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University of Economics, Prague

Faculty of Informatics and Statistics

ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF AN ONLINE SERVICES DIRECTORY FOR THE SPANISH SPEAKING

COMMUNITY IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC MASTER´S THESIS

Study programme: Information Management Field of study: Applied Informatics

Author: Bc. Edgar Armando Regalado López Supervisor: Mgr. Eng. Zdeněk Smutný, Ph.D.

Prague, December 2019

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Declaration

I hereby declare that I am the sole author of the thesis entitled “Analysis and design of an online services directory for the Spanish speaking community in the Czech Republic”. I duly identified all citations. The used literature and sources are stated in the attached list of references.

Prague (Date)... Signature

Edgar Armando Regalado López

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Acknowledgement

I am sincerely grateful to my thesis’ supervisor: Mgr. Eng. Zdeněk Smutný, Ph.D. for his guidance and recommendations in the development of this project. He supported me in the development of a topic of my preference and furnished me with clear methodologies for the creation of a better directory.

A special place in my heart occupies Bc. Mitzila Bringas, to whom I am genuinely grateful for walking by my side throughout all my years studying in the Czech Republic. She provided me with friendly support and affection in times of need and laughed with me in times of joy.

Also, I am greatly indebted to my friend and colleague Michal Sláma for his efforts in integrating me into the Czech Society. He also sacrificed his own time; in order to allow me to finish writing the present document.

I am much obliged to my inseparable friend, business partner, mentor, inspirator and brother Federico Navarrete for all his counseling that vary from business recommendations to personal affairs. His presence has definitely enlightened my life.

The deepest and humblest of all my gratitudes goes to my mother Elena López for all the sacrifices she underwent to raise me and to give me the opportunities I have today. She resigned herself and made me the priority of her life. Thanks to that she was able to furnish me with education, manners and instruction.

Special thanks to all the members of the Spanish speaking community that devoted their time to me, in the preparation of this project.

Last, I want to kindly express my appreciation to the Czech Government for equipping me with a scholarship and opening the doors of their magnificent country to me. It is to me a great honor to have been selected by such a prestigious country. I cannot repay for what they have done for me; but I promise to do my best to give back and help my fellow compatriots and the Czech society.

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Abstract

The present master’s thesis addresses the creation of a services directory for Spanish Speakers living in the Czech Republic. The theoretical framework presents two methodologies: a business-oriented methodology belonging to the startup world, and a problem-centered methodology, from the design science domain. It describes the procedure for selecting an appropriate Design Science Research Methodology and establishes similarities with the selected business methodology.

The practical part pairs both methodologies seamlessly, covering the steps of both methodologies in single -yet complex- steps. From this pairing a new methodology is born.

This combined methodology is followed step by step, in order to build not only the services directory; but also, a suitable business model.

Hypotheses about the business model were created and validated. This validation required the analysis of documents and direct interaction with the Spanish speaking community.

Interaction took place in the form of 12 interviews, a survey, 2 focus groups and meetings with sub-groups of the community. Data from all these interactions was gathered and processed in order to reach a conclusion about the creation of the directory and a business around it.

Results indicate that the directory would have a great degree of acceptance in the community, as it provides an efficient solution to the problem of looking for services and sharing contacts.

Besides, the creation of a business is not recommended for its scalability is limited. The continuation of the directory in the form of a social project is recommended.

Keywords

Spanish speakers, directory, services, Customer development, Design Science Research, Business Model Canvas

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List of Figures

Figure 1 Customer Development Model. Source: (Blank, 2006, p. 18) ...16

Figure 2 Overview of the Customer Discovery Process. Source: (Blank, 2006, p. 32) ... 25

Figure 3 Customer discovery process, step by step. Source: (Blank & Dorf, 2012, p. 52) Edited by: Author. ... 27

Figure 4 Research method proposed by Peffers et al. Source: (Dresch, et al., 2015, p. 84) .... 28

Figure 5 Problem/solution, product/market fit. Source: Author ... 30

Figure 6 Peffers' DSRM and Blank's CDM equivalences. Source: Author. ... 32

Figure 7 Business Model Canvas v 1.0. Source: Author. ... 37

Figure 8 Market size. The numbers represent the amount of SS. Source: Author. ... 40

Figure 9 Trend in the number of registered SS in the CR. Source: (Czech Statistical Office, 2019 b). Edited by Author. ...41

Figure 10 Persona 1, representation. Source: (Maciejewska, n.d.) Edited by: author. ... 43

