate, authentic, and mobile experience. Our new product focuses on forming quality networks and valuable connections through the ability to locate other skilled professionals in your proximity. We provide this by focusing on the following:

Authenticity

A safe and credible network for finding new professional connections.

Proximity

Able to build relationships in real time around your current location.

Opportunity

A platform that facilitates creating serendipitous circumstances.

Business Canvas Model // What We’re Made Of [Below]

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who uses pitch personsas We developed our final personas through several iterations and a thorough process which included a user matrix, interviews, and shadowing. Our initial user matrix focused on whether a potential user was independent (entrepreneurial) or dependent and whether they were a professional or new in their career. Our primary research augmented this matrix and led us to developed our five final personas based on the people we engaged.

Retired Mentor // What Can I Teach You?

Return Contender // What’s Changed?

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Creative Entrepreneur // Let’s Build Something!

Company Man // What’s My Next Move?

College Grad // How Do I Do This?

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who uses pitch user journey Once we had a strong understanding of who are users would be we would then need to understand how they would interact with our service and application. We started with a high level user journey and refined this into a detailed user experience model after conducting and analyzing user centered research.

Initial Journey // Who Can We Provide?

The Initial User Journey Map was designed early in our process prior to conducting research and was based solely on our definition of our new concept. This would be our guide to determine what we would want to pay attention to during observation, interviewing, self reporting and our survey. [Top Left]

User Experience // Think and Feel Our User Experience Model was developed after competitor and user centered research was complete. This model incorporates both thoughts and feelings of the potential user and is based on a 0-5 scale of satisfaction during each significant point of interaction with the application. We framed this with a two year outlook for Pitch. It was important to imagine where we might be after initial development to seek a realistic experience. [Bottom Right]

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key insights affinitizing In order to fully understand the data that we collected during primary research we conducted a thorough synthesizing session where we clustered the data through four stages. The clusters were created by concentrating on deeper meaning behind the data rather than simply pulling key word associations.

Insights and Framework // What We Uncovered?

This process produce a total of eight insights including: Digital Analog Obstacles Prevent Success, Commonality Builds Connections, Staying on Top of Your Game, Personalities Defines People’s Willingness to Engage, Face-To-Face Builds Better Relationships, Digital Connections, Great Technology is Critical, and New and Inactive Users Need a Push to Engage. We narrowed these down to six key insights that we’ve developed out on the following pages. These insights also allowed us to generate a framework around our core offerings and key pillars of our value proposition. [Left]. In Pitch connection is comprised of authenticity, proximity, and opportunity.

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struggle bus abstract

Often people experience obstacles that can prevent success. Sometimes they are personal, but sometimes it is caused by technology that does not accomplish what it was built to do.

Opportunity There is an opportunity for Pitch to provide a dependable network that helps you accomplish your goals through insightful and functional user features.

How Might We...

• • • •

provide a service that highlights individual users as coaches or mentors? create an application that stays true to its core through useful functions? create opportunity for unlikely users to be able to use Pitch? clarify consistency between features and messaging in order to eradicate misalignment on expectations?

“These sites provide connections but what they lack is context. I don’t feel like these applications do what they are meant to do… get me a job.”

- Nick Kane, 34

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personality abstract

Users individual personality types have a huge impact on how they want to engage with social media both Online and offline.

Opportunity There is an opportunity for Pitch to target and encourage user engagement with individuals who are comfortable and enjoy face-to-face interactions while simultaneously providing a strong enough digital platform to engage more insular personalities.

How Might We...

• entice users of most types to join and use pitch through different features?

• create an environment that allows people to step out of their comfort zone?

• determine what market segment to eliminate?

What could help you make better professional connections?

“Not working out of my basement and being able to talk to people”

- Survey Respondent

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top of your game abstract

Personal branding, networking and skill building are critical tools when striving to remain relevant and competitive in professional environments.

Opportunity There is an opportunity for Pitch to provide a platform that will facilitate engagement and connection building to help users remain competitive, connected and skilled in their professional lives.

How Might We...

• • • • • •

facilitate connections between people that can promote skill building? encourage users to use our platform for self-improvement? raise the success rate for people to find a better job? create connections that raise the rate of success for finding better jobs? connect people to professional services? connect people to pro-educational resources?

“I want to go back to school or get my PMP so I can keep moving forward in my career” - Patrick Martin, 34

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a leg up abstract

New users need simple user interfaces and encouragement via strong service offerings to become engaged and to stay active on social media platforms.

