Ideation 9: Minimum Viable Product

Minimum Viable Product

Ideation 9

This lesson can help you earn points in the Demo Video portion of the rubric where you showcase your product.

In this lesson, you will...

  • Learn what a minimum viable product is and why it is important
  • Choose the most important features of your project to build first

Key Terms

  • Prioritizing - Figuring out what the most important parts of your product are, and working on those first
  • Minimum Viable Product (MVP) - is an product that has just enough features to get the job done and test with users so that improvements can be made later.
  • Future Features - features that will be created once the first prototype of your product is finished

Learn

Minimum Viable Product

Activity

Decide on an MVP

Reflection

Reflect on your MVP

Additional Resources

User Centered Design & User Stories

Minimum Viable Product

Now that you have an idea for your project and a problem statement, you probably want to start building right away. But hold on! Before you get started, you can save a lot of time by doing a little bit of planning. It is better to create a prototype that does one or two things really well, then to try to create something that can do everything. Here’s an example.

Imagine your friend tells you that she always wakes up late and is late to school. You create an app for her that has:

  1. An alarm clock to wake her up in time for school

2. A notification that tells her when she should go to sleep so that she can wake up on time

3. A journal so your friend can write down her dreams if she wakes up in the middle of the night

4. A music player that plays relaxing music to help your friend fall asleep more quickly

5. A chatbot that your friend can chat with if she can’t fall asleep.

You show your app to your friend and she’s really excited to use it! She uses the app for a couple of days and then tells you what she thinks. She tells you that she really likes the alarm clock feature, and the notification that tells her when she should go to sleep. However, the notification doesn’t always work correctly and sometimes gets sent in the middle of the night, which wakes her up.  She also wishes the app would let her pick a custom sound for the alarm clock. She also tells you that the relaxing music keeps her awake, and she doesn’t have any dreams, so she has not used the dream journal. Additionally the chatbot is buggy and she doesn’t like using it.

You just spent several weeks working on all these cool features for your app, but it turns out that many of them didn’t help solve your friend’s problem, and now, she isn’t even using them! You could have created a much simpler app and saved yourself a lot of time. With that extra time, you could have improved the alarm clock and the notification system, to make sure that they work really well.

Creating a product that does just one or two things really well will help you solve your problem and create something that your users like. You only have a few weeks to make your app or AI prototype in Technovation Girls, so it is especially important that you use that time wisely. In this lesson you will learn how to prioritize different features of your project, or work on the most important features first.

A minimum viable product (MVP) is an app or AI project that has just enough features to get the job done and test with users so that improvements can be made later. In this lesson you will decide which features you will include in your MVP and which features you will create later, as future features.

Right now you probably have a long wish list of things you want your project to do. In order to create an MVP you will decide which of these features is most important to build first. You will need to think about which of these features really solve your problem and which features your users said they wanted. Before you get started, review your problem statement and your user research from Ideation Lesson 7 and Ideation Lesson 8.

Activity: Deciding on a MVP

Create a list of all the things that you want your invention to do. Make sure to break down big ideas into smaller features. Here's an example:

Worksheet for Activities

Big Idea: 

 

Social network that allows users to friend each other, post pictures, and exchange private messages

 

→

Smaller Features: 

  1. Users can connect to other users
  2. Users can take pictures from the app and post them on their profiles
  3. Users can see a feed of pictures others have posted
  4. Users can message each other

Now with your team, discuss your features. Which are the most important features to build? Consider:

  1. Which features are needed to solve the problem?
  2. What features did your users say they would use?
  3. What features will help you stand out from competitors?

After you discussion, write down the features your projject will do, this time, in order of importance, with #1 being the most important feature.

 

For your MVP, you should focus on the first two features only. You and your team should decide if you need to add the third feature to your MVP, or if it should be a future feature. 

  • Remember, less is more! Focusing on a smaller number of features will allow you to build them really well and will give you more time to test out your projectwith your users and get their feedback.

 

Time to double check if your MVP will solve your problem.

  • Have one member of your team pretend to be someone who has the problem that you are trying to solve. Present the MVP to her without mentioning your future features. 
  • Does it help solve her problem? Be as critical as you can of your MVP. 
  • If your MVP does not solve your problem, you might need to try prioritizing your features again.

Let's hear how other Technovation Girls teams decided how to create their minimum viable product!

Reflection

You should now have a better idea of what you will include in your MVP. Remember, your MVP is just your first prototype, and you can always iterate on it to make it better, even after the Technovation Girls season is over!

  • Did you and your team struggle to prioritize the best features for your project? Why or why not?
  • How did you compromise on your favorite features versus the best features to solve your problem?
  • What are your next steps in adding some of the features to your MVP?

After finishing your MVP, you might want to get your user’s feedback about it. Follow the activities in the additional resources to learn how to collect user feedback and user stories.

Additional Resources: User Centered Design & User Stories

Want more information about MVP'S? Check out this great article from adc Calculator!

 

User Centered Design

UX Design (short for user experience) helps people create technology that is easy and intuitive to use. It has to do with the quality of the experience that someone has when using a system or a piece of technology. You can think of it as improving the ‘user’s experience’ which means that a user will have an easy time using the technology and will keep using it. You want your invention to be easy and fun to use while also solving your problem. You will want to make it usable. But what makes an invention usable?

It’s not just a matter of what you think might look good, or what you think you would like because you consider yourself a user of the product you will be creating. It’s about context. Think about who else will be using the invention and what their needs are. Will people use it once a year, once a week, or once a day?

Where will people be using it? If you are building a mobile app, what are some of your favorite apps, and what do they do? Where and how do you use them? Do they do many things, or do they do a few things really well? If you are building an AI project, how do you see people using it? Is it part of a large system, or a small device?

 

Stakeholders

First, you need to define your stakeholders, which are the people who would use your app or AI prototype or would be impacted by your project. These are the people that you need to talk to learn more about what they need the invention to do. You and your team might think you are typical users but you should still talk to other people, interview them, get their feedback, and observe them in the environment that they would be using your app or invention when possible. 