Figure 11 Persona 2 - representation. Source: (Lopez, n.d.) Edited by: author. ... 44

Figure 12 Persona 3, representation. Source: (Dasiuk, n.d.) Edited by: Author. ... 44

Figure 13 Persona 4, representation. Source: (Morshedlou, n.d.) Edited by: Author. ... 45

Figure 14 Conjunction of English, Czech and Spanish markets. Source: Author. ... 47

Figure 15 Results of searching for the word "doctor" in the group "Españoles en Praga" ... 52

Figure 16 Results of the analysis of the group "Españoles en Praga!!!", categorization by purpose. Source: Author. ... 58

Figure 17 Results of the analysis of the group "Españoles en Praga!!!", categorization by topic. Source: Author. ... 59

Figure 18 Results of the analysis of the group "LATINOS en Praga | LATINOS en República Checa", categorization by purpose. Source: Author. ... 59

Figure 19 Results of the analysis of the group "LATINOS en Praga | LATINOS en República Checa", categorization by topic. Source: Author. ... 60

Figure 20 Market size recalculated. The numbers represent the amount of SS. Source: Author. ... 68

Figure 22 Wireframe prototype, Homepage. Source: Author... 73

Figure 23 Wireframe Prototype, inner page. Source: Author. ... 74

Figure 24 Prototype II, homepage. Source: Author. ... 76

Figure 25 Prototype II, inner page. Source: Author. ... 77

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List of tables

Table 1 Main Goal of each CDM step. Source: Author. ... 18

Table 2 Main elements of design science research. Source: (Dresch, et al., 2015, p. 92) ... 20

Table 3 Analysis of the DSR methods, including CDM. Source: (Dresch, et al., 2015) (p. 92) Edited by: Author. ... 22

Table 4 Advantages and disadvantages of the selected methodologies. Source: Author ... 24

Table 5 Proposed functionalities for free and paid users. Source: Author. ... 50

Table 6 Proposed prices for the monthly subscriptions. Source: Author. ... 51

Table 7 Proposed prices for affiliate marketing. Source: Author. ... 51

Table 8 Hypotheses summary. ... 53

Table 9 Proposed test for each hypothesis. ... 54

Table 10 Interactions with the SS community. Source: Author ... 57

Table 11 Technical maintenance costs. Source: Author. ... 95

Table 12 Expected working days and staff salaries. Source: Author. ... 96

Table 13 Estimated Development costs of the directory. Source: Author. ... 96

Table 14 Estimated costs from Dec 2019 to Sep 2020 ... 97

Table 15 Estimated costs from Oct 2020 to Oct 2021 ... 98

Table 16 Estimated costs from Nov 2021 to Dec 2022 ... 99

Table 17 Market Share and expected growth. Source: Author. ... 100

Table 18 Frequency of service searches. Source: Author. ... 100

Table 19 General data used to calculate the revenue. Source: Author. ... 100

Table 20 Estimated revenues from Apr 2020 to Feb 2021 ... 101

Table 21 Estimated revenues from Mar 2021 to Mar 2022 ... 102

Table 22 Estimated revenues from Apr 2022 to Dec 2022 ... 103

Table 23 Estimated Cashflow from Dec 2019 to Jul 2020... 104

Table 24 Estimated Cashflow from Aug 2020 to May 2021 ... 105

Table 25 Estimated Cashflow from Jun 2021 to Apr 2022 ... 106

Table 26 Estimated Cashflow from May 2022 to Dec 2022 ... 107

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List of abbreviations

SS Spanish Speakers / Spanish-speaking CDM Customer Development Methodology BMC Business Model Canvas

DS Design Science

DSR Design Science Research

DSRM Design Science Research Methodology

CR Czech Republic

CZSO Czech Statistical Office

DB Database

CF Cashflow

CCF Cumulative cashflow SCF Subsidized cashflow

SCCF Subsidized cumulative cash flow

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Introduction

Being a Latino living in the Czech Republic, the author has experienced firsthand the problems that Spanish speakers (SS) encounter when moving to Czechia. Among all the problems, it seems to have a significant importance the lack of an organized system to share contacts and find services and products culturally related to the immigrants. This experience led the author to start a research on the topic and to propose the development of a single, integrated directory to share contacts and find services offered in Spanish.

The research went through several stages backed up by the selected methodologies: The Customer Development Model and Peffers’ Design Research Methodology. The directory was proposed -first of all- as a business; therefore, a business methodology was selected as the predominant one.