Opportunity There is an opportunity for Pitch to provide a platform that will encourage users to connect by building in features prompting timely response times and delight when they are interacting both digitally and face-to-face.

How Might We...

• • • • •

encourage new users through simplification? prove that our services is worth the time? restrict certain features to force usage? design features that encourage regular usage? create a bonus system that continuously engages users?

“If I get a match 9 out of 10 times I wait for them to say hi. If they don’t after a few days I unmatch.”

- Sara Martin, 30

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OMG...me 2! abstract

Connection occurs when two people realize commonality.

Trust is built with shared experiences.

Opportunity There is an opportunity for Pitch to provide a safe and authentic experience for users to meet with other professionals in order to engage in professional matchmaking.

How Might We...

• • • • •

connect people to realize they have commonality? create a forum for people to discuss their commonality? create a trustworthy platform environment for users? provide a safe and authentic experience for users? allow users to create interest based face-to-face engagements?

“I have never held a job where I didn’t know somebody who didn’t work there, ya know somebody on the inside track I could talk to about work.”

- Cheryl Edenfield, 41

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hand in hand abstract

Meeting face-to-face has value in today’s digital world.

The chance to get to know your personality may give you the edge you need to succeed.

Opportunity There is an opportunity for Pitch to cultivate immediate and accessible associations that could lead opportunity and advancement for people looking self-improvement.

How Might We...

• • • • •

encourage face-to-face interaction? involve multiple levels of users? create a comfortable way to connect in person? make an accessible and immediate application? provide information on location and activities to make face-to-face feature more appealing?

“It’s better to be able to meet in person to talk.

It leaves a better impression” - Chatsuree Isariyasereekul, 28

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the handshake competition

In order to provide potential customers in todays social network market with what they currently expect and to surprise them with the unexpected, we wanted to fully understand who we saw as our key competitors and applications we could learn from. One key model used is our strategy canvas [Middle Right] which compares Pitch to LinkedIn, Meetup.com and Hinge and rates various pieces of these service offerings on a comparative scale from -2 to 3 and highlights key interactions that can be learned from while in development.

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competition business canvas model To further understand out competition we utilized business canvas models for our competition and ourselves. We moved away from analyzing hinge and focused our energy on tinder due to it’s more developed platform. The business canvas model prompted us to think about who are competition is and what they offer.

Tinder // Control Who You Meet Although Tinder is not a professional social network we thought it would be potential competition based on the structure of their dating application and their use of GPS location based technology to connect people. They have the opportunity to leverage their existing features into adjacent segments and could be considered a threat. [Top]

Meetup // Endless Possibilities Meetup cultivates a strong hybrid platform based on connecting people digitally through common interests and moving those relationships forward into face-to-face engagement to foster strong connections. Meetup doesn’t solely focus on a particular segment like professionals but they do have user groups that deal with professional networking and could be a threat. [Middle]

LinkedIn // Professional Brand LinkedIn is our number one competitor as the lead professional social network and the go to site to make these connections. LinkedIn will be a difficult to overcome but we hope to capitalize on the overall cumbersome nature of the current state of their offerings and features and inability to maneuver in the hybrid space. [Bottom]

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Opportunity Tinder offers us insights on how to successfully utilizes location based technology while providing a secure environment.

Opportunity Meetup provides us with a chance to learn from mistakes on poor digital user experience.

Opportunity Learn from the mistakes of feature creep that LinkedIn is currently facing.

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competition business canvas model Going through the process of creating business canvas models for our competition allowed us to narrow in on what was critical for us and what we could bypass.

Business Canvas Model // What We’re Made Of Our business canvas model took on several iterations to arrive at our final version below.

At the core of our model is our value proposition pillars of authenticity, proximity and opportunity. These pillars create an environment to guide individuals along their professional journey by generating mutually beneficial global connections. Our Key Partners, Key Activities, Key Resources and Cost Structure highlight what we will need and how we will start development in order to see this concept become a reality. As we move into the development stage it will also be critical to comprehension how and why we build Customer Relationships, who sits in our Customer Segments and what Channels we will use to spread awareness and deliver the end product. Additionally, it is key to put thought into how we will ultimately keep the business afloat through Revenue Steams. A key differentiator here as compared with other applications is that we intend to capitalize through paid for subscription service that provides added features instead of a traditional approach of capturing subscription revenue through the elimination of advertisements.