Imagine that you are making an app that allows students to pre-order food from the school cafeteria to help reduce the waiting line. Students can use the app to request the food in the morning and then go and pick it up at lunch time. The potential stakeholders for this app would be:

  • Students (who will be using the phone app)
  • Cafeteria staff (who will be receiving requests through the app)
  • Parents (who would need to buy their kids a smartphone so they can use the app)
  • School administrators (who might not think phones should be used during school hours) 
  • School IT support (who would need to help students who can’t figure out how to work the app or connect to the network)

Are you ready to try this out for your app or AI invention? The following two activities will help you identify who your stakeholders are, and how you can interview and gather user stories about them. 

Next Steps

Once you have gathered this information, you should do the activity in this lesson again to see what has changed about what features you think are most important for your project. Remember, user centered design is an iterative process, which means you’ll probably get better and better with every cycle of developing and testing your app or invention! After you have created your MVP, you will want to test it with your stakeholders to see what they think.

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Ideation 8: Write a Problem Statement

Write a Problem Statement

Ideation 8

This lesson will help you with your Project Description in your submission. It will also be helpful for the rubric lines focusing on the problem and solution in the Pitch Video section.

In this lesson, you will...

  • Learn what a problem statement is
  • Write a problem statement for your project

Key Terms

Problem Statement  - a brief piece of writing that explains the problem that your team is addressing

Learn

What is a Problem Statement?

Activity

Create a Problem Statement

Reflection

Reflecting on your work

Additional Resources

Example Problem Statements

What is a Problem Statement?

Now that you have an idea for your project and have done some market research, you can start working on your problem statement. A problem statement is a brief piece of writing that explains the problem that your team is addressing. It should outline the basic facts of the problem, explain why the problem matters, who it affects and how, and present a direct solution.

It’s important that you write the problem statement together as a team so that you all agree and remain focused on the problem you are solving as you move through the rest of the curriculum. Otherwise you might work on something only to find that it doesn’t meet the original goal!  

Your problem statement should answer 4 questions:

What is the problem?

What is the need your community faces?

Who does the problem affect and how?

This is important because the people who are affected by the problem will be the users of your product.

Why is it important to solve?

Why is this problem compelling and do you have any evidence of the problem to back up your argument? What insight do you have to offer in solving the problem?

What is the solution?

This does not need to be a long response right now, just enough to give a little understanding of how the problem will be addressed.

For your purposes right now, the problem statement should not be longer than a paragraph. You can definitely explore your ideas and write them down, but as a team you should narrow down your problem statement together.  

Example: Discardious by Team Charis

Here is an example of a project statement from a past Technovation Girls finalist team. Your problem statement will similarly become polished as you do research and build upon your idea (note that this is the original team’s statement -it has not been edited): 

“Calabar is densely populated and results show that 70% of individuals and businesses there store refuse (trash), 95% use open dumps and 65% dump their refuse into gutters. This effect has led to inefficient waste disposal and an unhygienic business and home environment. Business and homeowners have a tight schedule that prevents them from disposing their waste regularly and there are no frequent visit from waste disposal agencies. Our team proposes to provide a platform for fast food companies, hotels, and individuals to dispose their waste conveniently and on time. We will provide pick up carts to get their waste in order to reduce associated health risks, will educate citizens on the effect of improper waste disposal, and will provide updates and tips on best practices.”

In the Discardious app, the user can:

  • Login
  • Select a location for a cart near them
  • Select the number of waste bins that are needed
  • Enter the address for the waste bins to be brought
  • Agree to the terms of conditions
  • Report a hazard by entering a location, writing a short report, and taking a picture of the scene
  • Receive a message that the report has been logged

Here is a pitch and demo of the Discardious app that Team Charis created:

Activity: Create a Problem Statement

Worksheet for Activity

 

Work with your team to write a problem statement by answering the following questions. You can use the worksheet or write it down on a sheet of paper.

  • What is the problem? In design terms, this also translates to: what is the need?
  • Who does the problem affect and how? This is important because the people who are affected by the problem will be the users of your app.
  • Why is it important to solve? Why is this problem compelling and do you have any evidence of the problem to back up your argument? What insight do you have to offer in solving the problem?
  • What is the solution? This does not need to be a long response right now, just enough to give a little understanding of how the problem will be addressed.

Once you are done, combine your answers into a finished problem statement in paragraph form.

If you can, share it with your mentor for feedback.

Reflection

Now that you’ve written your problem statement, you can refer back to it when throughout your project. It will be helpful as you create your business plan, code your app or develop your AI prototype, and write the script for your pitch video. You will also be able to use it as your project description when you upload your submission.

Additional Resources: Example Problem Statements

Here are a few examples of problem statements from past Technovation Girls students:

LexisLearn
LexisLearn

Problem Statement:

People have a problem with not reading enough. This is particularly a challenge among young people. Research has shown that 71% of teenagers use multiple social media platforms, whereas only 53% of 13-year-olds and 40% of 17-year-olds read at least weekly. Our aim is to address the habit of students not reading sufficiently. Our solution is LexisLearn, an application that monitors students' reading time personally. The app enables students to develop the habit of reading sufficiently daily. The app allows parents and teachers to encourage students as they read. LexisLearn ensures that students learn vocabulary they acquire as they read to improve their vocabulary. We believe LexisLearn can effectively solve the difficulty of reading because 75% of teenagers currently own a smartphone.

StoneSoup
Kuza Talent
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Ideation 7: Market Research

Market Research

Ideation 7

This lesson can help you earn maximum points in the lines of the rubric focusing on the problem and solution in the Pitch Video section. It will also help you develop your Market Analysis section of your Business Plan (Senior Division only) or User Adoption Plan (Junior Division only).

In this lesson, you will...

