Giftbomb: feature development proposal

Summary
A recently launched mobile app approached us to develop a feature release to move beyond MVP and help them address the most impactful features in a short timeframe. To complete this we sought business and developer feedback on early conceptual prototypes and surveyed their users on the 10 best feature ideas using Kano analysis. Based on this analysis, and the development constraints I chose three features for immediate development.

Problem analysis

Giftbomb is an app start-up born out of a problem that many small businesses face. The founder Sai Bezawada worked for many years in a small resort community in northern Minnesota. For someone to give a friend the unique experience that these small businesses offer they would need to approach one of these small businesses to purchase a gift card, often times in person. Because of the remote location this is an uncommon and cumbersome experience for both the gift buyer and the business employee to fulfill. Enter Giftbomb, a way for someone to purchase and send a virtual gift card to a friend for a local business they would like to share/promote. Their goal in this space is to disrupt the manner in which consumers purchase and distribute gift cards, by encouraging and supporting both spontaneous and scheduled gifting that surprises and delights recipients.

We explored the features present in the application and how they function with a live version of the application. Carefully documenting features present in the application and their interactions between users and merchants. In order to better understand their unique opportunities we performed a competitive audit on the current market of digital gifting platforms. This allowed us to see the areas Giftbomb’s competition has taken in the market and where possible opportunities for new features may be.

Finally, I developed a user journey map for the current user through the touchpoints they may have in sending a gift to someone.

This gave us the contextual information and perspective needed to make recommendations on new app features. As a design team we quickly developed about 100 new feature prototypes, and grouped them together in similar categories to be reviewed by Giftbomb’s founder and developers. The goal of this meeting was to understand the complexity of the features we proposed and the development costs to bring them to market. The development time allotted for the next round of feature rollout was 6-8 weeks. Based on this feedback and these constraints I chose the following three features to prototype.

Group Sorting and Kano Analysis

Based on the product team consultation we voted on the top features we wanted to see developed for the next design round of sprints and version. The top 10 ideas were put into a Kano Survey for App users to perform. These results were collected into a table and I led the group synthesis of our findings.

Proposed Solutions

Bulk Gift Bomb Purchase

This feature allows users to gift multiple people at a time. This will make spreading Giftbomb much easier for users.

Development Time: 3 Weeks

location reminder to redeem a recieved giftbomb

Users take an average of 61 days to redeem a Giftbomb that a friend has sent them. By reminding the user they have a Giftbomb available to spend when they are nearby the merchant, we hope to cut down on the average time to redemption and help current users share positive experiences so that they can help promote and spread Giftbomb to more users.

DEVELOPMENT TIME: 3 WEEKS

Custom Text Messages

When someone who does not have Giftbomb receives a Giftbomb they receive a computer generated text message from an unknown phone number explaining that a friend has sent them money to a local merchant. Users expressed that they would like it better if this message came from their friend rather than a message delivery service. The developers explained that to have it sent this way would use more resources than were available for this feature rollout. As a compromise This feature allows users to customize a portion of the invitation text message that is sent out with their own voice.

DEVELOPMENT TIME: 1 WEEK

Next Steps

The founder’s main goal is to drive adoption by merchants and users in the early stage of the app’s development. While some features evaluated with the Kano survey may provide a richer user experience, these features were shown to do the most to encourage new user adoption. A custom text message from someone they know increases user trust in the initial notification to encourage app installation. Location reminders help new users experience Giftbomb more fully and allows the sender to complete their journey. Bulk purchase allows power users and brand evangelists to more easily spread Giftbomb to a wider audience. I believe these features will help the app attract new users and help existing users experience the goal of Giftbomb to be surprised and delighted. This will help users engage with the app more meaningfully and spread the vision for Giftbomb to change the way people give gift cards and help small businesses promote themselves.

The next feature release should focus on allowing users to send a photo/video thank you message after redeeming their Giftbomb, to submit new merchant suggestions, and to regift a Giftbomb to a friend.

Click here to download a brief that includes the annotated wireframes.