Customer Development is the current standard for the creation of startups. The steps of this methodology; as well as the smalls adaptations performed on it, in order to fit the current project, are presented in the chapter Customer Discovery Breakdown.

As the project entails the proposal and design of an artifact: the services directory, a design science research methodology was selected. A brief introduction to Design Science is presented in the chapter Design Science Research.

Having a wide-variety of methodologies in Design Science, a rigorous process was followed to select the most-suitable methodology. This process is explained in detail in the chapter Selection of a Design Science Research Methodology. Finally, the selected methodology: the one proposed by Peffers, is described in the chapter: Peffers’ DSRM breakdown.

The practical part of the thesis deals with the application of both methodologies in the creation of the directory. How both methodologies are inter-related in the creative process of the development of the directory is explained in the chapter Pairing Blank’s CDM with Peffers’

DSRM. This chapter encounters the similarities shared by both methodologies, evaluates each of the steps and establishes equivalences among them. Last, it provides the scheme to follow for the creation of the directory. The steps described in the chapter Pairing Blank’s CDM with Peffers’ DSRM are followed through, in order to properly design the services directory and its accompanying business model.

Hypotheses statement deals with the creation of the business model canvas and the clear announcement of all the hypotheses for which tests were conducted. In order to conduct the tests, several research methods were applied: official documents from CZSO were analyzed and processed to fit the needs of the research, Facebook posts of the Spanish speaking community were gathered, classified and analyzed to find out the state of art of the problem, a survey and several interviews were conducted to know the opinion of possible users and clients. Also, two focus groups were leaded to gather feedback about the MVP.

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The data collected through these research methods was analyzed and processed. Results for each individual test are presented in chapter Customer Contacts.

Findings about the business capabilities of the project are articulated, as well as reasons to continue or stop the project from the business standpoint. Peffers contributes from a problem- centered standpoint by also providing reasons to continue or stop the project. A final decision is made and further recommendations on the continuation of the project are given in the conclusions.

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Objectives

Main Objective

Analyze and design an online directory of the services for the Spanish speaking community in the Czech Republic; in order to help the members of this community to quickly find and promote their services, thereby contributing to their welfare and integration to the society.

Specific objectives

➢ Apply a business methodology to evaluate the creation of a new business through the creation of the services directory.

➢ Apply a design research methodology to a real-case scenario in order to create a new artifact and test its validity.

➢ Connect the concepts of the major “Information Management” with the concepts from the minor “Business”, in order to develop a real technological project that will help the Spanish-speaking community in the Czech Republic.

➢ Propose a system design by applying known methodologies and engaging a selected group of people from the community.

➢ Apply the concepts of information management, project management, information security management system and other subjects from the program, in the development of the directory.

➢ Evaluate the degree of acceptance of (a) the idea (b) the artifact, in the Spanish speaking community, in order to determine which factors affect the acceptance and propose possible adaptations to improve this acceptance.

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1 Starting point

Problem consideration

The Spanish speaking (SS) community in the Czech Republic is relatively small. According to the Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic, there are a total of 4867 registered foreigners from Spanish speaking countries, in the Czech Republic. (Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic, 2019) Being such a small community, it is not hard to think that they have several problems trying to integrate into the Czech society; especially when they don’t speak Czech.

The author observed how several of his friends had problems trying to find services offered in Spanish, in the Czech Republic. He observed how his friends had problems finding;

predominantly, doctors and how this became a real problem when his friends were sick and needed immediate treatment.

These observations raised the assumption that most of the Spanish speakers living in the Czech Republic have problems finding services here. Observations led to the conclusion that; even though the services do exist, there's not a centralized repository where people can look for them. A lot of this search is performed through word of mouth and through Facebook groups.

Being part of these groups, the author also observed how members of the SS community requested contacts of service providers. However, this made the search for services a cumbersome process, with tedious scrolling through Facebook posts, lots of dependency on the activity of the groups, the same questions being recurrently asked and people getting upset and losing interest by seeing the same question asked over and over again.

Proposed Solution

In order to solve this problem, the development of an online services directory is proposed.

The directory seeks to gather the information about the professionals, freelancers and companies offering products or services for Spanish speakers in Czechia.

As a proposal, the directory will be served as an online platform where there will be two types of users:

➢ The “service seeker”, who are the users looking for services

➢ the “service provider”, who are the people looking forward to promoting their services through the platform and thereby gain more customers.