  • Learn about who your target market is
  • Interview your target market to learn more about them
  • Decide how to react to user research findings to improve your idea
  • Research your competitors to learn how to stand out from them
  • Decide how to react to competitor research findings to improve your idea

Key Terms and Concepts

  • Target Market - the people who will use your product
  • Research - gathering information about a subject
  • User - someone who will use your product
  • User Research - learning from your target market, or the people who will use your product, to help you understand their wants and needs
  • Competitors - the people or companies making things similar to your product
  • Competitor Research - gathering information about your competitors
  • Interviews - asking a person questions and recording their answers either in-person or over the phone
  • Surveys - asking a group of people questions either by using paper or online form
  • Multiple Choice Questions - questions that have a set of answers that a person can pick from
  • Scale Questions - a question in which the response is chosen from a range of values, i.e. 1-5, where the values mean something

Learn

Market Research


 

Activity

Interviews, Surveys, and Competitor Research

 

Activity

Business Plan Preparation

(Senior Division Only)

 


 

Activity

User Adoption Plan Preparation

(Junior Division Only)

 


 

Reflection

Changing Ideas

 

Market Research

Now that you have an idea for your project, you probably want to get started building it right away. But wait! Before you get started you have a little more work to do. Just because you think something is a great idea, it doesn’t necessarily mean that other people will think it is or that they will want to use it. 

When creating a business, your goal is to get as many people as possible to use your product. Before you spend a lot of time and effort building your app or AI prototype, you will need to make sure that people will actually use it once it is ready.

This lesson will walk you through different ways of gathering information about your target market, or the people who will use your product. You will also gather information about your competitors, or the people or companies making things similar to your product. Using this information, you’ll be able to adjust your project idea so that more people will use it and you’ll be even more successful. Here are some of the questions that you will be able to answer by the end of this lesson:

  • Will people use my product if I build it?
  • Are there enough people who will use my product to justify building it?
  • Will my product solve the problem I think it will?
  • What can I change about my idea to better meet my target market’s needs?

 You are saving yourself a lot of time by figuring out this information before you start building your project! You can continue to do more market research as you build, too, if you want a really strong product.

Let's hear how other Technovation Girls teams collected feedback from their communities!



Target Market

The first thing you will do is figure out who your target market is. Your target market is the people who will use your product. So how do you figure out who your target market is?  You can start by thinking about who is affected by the problem you identified. Maybe you are solving a problem for teenage girls, elderly people, parents or someone else in your community.

If you are getting stuck, review your work from Ideation Lesson 1 about who your community is.

Market Research 

Next, you will do some research. Research is gathering information about something.  In this lesson, you will learn about two types of research: user research and competitor analysis.

  1. User research is learning from your target market, or the people who will use your product, to help you understand their wants and needs. A user is someone who will use your app or AI project. Figuring out this information will help you create a product that people want to use.
  2. Competitor analysis is gathering information about your competitors. Competitors are people or companies making things similar to your product. By gathering information about your competitors, you can look for ways to stand out from them so that people will want to use your product instead of something else.

In order to do user research, you can interview people who you think will use your product. To perform an interview, you will ask a potential user a series of questions either in-person or over the phone. You can also ask them over email, but it helps to hear their voice and their reaction to your questions.

There are different types of questions that you should ask. 

  1. Questions about the problem you want to solve. This will help you figure out if your target market has the problem you think they have.  You could also interview experts in your community to understand the problem. For example, if your project is about clean water, you could interview a local environment official or a Nonprofit Governmental Organization (NGO) who studies this issue.
  2. Questions about the product you want to build. These questions will help you understand if someone will use your product and if your product is able to solve the problem you are trying to address.

Here are a few examples of questions you can use for each type of interview:

Gathering answers to these questions will help you make sure that you are creating the best product possible. After each interview you should ask yourself, “How can I change my ideas based on what I just learned?’

Surveys

Surveys allow you to ask a lot of people questions at the same time. Surveys will help you gather more data quickly, and you will be able to learn a lot  from the results. In addition to your interviews, you should also use surveys to get information.

You can give paper or online surveys. If you want to use paper surveys, it might be helpful to give it out to a large group, such as a classroom or to everyone who enters your school library. If you want to give out your survey online, here are two popular websites to use:

  • Google Forms - easy to use; you can create your own questions, but limited types of questions
  • Survey Monkey - very popular, some features you’ll need to pay for

So what do you ask in a survey? This will be similar to what you ask in an interview. You should ask questions about both the problem and the solution. However, since you will give the survey out to a lot of people, you want to make sure that their answers are easy to understand. Instead of using open-ended questions in which each person has to write an answer,  you should try to use multiple choice questions, or scale questions. This will save time for the people taking the survey and will be easier for you to analyze. You should try to get at least 15 responses to your survey.

Multiple choice questions have a set of answers that a person can pick from. Here are some examples:

  • How often do you find yourself stressed out?
    • Always, Sometimes, Never
  • Have you ever taken a selfie?  
    • Yes or No

Scale questions ask the person to answer a question using a number, where the numbers mean something. Usually you tell the person what the lowest number means and what the highest number means. The person can then pick any number in between from  highest to lowest to answer the question.

  • On a scale from 1-10, how happy are you at your job?
    • 1 = Extremely Unhappy,  10 = Extremely Happy
  • On a scale from 1-5, how often do you exercise?
    • 1 = Never, 5 = Every day

Here are two example surveys:

Once you get the results back from a survey you need to figure out what they mean and how they can help you. Did most people say they would be interested in your product? What was the most common answer to the different questions? Here’s an example of how to analyze survey results:

Once you have your survey results, you can turn the information into an infographic (a visual representation of data).  There are many online tools (try searching “How to create an infographic” or “easiest free infographic tools”) that can help you create infographics or you can always use Google Charts in a Google Slide! 

 

Competitor Analysis

Competitor Analysis will help you understand what type of companies already exist that are solving the same problem you are. You want your target market to use your product instead of using something else. In order to get them to use your app or AI invention, you will have to make sure that you are better than what already exists out there. Remember that your competitor might not be an app or it might not even use technology!

