Help me validating a problem 🙏
Yves S
37 replies
Dear all,
I reached out to you yesterday with the request to answer my survey.
However, I think this was a lot to ask for.
This is why I decided to take another approach.
I have a product idea, based on a personal problem I noticed.
Now I would like to know, whether you can validate the problem:
The Problem:
I travel for pleasure a few times a year.
I spend about four to five hours per destination researching restaurants, shops, and sights.
For this I use Youtube videos, look at Instagram accounts and google places.
I dislike doing it, but it is a necessary evil.
I could buy a printed travel guide and many times I did, but often their recommendations are not matching my taste, plus there is too much reading involved
What I would like to see in a new solution is
Personalized recommendations
App-based with a map integration
Regularly updated
Listical based, less reading
Does my problem/solution resonate with you?
How do you research places to visit during a city trip?
Best,
Weisser-Wal
Replies
Martina Hackbartt@martina_hackbartt
Hey there! I do the research the same way as you do. But on the contrary, I enjoy it! It's like a temporary hobby to me. However, I'd love a more "optimized" way of doing that research; personalized recommendations would be great, and also map that's thought for that purpose. I like google maps, and it's useful, but a more "travel-centered" app to plan itineraries would be amazing.
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@martina_hackbartt This, and also, I think OP's problem has a solution: good Airbnb owners.
@martina_hackbartt @geri_mate This 2! Stay on Airbnb and talk to your hosts
@martina_hackbartt what do you expect from a travel centered app?
@martina_hackbartt @adrian2x @weisser_aal Yep, but that comes down to what you're looking for when you visit a new place. I've been abroad both as a textbook definition tourist and the guest of friends who showed us what was going on behind the scenes. While both experiences are nice, I'd rather be hosted by someone who will show me the genuine stuff instead of the facade tourists see. I think this boils down to personal preferences
I don't have that problem myself. I use tripadvisor, it is usually very helpful in these matters.
@katyaveremeichik Thanks for your reply. May I ask how you interact with tripadvisor? do you use it for the research or just reading reviews about places you found elsewhere? If so, where?
I partly like doing the research, but I would love to have such an app. It would be a great time saver, and if there were a community inside the app, it would be an even better experience.
@marina_djuric what makes you partly like it?
@marina_djuric One more question about the community idea: Would you like to be a member of a community which is focusing on giving recommendations about places in different city/destinations? Would you contribute to it also when not on holiday, or planing a trip?
@weisser_aal If I plan the trip ahead as in 5 months ahead I like to explore on my own and see other opinions and create a custom journey and also depends on who I'm travelling with.
@weisser_aal The answer is yes to both questions, and I would like to plan more spontaneous trips and shorter ones so then I would more enjoy to have that information in one app and community recs rather than spending 5h of research on a two day trip.
I ask the hotel staff, specifically the bellboys, and the drivers, and the gardners - where they eat and where they drink. This tells me all i need to know about their city and it's treasures. Eat and drink where the locals do.
I use TripAdvisor a lot and search on Instagram for specific tags.
But I would love such an app. It would also be great to see tips from locals.
@fabienne_ what tags do you use? Can you prove 1-2 examples? With tripadvisor i find that what is recommended is often not my taste or overcrowded. Does this resonate with you?
@weisser_aal I do not search with tags on TripAdvisor. TripAdvisor I mostly use to see the reviews if I already found something cool. I use tags like veganzurich to search for vegan restaurants, cafes, etc in a specific city on Instagram.
@fabienne_ Sali, I'm also living in Zurich. If I'm abroad i often your happycow for vegan food. While it's great for showing you vegan places, the quality of the places varies quite a bit.
Hey there!
Yes, we change our place every 1-3 months and it's a huge challenge to find good restaurants. Sometimes we find it only at the end of the trip
How we solve it:
1. Google maps reviews. Yes, ratings may not show an objective assessment, but you can dig up something interesting in the latest reviews
2. Ask local guys. Usually there are chats with some local people or expats. They can show you hidden gems
3. Test and test :)
To be honest, sometimes it feels like gambling.
I think I'd be happy to pay a couple of dollars a month for access to an app that would give me a cool selection of places. And I'm even ready to contribute in the community there and post my places.
@stas_voronov Thanks for taking the time and sharing your thoughts with me.
"I think I'd be happy to pay a couple of dollars a month for access to an app that would give me a cool selection of places." makes me happy to hear :D. So far I was thinking of the business model as single purchase (of the current version of a destination's recommendations), but not as a subscription model. I will get back to you with a more detailed description of the BM if I make it past the customer validation phase.
Launching soon!
Hey, very interesting problem. I wish there was a perfect solution to this. Till now, I have been using Tripadvisor & Google for overall research. For specific niches, try to resort to leading platforms. This has worked well and rarely failed, but it takes time. All in all, resonate with the problem statement.
I research places based on my interests which are
1. Electronic music night scenes
2. Art museum & Exhibits
3. Hipster coffee shop
There has not been a single source that satisfy all three things and many regions have their own version of Yelp which makes it even harder. I always go for the most respected source for the particular topic in that region which have been pretty difficult but fun at the same time.
