Interviewee: Agata Dabrowska
Registered Dietitian September 11th, 2017 Conducted by: Greg Anderson Why we interviewed this person: Agata is a registered dietitian, one of the key groups we would rely on to produce truth based content. My main concern was if it was even possible to pass off dietary advice as truth or if it all depended on the individual. We really wanted to understand this: My main concern was if it was even possible to pass off dietary advice as truth or if it all depended on the individual. In addition I wanted her input on how she both gathers and gives advice today. We learned this about the problem space: Most importantly it seems possible to give dietary advice that is fact based. There are certain groups that may need specialized advice (e.g., cystic fibrosis or familial hypercholesterolemia) but for the most part dietairy advice is pretty consistent “even though the media likes to frame every nutritional study as some novel departure from previous findings. However, generally speaking, the basic tenets of nutrition advice have remained the same: fill your plate with fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, and whole grains, and limit intake of added sugars and sodium. The jury is still out on fat intake, although new studies seem to support intake of healthy fats over refined carbohydrates.” However different diets may work for different people but that could also depend on the adherence to the diet itself. We were surprised by: She mentioned similar competitors as previous interviewees: Livestrong (which has a trust problem because of Lance Armstrong) and MyFitnessPal (which we would like to work with and try to avoid their space.) She did mention a new one: the federal government guidelines. It will be very hard to sell our product as more truthful that what the USDA and FDA (though there are some conspiracy/Cow-Spiracy theories.) Other interesting outcomes or learning (how this interview might change your next interview): Perhaps we need to look at linking directly to healthcare providers as well. Maybe we should investigate into this space. She feels this space is full of competition. Maybe we need something novel to bring in the customer or a specific target audience.
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Interview #3
Interviewee: APRIL SUN Why we interviewed this person: We wanted to know how new mommies would find value in our product and examine how they would use it to improve their every day lives. We really wanted to understand this: How useful would it be and in what context would it offer the most value. We learned this about the problem space: Mommies don't want to sift through medical terms, they want something east to digest. We were surprised by: They are attached to their existing apps and want add-on capabilities vs new standalone apps. Other interesting outcomes or learning (how this interview might change your next interview): The key thing to focus on is actually content delivery in this customer segment. Interview #4 Interviewee: VLAD KOVALENKO Why we interviewed this person: We wanted to see how a professional trainer would use fact based internet. We really wanted to understand this: If we can sustain these type of customers and why they'd be interested in our product. We learned this about the problem space: These people tend to be very specific to their own bodies and do not want generic info. We were surprised by: The level of tailoring needed to make this information useful. Other interesting outcomes or learning (how this interview might change your next interview): We have to address how we can keep these customers after they get the information they're looking for. Interviewee: Teresa Kim
Senior Manager at EY (mother of 2 kids) September 16, 2017 Conducted by: Jamie Moon Why we interviewed this person: Since Scott is a typical traveling consultant with 80 hr / week, I wanted to get a perspective on someone who doesn’t travel (maybe 1 week every 2 months) with similar hours as Scott. We really wanted to understand this: It’s not easy for a working mother to be able to take care of herself especially when the job is demanding. How do working moms find time to workout or plan out meals that meet their diet? We learned this about the problem space: for working moms, they definitely need help from either their spouse/partner, parents, or nanny. For Teresa, diet and fitness decisions are driven by her husband who has flexibility from work that allows him to spend more time at home than Teresa. Should there be info sharing experience between couples or friends, etc.? The product doesn’t have to be for self only, but to push information to others who need help. We were surprised by: Teresa does not workout at all yet she is slim… all her workout is pretty much from taking care of the kids. Content can be extended to daily activities that can be turned into workouts that target specific parts of the body. Other interesting outcomes or learning (how this interview might change your next interview): It’s hard to hone into specific product offerings when we have multiple personas who we want to target. Perhaps we need to narrow down into 1 or 2? Understand that the each persona will expect or want different capabilities, but maybe we want to see where they overlap and focus on those features. Interviewee: Scott Dai
Senior Manager at EY September 16, 2017 Conducted by: Jamie Moon Why we interviewed this person: Scott is a long time consultant who travels almost every week. With over 1 million miles under his belt, I wanted to see what he does to keep up with diet and fitness We really wanted to understand this: what information is most important for people who have hard time finding time for themselves We learned this about the problem space: time limitation is definitely a hindrance for people who are running around the clock. Inflexibility of time limits them from trying different types of workout and further, not much options for meals – always eating out. We were surprised by: with different locations that consultants travel to, the calorie and nutrition information isn’t always available at restaurants. Calories are definitely not available even asked. So eating out means not being able to check caloric intake. Scott mentioned something around taking a picture and estimating calories? A lot of people take pictures of their food and upload on Instagram so why not use AI to determine estimate # of calories? Other interesting outcomes or learning (how this interview might change your next interview): maybe it’ll be useful to see how many people actually take pictures of their food? Interviewer: Gabie Ivanova
Interview Date: 9/17/17 Interviewee: Venelina Pavlova, Pharmacy Technician at Kaiser Permanente September 14th 2017 - Interview #5