The benefits for both kinds of users are clear: As a seeker I can look for all the services and products in one place, thereby drastically reducing the time spent searching. And as a service provider, I can gain online presence by promoting my services in the platform and engage more customers.

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2 Methodology

Considering the nature of the project, two different methodologies have been selected:

Customer Development by Steve Blank and Peffers’ DSRM for the creation of a new artifact.

Customer Development (CD) contemplates the business perspective of the project. That is, the possibility to create a new business from the directory. On the other hand, Peffers is the merely academical part that leverages the creation of the directory by supplying an adequate procedure for its creation. Both methodologies have been applied to the current project. It is necessary; thus, to describe them as well as the steps involved in the project.

2.1 Customer Development

2.1.1 Generalities

The customer development methodology is a business-centered methodology, which aims to help startups in their request to find a suitable business model for their business.

The methodology was developed by Steve Blank, one of Silicon’s Valley top entrepreneurs and adjunct professor in the Department of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University. (Stanford University, 2019)

Steve created the Customer Development methodology that spawned the Lean Startup movement. He teaches entrepreneurship at Stanford University, U.C. Berkeley and Columbia.

(Blank & Dorf, 2012, p. back cover)

2.1.2 The Customer Development Model (CDM)

In “The Startup owner’s manual”, Blank studies the case of WebVan, a fast-growing startup that managed to raise more than $800 million (Blank & Dorf, 2012, p. 1) and yet barely 24 months after initial public offering, WebVan was bankrupt. (Blank & Dorf, 2012, p. 2)

From this abysmal loss, Blank identified 9 errors -which he calls deadly sins- of the new product introduction model. (Blank & Dorf, 2012, pp. 8-18) The customer development model depicted in Figure 1 is designed to solve the nine problems of the product introduction model.

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“The model breaks out all the customer-related activities of an early-stage company into their own processes, designed as a four easy-to-understand steps. The first two steps of the process outline the “search” for the business model. Steps three and four “execute” the business model that’s been developed, tested, and proven in steps one and two. The steps:

✓ Customer discovery first captures the founder’s vision and turns it into a series of business models hypotheses. Then it develops a plan to test customer reactions to those hypotheses and turn them into facts.

✓ Customer validation tests whether the resulting business model is repeatable and scalable.

If not, you return to customer discovery.

✓ Customer creation is the start of execution. It builds end-user demand and drives it into the sales channel to scale the business

✓ Company-building transitions he organization from a startup to a company focused on executing a validated model.”

(Blank & Dorf, 2012, p. 22)

The main objective of the whole methodology is

“to find a scalable and repeatable business model”

The main difference of the traditional model vs CDM is that “a traditional product introduction plan makes no provision for moving backward. To do so would be considered a failure.” (Blank

& Dorf, 2012, p. 23) However, experience has demonstrated that business plans are not perfect when they are created and rarely they work as expected.

On the other hand, CDM works in an iterative manner, meaning that things can go wrong.

According to Blank, “this is the way that startups actually work.” (Blank & Dorf, 2012, p. 23)

Figure 1 Customer Development Model. Source: (Blank, 2006, p. 18)

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17 2.1.3 Step 1: Customer Discovery

“Customer discovery translates a founder’s vision for the company into hypotheses about each component of the business model and creates a set of experiments to test each hypothesis.”

(Blank & Dorf, 2012, p. 24)

“The goal of Customer Discovery is just what the name implies: finding out who the customers for your product are and whether the problem you believe you are solving is important to them.” (Blank, 2006, p. 18)

What is important during Customer Discovery is not to have an impeccable business model, but rather build it. Through several iterations and pivots, entrepreneurs test their assumptions on the different parts of the business model canvas. To do this, founders “test customer reaction to each hypothesis, gain insights from their feedback, and adjust the business model.”

(Blank & Dorf, 2012, p. 24)

Customer discovery encourages the direct interaction with the customer in two phases. The goal of the first phase is to understand the problem, from the customer’s standpoint. That is:

What is the customer’s problem? Why does he need to solve it? (Blank & Dorf, 2012, p. 25)

"The second phase shows the product to customers for the first time, assuring that the product elegantly solves the problem or fills the need well enough to persuade lots of customers to buy.

When customers enthusiastically confirm the importance of both the problem and the solution, customer discovery is complete.” (Blank & Dorf, 2012, p. 25)

2.1.4 Step 2: Customer Validation

Upon affirmation of all the hypotheses developed during Customer Discovery, the founders should test whether all the elements of the business model can work together to build a company.