The problem you have started are actual problems that many people struggle with, however, there have been many attempts to solve this particular problem (even giants like Google, AirBnB, Facebook).
The first thing I would do would be doing the research on the previous or ongoing projects that are solving this exact same problem and understand what's working and what's not working. That's something you can do without interacting with anyone; you can start it right away.
Hope this helps, and good luck!
@david_lee21 First of all: i really appreciate you taking the time to write reply.
"The problem you have started are actual problems that many people struggle with, however, there have been many attempts to solve this particular problem (even giants like Google, AirBnB, Facebook)."
I believe that what's difficult is solving it at scale, because tastes differ and so do preferences. This is why IMO yelp and tripadvisor don't work for researching. So i'm thinking that this product would need to be tailored-made for a specific community.
Best,
Yves
@katyaveremeichik @martina_hackbartt @geri_mate @adrian2x
@marina_djuric @ketan_pandit1 @fabienne_ @stas_voronov @david_lee21 @mjain_mayank Your feedback exceeded my expectations. Until now, I asked for feedback on a variety of platforms, but nowhere has the quality of responses been as high as it is from you. Thank you for taking the time to respond to my post. Have a wonderful evening.
Looks like Tripadvisor needs a good AI personalization feature. 🤣
The issue you describe is very relevant. I'm sure giants like Google spend a lot of resources on its implementation, but so far, artificial intelligence has too little data to make a quality personalized entertainment podcast.
it relates but, not bother of doing that since personally for me could easily found and maybe subscribed some influencers that have some preferences with me.
and information about recommendation that might consider the location is many out there whether through app/socialmedia/search engine
question on the solution, how personalized would it be?
is that your uvp this personalized thing?
@virdienash hi mate. Thanks for taking the time to reply. Yes, you can do all of this, however it will take you time to find those influences and browse their recommendation, look at their 15min videos to their trip to abc or read blog articles about it. What i would offer is a product that offers you a well curated list, which saves you all the hours of research you would need to conduct, if you choose to do the research by yourself. What do you think?
@weisser_aal yup understand the curated one but tripadvisor, klook, and similar, have some service. thats why i question the what will be the user value proposition of your "personalize", coz curation is some feature that travel app mostly have.
for me taking time on research b seeing videos and others not exactly my personal problem, coz i found enjoyment on browsing or watching it.
some suggestion on the value proposition is the "information system" , how easy people read or digest the places information. a reviewer app but not
using parameters such as
price
family friendly
elder friendly
etc
the more detail will be great and on the list places ux people can filter it out. although its detail but the ui still easy to read let say use star or score on every parameters. so places not about the overall score but each places must have their strength and traveller can choose from it
using onboarding features to know traveller personality, are they adventurous, luxurious, budget/backpacker, etc
high level concept would be you can make your own standard at the end and people will benchmark your standard
I use Tripadvisor for restaurants and cafes.
But for exhibitions or live music I have to google - and yes, sometimes it takes a lot of time. So the best for me is to search on Instagram local influencers and look through their feed (usually they publish smth like "what to do in XX city this weekend").
Maybe the app which accumulates such posts will be useful.
@geruangelina
Thanks for taking the time.
I love your idea. I will also look into this.
The problem with insta is that i don't know who local influencers are. How do you find them?
Yes, it is! I keep telling a friend of mine to publish her itineraries online. She doesn't like the research but does it well. I rely on location-specific blogs.
I had a similar idea, but it was focused on parents traveling with babies - a concierge service, if you will. There are lots of blogs out there that do a great job of combining this information. An app with a map with links to location-specific curated blogs would be very useful. It could also integrate with the travel anywhere feature on Skyscanner or Google flights!
- head overflowing with ideas. stops talking -
@sameer_maira I too currently rely on travel blogs. If you find a good one they are very helpful e.g. santorinidave.com for Greece. However I find it difficult to find them. Obviously I use google, but sometimes it's a bit like seeking a needle in a haystack. However, I might just picked the wrong approach. How do you search your blogs?
@weisser_aal I agree with you. It's difficult to find good one's which is why I think a curated list would be very useful. I use google as well.
Dear all,
I've already mentioned it:
The amount of feedback is overwhelming.
I considered every one of your remarks before drafting my target market statement.
Now, the customer validation of the solution starts. I'm unsure on how to begin and when to get input from potential customers.
1️⃣ Should I spell out the solution and then describe it to prospective clients?
2️⃣ Should I first describe the problem, then draft wireframes, and last test it with potential customers?
3️⃣ Should I immediately create the wireframes then asking potential customers for feedback?
4️⃣ Or would you choose for a totally other strategy?
As a token of appreciation for your support thus far, I'd like to share with you my most recent list of locations I discovered while doing research for an upcoming trip to Paris. They are to be found here:
https://www.google.com/maps/d/ed...
Just a quick aside: This is NOT the MVP or proof of concept for my proposed product. I save my places for friends and myself in a straightforward manner on Google Maps.