Here are some examples of products and their competitors:

App Competitors
Instagram Facebook, Snapchat
Kindle App Books, Libraries, Other e-reading apps, magazines
Uber Regular cab service, bus, public transport, bike sharing
Whatsapp Google chat, FB messenger, emails, letters

By looking for these companies and studying them, you will be able to figure out how to make your product better. Here are some questions that you can answer with your competitor analysis:

  • How does your competitor’s product work?
  • What problem does it solve?
  • What is special about what your competitors offer?
  • How can you stand out from your competitors? 
  • Who is the target market for this product?
  • What can you learn from this product?
  • What is your competitor missing that you could include in your product?
  • What isn't working for your competitor?

Are you ready to make your invention idea better? Complete the activities below!

Print the worksheets to get started!

Worksheet for Activities

If you do not have access to a printer you can also use blank sheets of paper or follow along with the worksheet online.

Activity: User Research Interviews, User Research Surveys, and Competitor Research

Use the worksheet above for this activity. Click through the tabs below to find the steps for each section.

User Research Interviews
User Research Interviews

What you will do:

  1. Interview at least three people who you think are in the target market for your product.  You can use the worksheet to get started. Interviewing more people is better.
  2. Add more questions in addition to those in the worksheet . Think about what you want to learn from your potential users.
  3. When you are done, reflect on what you have learned. What will you change about your product idea?

Tip: For even more meaningful feedback, talk to more than three people and re-interview after you start creating your product as well. You probably will have different questions you want to ask, for example about features you are thinking of including.

User Research Surveys
Competitor Research

Activity: Business Plan Preparation

[Senior Division Only]

 

What You Will Need:

  • Place to record your ideas that you can save and use again. You'll need this for the next Ideation lesson and when you write your full Business Plan
  • Computer or pen and paper 

 

What you will do:

Synthesize the information you have gathered with your market research. The Market Analysis section of your Business plan includes:

  • The sketch of your target users.
  • Description of the market: Who are the key competitors?
  • How do you think your product will perform and why?
  • Competitor analysis: a detailed evaluation, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses.

Tip: You’ll probably want to talk about how your ideas or product changed in response to your user and competitor research. Remember to save this information for use in the next lesson and to use it in your Business Plan.

Activity: User Adoption Plan Preparation

[Junior Division Only]

 

What You Will Need:

  • Place to record your ideas that you can save and use again when you write your User Adoption Plan
  • Computer or pen and paper 

 

What you will do:

Organize the information you have gathered with your market research. The User Adoption plan includes:

  • The sketch of your target users from your user research
  • Who you will get to try out your app or AI invention
  • Feedback you receive from your users 
  • How you plan to get more users to try your product in the next year (this you will work on later)

Tip: You’ll probably want to talk about how your ideas or product changed in response to your user and competitor research.

This is just a start on your user adoption plan. As you continue to build your project, you should continue to ask users to test it out. Keep track of the feedback you receive and how it affects the development of your project. Keep in the back of your mind - how can we continue to get people interested in our product? You will need to address that in the last part of your User Adoption Plan.

Reflection

Congratulations on doing your competitor and user research. Remember that it is okay to change your idea based on what you’ve learned.  As you develop your product, you should do more competitor and user research. You should make sure that you are always asking the people who will use your product what they think and that you are always looking for ways to stand out from your competitors.

  • How will you change your idea based on what you learned from your users?
  • How will you stand out from your competitors?
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Ideation 5: Researching and Selecting Problems

Researching and Selecting Problems

Ideation 5

This lesson will help you earn points in several lines of the rubric focusing on the problem and solution in the Pitch Video part of the rubric.

In this lesson, you will…

  • Check the scale of your problem
  • Decide on a problem to solve with your team

Key Terms

  • Research - gathering information about a subject
  • Scale - the size of your problem or solution


 

Learn

Problem and Solution Scale

 


 

Activity

Selecting Problems

 


 

Reflection

The Ideation Process

 


 

Additional Resources

Example Technovation Apps

 

Problem Scale

In this lesson, you will check the scale, or the size of the problems you brainstormed in the “Brainstorming Problems” lesson. By the end of this lesson you will be able to select a problem that is meaningful and important to you and your community.

Check the scale of your team’s top problems you have brainstormed by asking the same questions about each one:

Daring
Daring
  • Is this a really big problem?
  • Has the problem appeared in national or global news?
Room for Innovation
Relevant

Activity: Selecting Problems

  1. Add any new problems you have thought of since the last meeting to your problem list from Ideation 2: Brainstorming Problems.
  2. Select a few of your team’s favorite problems. To check the scale of each problem, ask these questions:
    • Is this a really big problem?
    • Has the problem appeared in national or global news?
    • Does this problem exist in other countries? 
    • Is there a UN agency working on this problem?
    • Are there national foundations, nonprofits, companies, or startups interested in the problem?
    • Is there a consequence to NOT solving this problem?
    • Can you find 3 existing companies or solutions that are doing what you want to do? (If yes, it might be more difficult to come up with an innovative solution)
  3. If you can answer yes to some of the questions above and you are still interested in the problem, move it to your short list. If you can’t answer yes to at least a few of the questions, you may want to brainstorm further and explore more ideas. Local is important too! It’s OK if your problem is not global, but it should be a meaningful problem, whether it’s just in your community or in many countries.
  4. Stop when you reach one or two problems you are very interested in that are important and meaningful.

This activity was inspired by Creativity in engineering research by David Cropley and Creativity Training by Scott et al. 

Hear from other Technovation Girls teams!

If your team is still having trouble identifying a problem to solve, don't worry! It can take several meetings and discussions to decide on a problem you all care about and want to work together to solve.

 

Reflection

Congratulations! Now that you have identified the problem you want to solve, you can shift to thinking about solutions. Continue to do research on the problem to help you come up with innovative solutions. You should have identified several websites and news stories about your problem. Read through these resources to learn as much as you can about your problem. Take notes. Don’t forget to write down the sources you use because you will need to cite them in your business plan. See who else is working on your problem, and contact them to see if you can help them or partner with them. 

  • What problem will you focus on?
  • Who else is doing interesting work on this problem?
  • Why are you excited to solve this problem?

Additional Resources

Example Technovation Girls Apps

Here are some examples of Apps that solve problems relating to trash and trash disposal.