“Customer validation proves that the business tested and iterated in customer discovery has a repeatable, scalable business model that can deliver the volume of customers required to build a profitable company.” (Blank & Dorf, 2012, p. 27)

During this step, the founder’s team goes out and tries to make the first sales of the product.

Therefore, validation is measured by “test sales” that get customers to hand over their money.

(Blank & Dorf, 2012, p. 27) “A steady stream of customer purchases validates the concept far more solidly than lots of polite words. There’s no surrogate for people paying for a product.”

(Blank & Dorf, 2012, p. 27)

2.1.5 Step 3: Customer Creation

Customer creation is the initial step of the execute phase of CDM. Once all the hypotheses have been confirmed, and the business model has proved to be profitable, only then may the company start spending large amounts of money in order to grow.

During this step, the company starts spending large sums to scale by creating end-user demand and driving it into the sales channel. (Blank & Dorf, 2012, p. 29)

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18 2.1.6 Step 4: Company-Building

Company building represents the transition from a startup to a real company. According to Blank, a startup is defined as:

An organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model. (Blank, 2010)

“Company Building means that the organization has finally found the scalable and repeatable business model. Now, it refocuses the team’s energy away from “search” mode to a focus on

“execution”, swapping its informal learning and discovery-oriented Customer Development team for formal, structured departments.” (Blank & Dorf, 2012, p. 30)

In short, the main goal for each of the steps is shown in the table below.

Table 1 Main Goal of each CDM step. Source: Author.

STEP GOAL

CUSTOMER DISCOVERY Test the importance of the problem and the solution to develop.

CUSTOMER VALIDATION Test the developed solution as well as its market compatibility. Transition to business.

CUSTOMER CREATION Scale and grow. Build sales.

COMPANY BUILDING Transition from startup to real company.

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2.2 Design Science Research

In order to develop a services directory for SS, a design science research methodology has been selected. Before proceeding in the selection of the methodology, it is imperative to understand what design science is and the concepts involved in it.

Design is here understood as:

“the activity of making changes to a given system, transforming situations to achieve improvements. The activity of making changes is performed by a human being who, to do this, applies the knowledge to create, i.e., develop, artifacts that do not yet exist.” (Dresch, et al., 2015, p. 47)"

And from the previous concept, the definition of artifact needs to be introduced:

“Artifacts can be understood as things that are manmade, i.e., something artificial according to the concepts defended by (Simon, 1996). However, although artifacts are considered artificial and therefore designed, based on the fundamentals of Design Science, artifacts are subject to natural laws, which are governed by traditional science.” (Dresch, et al., 2015, p. 106) Last

“Design Science Research (DSR), also known as Constructive Research, is a methodological approach concerned with devising artifacts that serve human purposes. It is a form of scientific knowledge production that involves the development of innovative constructions, intended to solve problems faced in the real world, and simultaneously makes a kind of prescriptive scientific contribution. An important outcome of this type of research is an artifact that solves a domain problem, also known as solution concept, which must be assessed against criteria of value or utility.” (Dresch, et al., 2015, p. v)

In accordance with these concepts, the proposed services directory is considered as the artifact to be developed. The process of creating such directory, the design. And the application of a methodology for the creation of the directory is the research.

The process utilized to select the more suitable methodology is outlined below.

2.2.1 Selection of a Design Science Research Methodology

Several Design Science Research (DSR) Methodologies are available nowadays for researchers.

Some of them build on top of others, some involve different steps and add what they consider convenient for the building of knowledge.

Table 2 displays a list of the main existing methods of DSR; as well as the steps involved in each method. The table also displays which steps are common among all the methods and which of them are limited to only a specific method or group of methods.

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20 Table 2 Main elements of design science research. Source: (Dresch, et al., 2015, p. 92)

Authors Main steps of the method Problem

definition

Literature review or search for existing theories

Suggestion for

possible solutions

Development Evaluation Decision about the best solution

Reflection and learning

Communication of results

(Bunge, 1980) X X X X

(Takeda, et al., 1990) X X X X X

(Eekels &

Roozenburg, 1991)

X X X X X

(Nunamaker, et al., 1991)

X X X X

(Walls, et al., 1992) X X X X X

(van Aken, et al., 2012)

X X X X X

(Vaishnavi &

Kuechler, 2011)

X X X X X

(Cole, et al., 2005) X X X X

(Manson, 2006) X X X X X

(Peffers, 2007) X X X X X

(Gregor & Jones, 2007)

X X X X X

(Baskerville, et al., 2009)

X X X X

(Alturki, et al., 2011) X X X X X X

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21 i. Analysis

Table 2; as well as the whole Chapter 4 of the book Design Science Research (Dresch, et al., 2015), served as the foundation of the analysis. The steps executed during the analysis of the methods are stated below.