We also plan to acquire seed capital through crowd sourcing and investors. [Below]

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competition segment matrices The segment matrix analysis was a strong complement to the business canvas models. It prompted us to think about potential competition by focusing on who they are and what we can learn from them. We looked at LinkedIn and Meetup but switched back to Hinge for their in network feature. (opposite page).

LinkedIn // Professional Brand The key lesson we learned from the business canvas model was to avoid feature creep. The segment matrix model uncovered a second lesson around cultivating a large user base.

One way we hope to mimic LinkedIn on this is to allow uses to upload existing contacts when they set up their Pitch accounts like facebook, email, and potentially LinkedIn. [Top]

Hinge // Bold, Human and Real We swung back to analyzing Hinge over tinder on this model because they two have many parallels but an important lesson was available in the way that Hinge highlights second and third degree connections in their matches. This feature reinforces our thought that with hybrid platforms additions need to be added to create comfort around safety and security for our users [Middle]

Meetup // Endless Possibilities Previous analysis of Meetup demonstrated the need for a streamlined and function digital design. As we dove further into Meetup we discovered that inactivity and not following through on in person events would be another challenge we would have to address through our feature development. [Bottom]

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competition

user experience journey

We built out the user experience journey model for our competition by taking data from self-reporting and shadowing of other individuals utilizing these sites and/or applications. Our Pitch model is based on a two year forecast ideal scenario of development. We compared the competition with our own concept and uncovered areas for improvement with our concept as well as features where we had potential to outshine the competition.

Linkedin // Professional Brand Identity

Tinder // Control Who You Meet

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Meetup // Endless Possibilities

Pitch // An Opportunity Platform

Composition // Where We Can Excel Pitch will work hard on upfront development to make the discovery process simple and enjoyable

Setting up your profile and getting verification from various professional associations will be time consuming but necessary to get the most out of Pitch

The act of moving the professional networking interaction into a face to face engagement provides more authentic and enjoyable results

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research secondary To kick off our project and our research we started with some basic secondary research. The first step in this process was to assess what we already knew about the ecosystem. Once we took stock of our existing knowledge we conducted general research around what social media networks current made up the market.

Initial Assumptions Mind Map // What Do We Know?

We created a mind map of social networks so we could shape what we, as a group, understood about social networks. This highlighted a difference between our cultures. The American members had experience with networks that expanded their contacts and the Chinese members focused on applications that nurture existing relationships.. [Top Left]

Social Networks // Current Field Our first area for social network research was to take stock of the most popular applications and websites and understand and each of these generally so we could understand where potential blue oceans exist in the current canvas. This allowed us to begin to see a trend of hybrid social networking apps and for increasing demand for secure and quality contacts. [Middle]

Narrow to Broad // Expand Contacts The discovery in the mind map prompted us to examine the existing social networks on whether they were narrow and only nurtured existing relationships or whether they were broad and allowed people to expand their contacts. We intended to create a broad app and thought this would shed light on any gaps. [Bottom]

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research primary | interviews Using ethnographic research and common knowledge our team created basic personas. From them we targeted specific market users matching our assumed personas in order to test our information. Each team member was assigned a persona to interview to compare with our found knowledge. We developed interview questions around social and professional networking.

Jim Beebe // Retired Mentor Jim Beebe filled the role of ‘Retired Mentor’ as a recently retired V.P from the Akron Standard company. His interview gave us insight into that age group as well as from his professional standpoint.

Cheryl Edenfield // Return Contender Cheryl Edenfield fills multiple roles as the ‘Return Contender’. As a mother of two and the spouse of an military officer, she was able to share her perspective from juggling motherhood to constant relocations.

Yi Zhou // Creative Entrepreneur Yi Zhou, having entered his career, he is looking to become a ‘Creative Entrepreneur’. His pioneering spirit is drawn in by the risk and adventure of working on his own and following his dreams. Gaining insight into his struggles and accomplishments allowed us to better understand this user market.

Patrick Martin // Company Man Patrick Martin has been working for medium to large sized company’s during his entire career. He proved to be a strong interview contributor with his suggestions around allowing professionals to connect not only through professional interests but also through social interests.

Yushan Yin // College Grad Yushan Yin was able to provide us important insights to the needs and desires of ‘The College Grad’. This information allowed us to create features that solve for this user group’s needs which include making professional connections and possible career opportunities.