Eedo  by The Cantavits

81% of people dispose of e-waste improperly, which results in toxic fumes and polluted water. Eedo is an Android app solution that provides an end-to-end connection between e-waste producers and authorized recyclers.

ZeroWaste (0 Waste) by 3BigTomatoes

ZeroWaste provides a simple way to help people recognize different types of waste in their home and how to recycle, reuse, and reduce them properly. It provides pictures, videos and games to help people, especially children and new comers with language limits, to understand local waste collecting rules, and also promote the awareness of "0 waste" to protect our environment. It can be used in different cities and by everyone. It's fun and educational, and most importantly, it's free!

Discardious by Team Charis

Discardious is an app that helps to solve the problem of improper waste disposal in Nigeria. When using the app, users can elect a location using Google Map to get started. The app allows them to either report a hazard in their environment or request a mobile cart to pick up their waste.

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Ideation 3: Solving Problems with Mobile Phones

Solving Problems with Mobile Phones

Ideation 3

This lesson will get you to start thinking about the advantages of mobile phones when creating apps and help you earn points in the selected technology section of the Pitch Video part of the rubric.

In this unit, you will learn...

  • How to solve your problem by taking advantage of the features of your mobile phone
  • What to consider in order to make a good mobile phone app

Key Terms

  • Mobile App - a program that runs on a phone
  • Sensors - Hardware on your phone that allows it to interact with the world around it

Learn

Abilities of a Mobile Apps and Phones

Activity

Features of your Favorite Apps

Reflection

Making Good Mobile App Solutions

Additional Resources

Using Artificial Intelligence and Other Technologies

Abilities of a Mobile Phone

Mobile phones are extremely powerful devices with lots of sensors and functionality. Since you are developing a mobile app to solve a problem, you should take advantage of all powerful things mobile phones can do.

 

Here are some important components and sensors that a mobile phone has:

Component What it does
Camera, speaker, microphone Allow you to take pictures, videos, record sounds
GPS Shows the location of the phone
Storage on a phone Allows you to store preferences, images, sounds on the your phone
Connectivity to the web Allows you to connect the phone to information on the web
Accelerometer, gyroscope Shows how fast the phone is moving
Phone calls, text messages, contacts lists Allows you to make phone calls, send text messages, and connect to people

 

Mobile Apps versus Mobile Websites

Another way to develop technology for a mobile device is through creating a mobile website, but mobile websites are different from mobile apps. You’ll need to develop a mobile app rather than a mobile website for the Technovation Girls competition, if you decide to build a mobile app instead of an AI project. So what is the difference?

  • Mobile Website - A website that works on screens of all different sizes. A mobile website is accessed through the browser on a phone.
  • Mobile App -  A program that is downloaded and installed on a phone or tablet. It can be directly accessed from the memory of the device.

Mobile apps run on the actual phone, instead of inside a browser on the phone. Because of this, apps are much better at accessing the sensors and features on a phone. Here are some advantages that mobile apps have over mobile websites.

Key Capabilities Reason Example
Ability to access functions on the phone, such as the camera, sensors, phone calls, SMS, GPS etc. A mobile app is much better at accessing the phone’s features and hardware, such as the camera, GPS location, and so on. Any apps that use this functionality would be better suited to use a mobile app.

  • Push notifications
  • Tap-to-call/email
  • Device vibration/ alerts
  • Camera
  • Instant and automatic updates
 Apps like Instagram access the camera, location sensor, and more on your phone.
Ability to be very interactive - good for gaming Mobile apps are better at accessing the accelerometer sensors on phones. Gaming apps such as Pokémon Go are very fun to play due to their interactivity.
Easier to use regularly It is much more convenient for someone to use an app than to navigate to a website on the web. Social media offer both an online site and mobile app so that frequent users can download the app.
Ability to be personalized Mobile apps can store information on a users’ phones, so this makes them a better choice for apps that need a lot of customization. Health or period trackers can store information and allows you to track your health.
Ability to function offline Since mobile apps are stored on the phone, they can perform functions without a network/wireless connection.

However, mobile apps require the user to regularly download updates. Web apps will update themselves.

 Spotify can save your songs to play offline.
Has a nicer interface Since mobile apps are designed for the devices that they are used on, the interfaces often look better than those of mobile websites. Notice how different the Facebook app looks on your phone compared to the Facebook website.

Of course there are also some downsides to mobile apps. They require the user to go to the app store to download them and also require updates to be downloaded. Also, many apps only work on iOS or Android and not both.

When you develop your solution you will want to make sure that what you are creating really takes advantage of the features of a mobile phone. 

Here are some ways you can check if your solution takes advantage of mobile phone features.

Ask Yourself Consider
Could this be done without any technology at all? If so, does adding technology make it better? For example, you could spread awareness about earthquake safety by hosting information sessions and classes in your town. How can you use technology or a mobile app to add to this solution and make it better?
Could this be a mobile website instead of an app? If so, does turning it into an app make it better? For example, a quiz about heart disease could just be a website. Before turning this into an app, you should brainstorm how you can take advantage of the capabilities of mobile apps.
How can we take advantage of the key components of mobile apps in our solution? Check with the table above and make sure that your solution uses at least one of the key capabilities of apps. This will prevent you from developing a solution that is better as just a mobile website, or using no technology at all.

Check out the activity to practice identifying how apps are using the abilities of a mobile phone.

Activity: Features of your Favorite Apps

This should take around 20 minutes

Brainstorm at least 2 of your favorite apps.  Answer these questions either out loud or on a piece of paper.

  • What features of your phone do they use?
  • Would it still work as a website or as something different than a mobile app? Why or why not?

Example:

App Name Mobile features the App uses Would it still work as a website or as something different than a mobile app? Why or why not?
 Snapchat
  • Camera, video, microphone
  • Frequent use 
  • Sends push notifications
  • Connecting you to friends in your contacts
 No, this would not work as well as a website because I use it frequently and I like to get push notifications when I have a message.

Reflection

When you develop your solution you should ask yourself these questions:

  1. Could this be done without any technology at all? If so, does adding technology make it better?
  2. Could this be a mobile website instead of an app? If so, does turning it into an app make it better?
  3. Could we possibly use Artificial Intelligence instead of or as part of our app?
  4. How can we take advantage of the key capabilities of mobile apps in your solution?