Interviewee: Gautam Agarwal, Co-founder of Toniiq Conducted by: Hugo Pelland Why we interviewed this person: I was looking forward to interview Gautam as he is the co-founder of a natural supplement company that has been working hard on making sure they create products that actually work, based on reliable information and proper testing. We really wanted to understand this: It was important to try to understand where the information comes. In other words, how does a company like Toniiq get information on the ingredients they use and how can they assess the impact of such ingredients? We learned this about the problem space: There is a bit of a paradox in this space. On one hand, there is a lot of resources available; tons of magazine, of self-labeled experts are willing to share information on what is supposed to be best for anyone's health. At the same time, there is actually very little reliable information available. Scientific journals are really the only source that can be trusted with a reasonable degree of confidence, but they are limited and often very specific. Moreover, there is a lot of contradictions, not only because of the fact that each person is unique and can thus show different reaction to the same compound, but also because of personal biases. For instance, if one wants to understand whether carbs are good or bad for weight loss and good health, they would find 100 papers on one side, contradicting another 100 papers saying the opposite. Things are better today than they were 20-30 years ago, when it was all a kind of 'snake oil' market. But there is still a lot of progress to be made. There is still a large spectrum of bad-to-good actors in the space. We were surprised by, and other interesting outcomes or learning: Several things:
September 17h 2017 - Interview #6 Interviewee: Eric Demers Conducted by: Hugo Pelland Why we interviewed this person: Eric has experience in consulting with companies and help them implement solutions tailored to their needs. Some of his projects were related to the food industry, which is one of our area of focus. We really wanted to understand this: The goal was to understand how a consultant can find information relevant to the client they are working with, and how to assess the veracity and reliability of the information. We learned this about the problem space: Consultants have access to a lot of resources that the public cannot their hands on easily. Within their firm, consultants put an incredible high level of trust in these private sources. The rationale is that these documents were actually created by other consultants within the firm, and were thus subject to standards set by the employer in the first place. This means that the sources are not questioned, for better and for worse, as it saves a lot of time but may lead to false assumptions. We were surprised by: Besides the internal sources mentioned above, there is not much more information that consultant can use to help with clients in that space. Therefore, putting the firm's internal sources aside, it is thus just as difficult for a consultant to find information outside of their firm. Given that certain topics have very little pre-researched material, it seems that consultants are just as confused with what is good information when it comes to health and diet as the general public is. It's not a huge surprise but a good reminder that there is really no secret sauce in that space. Other interesting outcomes or learning (how this interview might change your next interview) Eric mentioned that the firm he used to work for was willing to pay for good quality report. This will be an interesting part of our solution; it helps to think of how we could monetize the new database of facts we are trying to build. Interviewer: Gabie Ivanova
Interview Date: 9/14/17 Interviewee: TK Gospodinov, Principal Software Engineer at Pandora Interviewee: Noah Brant
At-Home Fitness Aficionado September 8th, 2017 Conducted by: Greg Anderson Why we interviewed this person: Noah is a good friend of mine who I used to receive word of mouth advice from for my own fitness. He seems like the target audience of a system like this. We really wanted to understand this: I wanted to understand both what systems he uses currently for advice as well as whether he trusts them. In addition I wanted to understand what an ideal system would look like to her. We learned this about the problem space: Noah trusts reddit completely. It’s certainly anecdotal and crowd sourced data not really fact based but that is enough for some people. It certainly raises the question of how we can win over this very large segment of our target audience. The fitness boards of reddit r/fitness, r/loseit and r/eatcheapandhealthy have a combined 8 million subscribers. We were surprised by: His ideal system is all about content. Specific articles for different foods, exercise programs, equipment, food seasonings ect… that may be easy for a board like reddit but hard when your content providers need to be experts. Other interesting outcomes or learning (how this interview might change your next interview): I feel like I have some information about one side of the site (the fitness learners) now I need to gather information from the fitness teachers. I wonder if they share the same enthusiasm for reddit and crowd-sourced information. Interviewee: Jeanna Aydelotte
Tri-Athlete/Cross Fit Aficionado August 29th, 2017 Conducted by: Greg Anderson Why we interviewed this person: Jeanna has participated in three past triathlons and has been participating in cross-fit with her Husband for the past three years. I think self-made fitness aficionados make up a huge part of our user base. We really wanted to understand this: I wanted to understand both what systems she uses currently for advice as well as whether she trusts them. In addition I wanted to understand what an ideal system would look like to her. We learned this about the problem space: The fake news is out there for fitness. There is so much click bait to avoid that she mostly ignores internet articles completely and uses work resources (trainers/coaches/nutritionists) instead. This can cost as low as $20 per hour or is sometimes provided by work. We were surprised by: Her vision for the ideal platform to allow users 1:1 contact with experts by sending them their diet from myfitnesspal or their workouts from Strava. This personal contact may be one of our best points of differentiation and it’s a way to take advantage of tangential applications. Other interesting outcomes or learning (how this interview might change your next interview): She had a great joke in the interview. She mentioned that this idea might be hard because even experts have personal biases that should be taken with a grain of salt, or gluten. I personally like that joke and maybe it can be used in our site design. Interviewer: Gabie Ivanova
Interview date: September 9th, 2017 Interviewee: Elena Garnica, Attorney at Netflix |
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