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research user interfaces Part of our primary research was conducting with the desire to understand how users interact with the interfaces of various existing social media applications and websites. We gathered this information though selfreporting, a social network survey, and observations and shadowing of other users.

Self-Reporting // What Do We Know?

For our self-reporting research we had each team member in our group test out our competitions websites and applications by using them how they would naturally. Two team members focused on the experience with LinkedIn. One team member focused on Meetup and the final team member focused on Tinder. This activity allowed us to uncover cumbersome or clunky aspect to each of the services. It also highlighted key features like behind the scenes search algorithms, event organization, and professional profiles.

Social Network Survey // When Do We Socialize?

A second piece of this part of our primary research was a survey. We received responses from 100 users covering general questions on how they engage with social media and also how they network professionally. A key take away were that individuals prefer meeting professional contact in face-to-face settings.

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research Observations // How Do People Interact?

In order to garner a better understanding of Pitch! competitors, as well as the functionality of other professional networks, our team observed seven individuals actively using the LinkedIn website and phone application. We were able to discern what pain points users had as well as the features that engaged them. We choose to focus our observation/shadowing research on LinkedIn specifically because we felt that it was our primary competitor. Some key take aways from this observation was that individuals felt the extent of the features being offered was cluttered. New users to the site felt that it was hard to navigate and adopt. We also learned that although users were overwhelmed by a large number of features they were simultaneously reluctant to remove any of the offerings. We took all of this into consideration as we moved in to development. We wanted to make sure that we offered our users what they were looking for without getting bogged down by feature creep. We also wanted to make sure that the over all web and application experience was delightful.

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research user testing User experience is an important part of the design process.

Throughout the creation of Pitch, our team spent time checking in with future subscribers to continue to absorb feedback. Once the basic Pitch prototype was created a survey containing questions pertaining to feature options was sent out to a diverse population.

At the same time a workshop was facilitated to walk users through a rough interaction with the application in order to assess possible complications.

Feature Survey // What Should We Change?

The responses from the survey provided our team with key takeaways that supported some existing assumptions and gave direction for Pitch!. The survey highlighted what features would be in demand for future iterations of the application. It also helped us to understand how people viewed personal privacy around GPS location, profile view notifications and message read notifications.

We were also able to see how people feel about paying for app services. [Bottom Lef]

User Testing Workshop Interactions with users from our workshop provided us with both positive feedback about the direction of the Pitch! application, and also allowed us to observe obstacles and develop solutions. Listening to their concerns over location and recognizing some missing features were tantamount to realizing our final product.

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the elevator pitch

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Pitch! prototype

The final prototype of our application is comprised of five main feature pages including our home page which is a map that displays people near you based on GPS location based technology. This page allows you to see people you are already connected to and potential new matches. The next feature page is our notifications page which displays new messages from existing contacts and new requests.

Next we have our user profile page followed by a my meetings page where people can view upcoming and past meetings with other pitch users. Finally, we have a settings page which includes discovery and app settings.

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prototypes refinement process Throughout any design project several iterations of prototyping are often developed in order to get to the final deliverable.

Designs have to be cultivated and then synthesized into a compelling idea. Final prototypes are achieved through the process of data collection, trial, error, and then testing.

Prototype One // Designing Blind After completing our ethnographic research we began sketching out the basis for our initial prototype. Taking a moment to express some creativity we allowed time to conceptualize some early versions of the developing form of Pitch! Sketching led to a simple information architecture layout. Early designs compelled us to incorporate the news-feed as the homepage. [Top]

Prototype Two // Re-centering Taking a step back there we recognized that we strayed from our initial concept. Our team spent time pouring over insights. Organizing the information into groups, we were able to discover specific topical categories in order to create ‘How might we‌’ scenarios. This process directed us back to our original focus in order to create a second version of prototype.[Middle]

Prototype Three // Clarity We used the second version of our prototype as a working wire-frame during the workshop with our user group. After testing it and determining complications through feedback we were able to develop the high fidelity final prototype of the application for Pitch! [Bottom]

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follow up strategy plan

Pitch’s strategic plan will cover three main business functions; Marketing, Financials, & Feature Development. Pitch will begin by creating the primary platform of the professional network by publishing the application and gaining notoriety. Pitch will use crowd-sourcing and investors to fund its initiatives. Features will be rolled out based on feasibility and impact.