Move on to Ideation Lesson 4 and start to brainstorm solutions to your problem!

Additional Resources 

Artificial Intelligence

Today’s phone can also take advantage of artificial intelligence quickly and easily.  You may have heard a bit about artificial intelligence before.

Artificial intelligence or AI is a technology that allows computers to learn and make decisions. The idea to create ‘intelligent machines’ developed in the 1950's when scientists became inspired to get computers to learn the same way humans learn. Since then, scientists have been trying out lots of different ways to get computers to learn new things and have invented a lot of new technologies along the way.

In fact, you can decide to make an invention that uses artificial intelligence (AI) for your Technovation Girls project! You will learn much more about AI in other lessons in this curriculum and will make a decision on whether to make a mobile app or AI project for your Technovation Girls submission.

 

Using other technology

Many Technovation Girls teams have used technology in addition to a mobile phone in their solution. Here are some examples:

Team TMWZ utilized a virtual reality headset in their app that helps raises awareness about fire safety.

Team /flash uses a button to allow users to alert a friend if they are in danger while walking home.

Team Cyberbusters uses AI to classify social media messages to detect whether they include bullying language.

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Ideation 2: Brainstorming Problems

Brainstorming Problems

Ideation 2

This lesson will go over brainstorming problems and help you earn points in the problem section of the Pitch Video part of the rubric.

In this lesson, you will...

  • Brainstorm problems that you’d like to solve in your community
  • Use this worksheet to understand types of problems

Key Terms

  • Brainstorming  - A way to think of a lot of ideas quickly
  • Sustainable Development Goals - The global community's commitments to reduce poverty and help the environment
  • Innovation - Creating a new product or way of doing things that adds value to the world

Learn

Types of Problems

 


Activity

Understanding Problems

 

 

Activity

Brainstorming Exercise

 

Reflection

Choose a Problem

Additional Resources

UN Sustainable Development Themes

Types of Problems

In the last lesson, you gathered evidence of issues in your community. Now it’s time to identify problems to solve.

Understanding types of problems

Before brainstorming problems, it can be helpful to think of some problem categories. Many of the following categories include Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), or goals that countries around the world agree are important to solve to reduce poverty and help the environment.

  • Basic human needs and rights such as water, food, sleep, clothing, shelter, good education
  • Environment such as climate action, access to clean water, renewable energy
  • Safety needs such as health, well-being, safety against accidents and illness
  • Social needs such as friendships, family, acceptance by others, respect, productivity
  • Additional Sustainable Development Goals good for individual action such as equality, peace and justice

Understanding types of solutions

While you brainstorm problems it is also natural to think of solutions at the same time. Before you think about solutions, it may be helpful to think about ways solutions can be innovative. Let’s consider what makes something an innovation, or creating a new product or way of doing things that adds value to the world. They can:

  • Improve something that already exists
  • Reduce the cost of something that already exists
  • Educate by raising awareness and helping to cause changes in people’s behavior
  • Apply an existing approach to a new situation, or even 
  • Invent a completely new solution, technology, or way of doing things

Solutions can belong to multiple categories. For example, self-driving cars could be an improvement on something that already exists (normal cars) but is also a completely new technology that has never been able to exist before. Keep these categories in mind as you start to think of problems and solutions.

Also see the Additional Resources for more information about themes.

Tips for the ideation process

Brainstorming is a group activity that is meant to generate a large number of ideas. As you brainstorm you might feel vulnerable as you contribute different ideas. This is normal! Here are some tips for good brainstorming:

  • Be sure to capture all ideas, even wild ones!
  • Defer all judgement, on other people’s ideas, and on your own!
  • Build off each other’s ideas.
  • Be visual – you can draw instead of writing words.
  • One conversation at a time – don’t cut each other off.
  • Go for as many ideas as you can.
  • Stay focused.

Here is a video that shows examples of less effective ways to go about brainstorming, and more effective ways, so you can better understand this process.

 

Activity: Understanding Problems

This will take around 45 minutes 

For this activity you will categorize problems and solutions with your team. 

What You Will Need:

  • Pens or markers
  • Paper to write on or post-its
  • This worksheet
  • Or, if you are on a virtual team, you can use ideaboardz.

What You Will Do:

This activity was inspired by Creativity in engineering research by David Cropley and Creativity Training by Scott et al. 

Activity: Brainstorm Exercise

Now it's time to brainstorm your own ideas. Think about your own life and your community observation.

  1. In pairs or small groups, share with your partner about a time when you felt frustrated recently. What made you frustrated?
  2. Discuss: How would you convince someone to come join your team and tackle this problem with you?
  3. Add the problems that arise in these discussions to your problem categorization board!
  4. Discuss problems you uncovered in your community observations in Ideation 1 - Understanding Your Community. Make sure to add those problems to the board as well.

This activity was inspired by Creativity in engineering research by David Cropley and Creativity Training by Scott et al. 

Hear from other Technovation Girls teams!

If your team is still having trouble identifying a problem to solve, don't worry! It can take several meetings and discussions to decide on a problem you all care about and want to work together to solve.



Reflection

Make sure to hold onto your problem brainstorm. You will need it for Ideation Lesson 4 - Brainstorming Solutions.

Reflection Questions:

  • Did the exercises help you uncover new or different problems? Did you think of any new solutions?
  • What activities worked best for your team?

Additional Resources 

Searching for past Technovation Girls apps

While you are brainstorming your problem and your solution, it can be helpful to see what other Technovation Girls teams have done in the past. Here are some tips on how to find pitch videos from past Technovation Girls teams:

  • Visit the Technovation App Gallery
  • Choose a topic from the dropdown that matches the category your problem falls in
  • You can filter by location, year, and division too
  • If you are looking for mobile app solutions, choose Technovation Girls; for AI solutions, choose Technovation Families
  • Click the Apply Filters button

 

Themes

Here are some themes inspired by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that you can use for inspiration when brainstorming problems.

