CRUSHING EXERCISE AND RELFLECTION

rules:
1. renovation must be completed with proper licenses
2. all debris must be cleaned up by workers
3. you must pay for our work.
4. 50% down-payment must be made before work begins
5. you must vacate your work area

solutions:
1. do work that doesn't require licenses
2. do work without licenses and hope we don't get caught
3. charge a clean-up fee
4. give discount if the homeowner cleans up after us.
5. we accept barters
6. we offer payment plants
7. 25% down-payment must be made before work begins
8. 75% down-payment must be made before work begins
9. slower speeds may result from occupation of work space
10. we are not liable for harm done while others are in the workspace.

REFLECTION:

            During the group activity we discussed certain rules that we felt were essential to making our FixPro idea successful. Coming up with 5 rules allowed to visualize the ideals of the our specific service. Then finding ways to break those rules broadened our understanding of the various scopes at which we can run our business. Even ideas that where hard to break, such as " must have a vacant work space", we somehow managed to come up with a "solution" to "crushing" our "rule". Overall we learned that some rules are just essential to the business and can't be broken.

Class Reflection

In class our group, Remodelx, discussed the problem of obtaining customers. Obtaining customers would be a problem in the sense that as a starting company we have no reputation. We also went over the possibility of offering jobs to students who are interested in remodeling and have some experience. Towards the end of class we attempted to do the "words and associations" technique in order to solve our problems and gather a deeper understanding on how to promote our services.

Headlines for home and business remodeling company

" REMODELING: "FREE OF LABOR COST"- LIMITED TIME OFFER"

"LOW ON MONEY BUT NEED REMODELING, CALL US"

"WANT A HANDS ON EXPERIENCE WHILE GETTING PAID?"

"IN NEED OF EXPERIENCED ELECTRICIANS, PLUMBERS, ECT"

"WIFE SCREAMING FOR REMODELING, CALL US"

 

Revised "How might we statements"

"How might we promote our services"

• Seeing as we have no reputation within the market for interior design and remodeling it will be difficult to obtain customers. A possible method of promotion could be high deduction in labor cost in exchange for a high risk of poor quality work.
• We can create business cards and distribute them amongst homes throughout Chicago. Offering services to which we feel we are capable of handling. Such as:
• Painting
• Moving of furniture
• Demolition/Installation of floors and dry wall

"How might we gather experience while working at the same time"

• In the long run, our goal is to expand our services so how might we gather experience to offer services which may require more knowledge or practice. Such as electricians or plumbers
• We can reach out to our community and find people with such skills and in need of jobs. While they obtain some work and pay, we can possible watch learn and take note of how to work in done.

"How might we reach out to local business in need of remodeling"

• For starters, we must search for smaller local businesses which seems a bit downhill. Furthermore we must be able to relate to service or product the business offers and adjust our remodeling style accordingly.

Refined users journey, some problems within our previous assumptions, and 3 "How might we..?" statements

User's Journey:

• The potential customer gets up in the morning
• Goes to his kitchen to get a cup of coffee
• Steps over the broken transition piece seperating the kitchen from his bedroom
• Sits down to eat his breakfast
• as he sits he stares at his wall and notices the paint chipping off
• He then decides that he needs to get some remodeling done
• Problem: "How might we get them to know our company exist"
• Maybe advertise on our company on our company vehicle
• Once we get hired to do the Job
• Problem: "How might we guarantee that we dont get in the customers way"
• Maybe narrow our work space consistantly picking up any demolition produce
• The customer waits and watches us as we work
• Problem: "How might we limit our time spent working"
• Working overnight might not be so good as it might provide a bother to the customer, Hint: take less breaks and maybe more workers the finish the job quicker
• The customer walks the workers out after the remodeling is done
• Problem: "How might we guarantee long lasting quality work"
• Notifying the customer on the quality of the material used for their remodeling.

Last Group Discussion

This past tuesday we discussed our user journeys. We became aware that our users journey is much more than simply the time the user spends with the product or service. The users time prior to using our services and after are very important. Questions like : "Will the customer rush us?" "how will the user be aware of our services" and "why chose us over more reputable companies".  After putting myself in the users shoes, i realize that I would be annoyed if I requested a similar service and I was told it would greatly interfere with my daily activites. In other words, the customers space must be highly respected and cleaned throughout the remodeling.