Marketing // Create Excitement Pitch has created its initial web presence in the form of a website and a facebook page. Both will be user-friendly spaces where people can go to find answers and gain knowledge about the company’s values and insights into the product. Ideally, Pitch would target a certain market or persona in order to gain a strong foothold in a population to gain traction. The second stage of marketing begins when revenues accumulate. As Pitch obtains more resources the company will have the means to reach more markets. TV Commercials and Internet Ads would be the first resource. This stage is only needed if the desired subscription population is not attained within the target time-frame.

Feasibility // What’s in Store Pitch has a 5 year feature development plan. As the initial offering is published and gains popularity, this will help the business gain investors in order to expand Pitch features to continue to entice their audience base. From Basic to Premium, the roll-out plan will expand the business offering. [Bottom Left]

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hi-fi prototype

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discovery people The landing page for our application is a density map that displays the number of people in your searchable area via a location icon representing your exact GPS location on the map. The first feature you can navigate to from this search icon in the top right hand corner of the screen is our discovery people feature which displays people in your batch of matches. This individuals are displayed with their picture, title, company, and percentage match. You can select their photo to see a snapshot profile, ex them out to move to the next person or check them off to send them an introduction pitch for why you want to connect.

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people nearby The second feature you can navigate to from this map is the people nearby tool. You can access this by clicking on the location icon in the center of the page. People nearby allows you to see existing and new connections in list form near you. From here you can view their profiles or take action to ping one or many through a chat.

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notifications The notifications feature is the second icon on the homepage and allows the user to see messages from existing connections as well as notifications about recent new connections activity. Here they can people that are requesting to connect with them and anyone who has recently accepted their request to connect.

Users can chat others directly from this page.

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profile The Pitch My Profile feature is the place where a user can really showcase who they are for others to see. Here they will be able to upload a photo, a resume, and personal website links showcasing their professional work. They will also be able to enter their top three most important professional and educational experience. From the profile page they can select their top three professional and social interests from a predefined list. Also, they will be able to request to join professional Pitch groups. After they request to join these groups they will be approved and once approved these groups will show up on their profiles. Any past Pitch meetings that they have attended will display here along with any photos from those meetings. It is on the profile that users will be able to see how many existing contacts they have.

The profile page is critical to Pitch’s matching algorithm. Full profiles will enhance the users experience and the applications functionality.

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my meetings

The next section of the application is the My Meetings feature. This can be accessed through the home page. This page shows you upcoming and past events. From the list screen you will be able to click on events for more details. For upcoming events, an event creator has the ability to mark the event as open or closed and this will dictate whether or not the event displays on the home page map and whether outside users can request to attend. Events that are open will show up in orange and will display an icon related to the type of event. Past events will differ only in that you will be able to post pictures from the event. Also, for upcoming and past events you have the ability to share or publish publicly to the app.

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settings The final feature that was developed for our first basic service offering is our settings feature. By clicking on the settings icon you will be directed to a list of options from discovery preferences, app settings, a need help page and a try premium page. The discovery preferences page is where you set up your search filters so the application can find matches near you. Here you can choose a distance for searching and interests and groups to search. Finally, we have the application settings page which provides you with certain functionality around security and other involvement. You can turn notifications from the application on or off. You can also choose to go incognito or block specific users among other things.