You can learn more about the Sustainable Development Goals here.

 

Why Trees and Behavior Maps 

Here are some more resources to help you understand the root causes behind the problems you've chosen. Building out these maps will organize all your thoughts about your problem in a single, visual place and it'll be a great resource for when you start thinking about how to solve them.

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Ideation 1: Understanding your Community

Understanding Your Community

Ideation 1

This lesson will help you earn points in the problem section of the Pitch Video part  of the rubric.

In this lesson, you will...

  • Identify different communities that you belong to
  • Use this worksheet to begin documenting your community’s needs

Key Terms

  • Community - A group of people who have something in common.

Learn

Identify your Community

Activity

Community Brainstorming

Activity

Community Documenting

Activity

Our Community A-Z

Reflection

Look back at your work

Identify your Community

Congratulations! You have registered to take part in Technovation Girls and you and your team are excited to solve a problem in your community by creating a technological solution. Your team may or may not already have an idea for a problem to solve.

Either way, let’s discuss what it means to be a part of a community.

We all belong to or are a part of groups, such as our school peers or sports teams.  Many groups are also communities. A community is a group of people who have something in common.   You can think of a community in a lot of different ways; it could be the people who live in the same place or a group that shares similar interests. You may be surprised by how many communities you belong to.  Here are some examples, see if you can think of some more.

Type of Community Example
Location based communities People who go to the same school, people who live in the same city or country
Interest based communities People who play on the same sports team or play the same online games
Identity based communities People who identify as a certain race, ethnicity, or gender
Religion based communities People who follow the same religion

Finding an idea for your Technovation Girls project requires you to identify your community’s needs. Sometimes the people in your community are used to dealing with to problems they have, and are not seeing that there might be more effective solutions. Your job will be looking at the world around you and observing your community closely. You will gather observations and evidence which will later be used to help support the argument for why your team has arrived at a particular solution, and how it effectively solves your community’s needs.

But first, how well do you know your community? You can live somewhere or be a part of a group for a long time and come to realize that there’s a lot going on there that you weren’t even aware of! The next three activities will help you become more aware the communities you belong to, and the problems they might face.

Print the worksheets to get started!

Worksheets for Activities

If you do not have access to a printer you can also use blank sheets of paper or follow along with the worksheet online.

Activity: Community Brainstorming

This will help you identify the community that you want to solve a problem for. Even if you already have an idea of a problem to solve, thinking about which communities you belong to will help you come up with the best idea you can.

What You Will Need:

  • Pens or markers
  • Paper to write on or use the worksheet

What You Will Do:

  1. Brainstorm at least four different communities you are a part of or interested in helping
  2. Pick two communities and write down the following characteristics for each.
    • Age
    • Group
    • Language
    • Cultures or Traditions
    • Geographic Location
    • Interests
  3. Once you are done, decide which community you want to focus on. Once you have settled on a community, move on to the next two activities.

Activity: Community Documenting

This activity will help you gather information and characteristics about your community so that you can better understand its needs. In advance, the team should agree on where or who they are most interested in observing and then plan a time to go there to do the activity. This could be a meeting, a day of work, a classroom, or a place, depending on the community selected. Afterwards, the team should find a place where they can write responses to questions, and then discuss their responses together.

What You Will Need:

  • Pens or markers
  • Paper to write on or use the worksheet
  • Clipboard (optional but good to have)
  • Camera (optional but also good to have, you can use the camera on a phone)

What You Will Do:

  1. Schedule a time to observe if your observation involves people.
  2. Go to the place your team has chosen to observe. If you have the worksheet, you can use that to record your responses. Otherwise, write down where the place is and details about who is present on a piece of paper. Be specific.  
  3. Quietly observe. If you are in a meeting or place with people, tell them you are there to watch and learn. Make sure to take notes and, if you have permission from the people present, pictures. If you are in an open space, slowly walk around the area and make note of or take pictures of the major structures (e.g. churches, stores, buildings, schools).
  4. Look for less obvious things. Some examples: a person's silence, a look between people, a community garden, a vacant lot, billboards. As you observe this time, write down not only what you see, but also what you hear, smell, or feel.
  5. When you finish, respond to the following questions:
    • What surprised you the most about the community?
    • Can you see any problems that are impacting the community? If so, who is it affecting and how?
    • What do you think this community needs to help solve the problem/s?
    • Who would be responsible for making that change and how?
    • How might the community needs be solved by technology?
  6. Discuss what some of the common things your team noticed were. Were there any surprises? What were some of the problems that you noticed in the community? Do you have pictures that can help illustrate your points? Does your team feel strongly about any of these issues? Why?
  7. There are other ways to gather information. Below is another activity you can do to help visualize the community in another way.

Activity: Our Community A-Z

Note: Get your mentor involved! They could provide some good insight with your ideas.

Another way to visualize communities is by the brainstorming words that describe them. After you discuss your observations from the community documenting activity, you can try this too. It’s fun!

What You Will Need:

  • Write out the letters of the alphabet on a chalkboard or a whiteboard for each team member. You could do this on paper instead, with one piece of paper per person. You can also use the worksheet.
  • Something for each person to write with.

What You Will Do:

  1. Each team member should write one word that describes the community for as many letters of the alphabet as possible, as fast as she can. For example, "R=Rural". To make it more fun, you can make it a competition. Don't overthink this—it should be spontaneous!
  2. Afterward, everyone should take a look at all the words that came out of this activity and discuss them. Are there any commonalities? Any surprises? What kind of new information came out of this activity that didn’t happen with the physical observation?

Reflection

Now that you’ve studied the community that you belong to and have gathered evidence of the problems, you are ready to start brainstorming problems and solutions. 

Reflection Questions:

  1. Which community did you pick and why?
  2. Do you feel differently about this community than when you started this lesson? Why or why not?
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Next Lesson

Template

Community Mapping

Ideation Lesson 1

In this lesson, you will learn how to…

  • Identify the communities that you belong to  
  • Understand your community and gather evidence about issues there
  • Create a problem map to better understand the causes of your problem

Key Terms

  • Brainstorming  - A way to think of a lot of ideas quickly
  • Community - A group of people who have something in common.

Learn

Communities and Problems

Activity

Community Documenting

Activity

Our Community

Reflection

Covering the basic

Additional Resources

The learning goes on

Understand Community Needs

Congratulations! You have registered to take part in Technovation and you and your team are excited to solve a problem in your community by creating a mobile app. Your team may or may not already have an idea for a problem to solve. Either way, let’s take a look at how people often approach problems and make decisions.

Our brains are constantly processing information and we are often problem-solving without  even realizing it. Suppose an important homework assignment is due and you forgot. You write something up at the last minute and hand it in, but it is not your best work. You are reacting, and that is sometimes necessary, but are you responding to an actual need?

Finding an idea for your Technovation app requires you to identify your community’s needs. Sometimes the people in your community are reacting to problems they have, and are not seeing that there might be more effective solutions. Your job will be look at the world around you and observe your community closely. You will gather observations and evidence which will later be used to help support the argument for why your team has arrived at a particular solution, and how it effectively solves your community’s  needs.

But first, how well do you know your community? You can live somewhere for a long time and come to realize that there’s a lot going on there that you weren’t even aware of! The next two activities will help you become more aware your community.

Activity: Community Documenting

Optional

This activity will help you gather information and characteristics about your community so that you can better understand its needs, and should take about 60 minutes to do. In advance, the team should agree on a particular area of a city or place of interest to them and then plan a time to go there to do the activity. Afterwards, they should find a place where they can write responses to questions, and then discuss their responses together.

What You Will Need:

  • Pens or markers
  • Paper to write on or this worksheet
  • Clipboard (optional but good to have)
  • Camera (optional but also good to have, you can use the camera on a phone)

What You Will Do:

  1. Go to the area your team has chosen to observe. If you have the worksheet, you can use that to record your responses. Otherwise, write down where the area is on a piece of paper. Be specific.  
  2. Slowly walk around the area once and make a note of or take pictures of the major structures (e.g. churches, stores, buildings, schools).
  3. Walk the area again, this time looking for less obvious things. Some examples: a well-kept yard on a street of concrete, a community garden, a row of trees, a vacant lot, billboards. If possible, use your cellphone or camera to take pictures. As you observe this time, write down not only what you see, but also what you hear, smell, or feel.
  4. When you return inside, respond to the following questions:
    • What surprised you the most about the community?
    • Can you see any problems that are affecting the community? If so, who is it affecting and how?
    • What do you think this community needs to help solve the problem/s?
    • Who would be responsible for making that change and how?
    • How might the community needs be solved by technology?

Discuss what some of the common things your team noticed were. Were there any surprises? What were some of the problems that you noticed in the community? Do you have pictures that can help illustrate your points? Does your team feel strongly about any of these issues? Why?

There are other ways to gather information. Below is another activity you can do to help visualize the community in another way.

Activity: Our Community A-Z

Optional

Note: If a mentor participates, he or she can help assess whether teams need to gain more information about the community or the problem they are choosing to solve.

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Another way to visualize communities is by the brainstorming words that describe them. After you discuss your observations from the community documenting activity, you can try this too. It’s fun!

What You Will Need:

  • Write out the letters of the alphabet on a chalkboard or a whiteboard for each team member. You could do this on paper instead, with one piece of paper per person.
  • Something for each person to write with

What You Will Do:

  1. Each team member should write one word that describes the community for as many letters of the alphabet as possible, as fast as she can. For example, "R=Rural". To make it more fun, you can make it a competition. Don't overthink this—it should be spontaneous!
  2. Afterward, everyone should take a look at all the words that came out of this activity and discuss them. Are there any commonalities? Any surprises? What kind of new information came out of this activity that didn’t happen with the physical observation?

What's Next:

Now that you have gathered evidence of issues in your community, you and your team should talk about which of the issues are important. Then, you can decide which one to work on. Before this conversation takes place though, let’s take a look at the themes that Technovation is asking participants to develop solutions for this year, as this could influence your decision.

For-profit
Social Enterprise
Non-profit
Goals Make Money

Test in an activity

 Make Money & Do Good  

Table in an activity links social issues.

 Make Money to do Good

Table in an activity
Characteristics - Maximize profit by selling goods, products, or services to customers.

- May have a social mission (a goal to do good in the community) but it is not operated to maximize that.

 - Can be structured as for-profit or non-profit.

- Maximize social impact and profit for external shareholders.

- Some of them make profit and use that profit to do social good.

 - Making a social impact is the driving force in the business.

- Need money to sustain themselves and pay employees just like any other business.

- Can earn money by selling product and services, accepting donations, or get funding through grants.

Reflect

Now that you have gathered evidence of issues in your community, you and your team should talk about which of the issues are important. Then, you can decide which one to work on. Before this conversation takes place though, let’s take a look at the themes that Technovation is asking participants to develop solutions for this year, as this could influence your decision.

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Additional Resources - Technovation Themes

Here are some themes inspired by the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that you can use for inspiration when brainstorming ideas. Here are details on each of the themes, and some examples of UN goals and targets for the year 2030:

Poverty. Examples include eradicating extreme poverty (measured as living under $1.25 a day), implementing social protection systems for all, and ensuring that all men and women have equal access to economic resources.

Environment. Examples include improving education and awareness about climate change and strengthening resilience to climate-change hazards in all countries. If you look at the other two related categories: Life Below Water and Life On Land, you will find more ideas.

Peace. Examples include significantly reducing violence, ending abuse of children, reducing corruption and bribery, ensuring equal access to justice for all, and ensuring public access to information.

Equality. Examples include ending all form of discrimination against girls and women everywhere, eliminating all harmful practices such as early and forced marriage, enhancing the use of enabling technology to promote the empowerment of women, ensuring universal access to reproductive rights, and ensuring women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership.

Education. Examples include ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning experiences for all.

Health. Examples include ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all ages, maternal and child health, universal health coverage, and access for all to safe, effective, quality and affordable medicines and vaccines.

You can learn more about the Sustainable Development Goals here.