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references 5 apps for making friends in a new city (Macworld) http://www.techhive.com/article/2599242/5-apps-for-making-friends-in-a-new-city.html 12 Awesome Social Media Facts and Statistics for 2013 - Jeffbullas’s Blog (Jeffbullass Blog RSS) http://www.jeffbullas.com/2013/09/20/12-awesome-social-media-facts-and-statistics-for-2013/ 20 Social Networking Sites for Business Professionals (RSS) http://www.sitepoint.com/social-networking-sites-for-business/ 21 Most Important Social Media Sites and Apps in 2015 (Social Media Today) http://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-networks/2015-04-13/worlds-21-most-important-social-media-sites-and-apps-2015 Find the best places to eat, drink, shop, or visit in any city in the world. (Download Foursquare for your phone). https://foursquare.com/ download A fresh breed of social app for you and your dog (Meet My Dog) http://meetmydogapp.com/ From Asia to the U.S. with Love: 3 Social Media Trends to Watch in 2016 - Social Media Week (Social Media Week). http://socialmediaweek. org/blog/2015/08/trends-to-watch-2016/ HeyLets (HeyLets) http://heylets.com/ The matchmaking app for people who want to make friends not love (The Telegraph) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/relationships/11599989/The-matchmaking-app-for-people-who-want-to-make-friends-not-love.html Meetups are (Find your people - Meetup) http://www.meetup.com/ The Most--and Least--Useful Social Media Sites (Infographic) (Inc.com) http://www.inc.com/laura-montini/best-worst-social-media-channels-for-small-businesses.html Nearify - Discover Events Near You (Nearify - Discover Events Near You) http://www.nearify.com/ The Past, Present And Future Of Social Media [INFOGRAPHIC] (SocialTimes) http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/past-present-future-social/497015 People Hunt. http://peoplehunt.me/ Piazza • Ask. Answer. Explore. Whenever. (Piazza • Ask. Answer. Explore. Whenever.) https://piazza.com/ Ranking Google Ranking Factors By Importance - WebProNews (WebProNews) http://www.webpronews.com/google-rankingfactors-2-2011-06/ The Rise Of The (TechCrunch) http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/28/the-rise-of-the-social-professional-networks/ Sitegeist - a project of Sunlight Foundation (Sunlight Foundation Blog) http://sunlightfoundation.com/tools/sitegeist/ Skout - Meet, Chat, Friend - Android Apps on Google Play (Skout - Meet, Chat, Friend - Android Apps on Google Play). https://play.google. com/store/apps/details?id=com.skout.android&hl=en Social Media: Past, Present, and Future - Single Grain (Single Grain) http://singlegrain.com/blog-posts/social-footer/social-media-past-present-and-future/ The Top 7 Social Media Marketing Trends That Will Dominate 2015 http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2014/11/19/the-top-7-social-media-marketing-trends-that-will-dominate-2015/

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references Top 15 Most Popular Social Networking Sites | November 2015 (Top 15 Most Popular Social Networking Sites | November 2015) http:// www.ebizmba.com/articles/social-networking-websites Wiith (Wiith). http://wiithapp.com/ World’s Largest Professional Network | LinkedIn (World’s Largest Professional Network | LinkedIn). https://www.linkedin.com/ XING (AG) https://www.xing.com/en

Images Affinitizing [Online image]. Retrieved November 17, 2015 from http://proud2know.eu Business meeting [Online image]. Retrieved November 17, 2015 from http://media.bizzmarkblog.com Coping with difficult colleagues [Online image]. Retrieved November 17, 2015 from http://ceoptions.com Discussion [Online image]. Retrieved November 17, 2015 from http://www.csmps.com Group meeting [Online image]. Retrieved November 17, 2015 from http://ceoptions.com Handshaking [Online image]. Retrieved November 17, 2015 from http://f.tqn.com Interview [Online image]. Retrieved November 18, 2015 from http://www.careerealism.com Laptop [Online image]. Retrieved November 18, 2015 from http://rutherfordsdesign.com Man on phone [Online image]. Retrieved November 18, 2015 from https://mycareeratva.va.gov/sites/default/files/FMP_EffectiveCommunication_520358725.jpg Negotiation [Online image]. Retrieved November 17, 2015 from https://rorytrotter.files.wordpress.com One on one meeting [Online image]. Retrieved November 16, 2015 from https://blog.asana.com Post- it notes [Online image]. Retrieved November 18, 2015 from http://postitartists.com Professionals [Online image]. Retrieved November 18, 2015 from http://www.mcbap.com Professional socializing [Online image]. Retrieved November 16, 2015 from https://origin.ih.constantcontact.com Shaking hands [Online image]. Retrieved November 16, 2015 from http://www.martinkysel.com Social network [Online image]. Retrieved November 17, 2015 from http://monda.no Teal coffee cup [Online image]. Retrieved November 16, 2015 from http://modernlaceblog.com Teal desk [Online image]. Retrieved November 16, 2015 from http://ak1.ostkcdn.com Teal notebook [Online image]. Retrieved November 16, 2015 from https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/ Walking up the stairs [Online image]. Retrieved November 17, 2015 from http://www.brighamandwomensfaulkner.org Writing [Online image]. Retrieved November 18, 2015 from http://www.thepopjar.com

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thank you!

This report provides an in depth understanding of the professional social media service application concept, Pitch!

Prepared for Bruce Claxton by: Yang He Stephanie Krell Zhiyi Lin Sara Martin For More information: https://www.facebook.com/pitchopportunity/