1. A study of each methodology including its steps was performed. The objective of this study was to understand the method from a general perspective and stablish similarities and differences from other methods.

2. The comparison of the elements was extended. CDM was included as a business-focused design science research method (Table 3)

3. Similarities and differences between DSR methods and CDM were identified.

4. The methodology was finally chosen, considering the degree of similarity with CDM.

ii. Highlights

Some of the highlights from this analysis are:

1. Bunge described the most fundamental DSR method. Its steps are included in all other methods and form part of Blank’s CDM.

2. Some of the methods encourage the creation of multiple artifacts simultaneously. Others encourage the creation of a single artifact and loop through cycles of development and evaluation until a suitable artifact is found. This fact is shown in Table 3 The columns

“Development” and “Evaluation” have been marked with (1) or (n), according to the number of artifacts that the method suggests to create simultaneously. Takeda et al., Eekels and Roozemburg encourage the creation of several artifacts simultaneously. Manson suggests the creation of one or more artifacts.

From the business perspective, to create a product requires a lot of work, time and money.

To create several products when the market is not clear is unthinkable. It represents a big risk and a possible waste of resources. Therefore, those methods that propose the creation of several artifacts at once have been discarded.

This decision is in line with CDM, which proposes the replacement of assumptions by real facts before proceeding to the construction of a single artifact. Thereby reducing waste and following the lean methodology.

3. CDM emphasizes the contact with possible customers and “getting out of the building” to gather facts. In the context of DSR methodologies, this contact with customers is called interaction and was introduced by Le Moigne when he stated that “interaction would enable the real construction of knowledge and not simple observation of a given reality.”

(Le Moigne, 1994)(Dresch, et al., 2015, p. 49)

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Table 3 Analysis of the DSR methods, including CDM. Source: (Dresch, et al., 2015) (p. 92) Edited by: Author.

(1,n) represents the number of artifacts. P means Pivot.

Authors Main steps of the method

Problem definition

Literature review or search for existing theories

Suggestion for possible solutions

Development (1, n)

Evaluation (1, n)

Decision about the best

solution (P)

Reflection and learning

Communication of results

(Bunge, 1980) X X X (1) X (1)

(Takeda, et al., 1990) X X X (n) X (n) X

(Eekels & Roozenburg, 1991)

X X X (n) X (n) X (P)

(Nunamaker, et al., 1991) X X X (1) X (1)

(Walls, et al., 1992) X X X X X

(van Aken, et al., 2012) X X X (1) X (1) X

(Vaishnavi & Kuechler, 2011)

X X X (1) X (1) X (P)

(Cole, et al., 2005) X X X X

(Manson, 2006) X X X (1-n) X (1-n) X

(Peffers, 2007) X X X (1) X (1) (P) X

(Gregor & Jones, 2007) X X X X X

(Baskerville, et al., 2009) X X X (1) X (1) (P)

(Alturki, et al., 2011) X X X X (1) X (1) X

Customer Development Model (Blank)

X X X (1) X (1) (P)

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4. The first DS method explicitly considering interaction is Cole. It states that artifacts may

“require the interaction between the researcher and the members of an organization in which the artifact will be constructed. Therefore, the use of elements of action research can contribute to the success of the research and intervention in the organization.” (Dresch, et al., 2015, p. 82)

5. Pivoting can be found in DSR methods in two manners:

o As a loop that forms part of the method.

o As a repetition of the whole method.

The second is rather a generalization that could be applied to all the methods.

Table 3 displays this fact in the column Decision about the best solution. Some of the methods have been market with a (P) denoting that the author of such method explicitly declared the possibility of pivoting. The methods identified by the author are: Eekels and Roozemburg (Eekels & Roozenburg, 1991), Vaishnavi and Kuechler (Vaishnavi & Kuechler, 2011), Peffers (Peffers, 2007), Baskerville (Baskerville, et al., 2009).

iii. Preliminary decision

Among the methods that are considered suitable for the present study are: Bunge (Bunge, 1980), Nunamaker et al. (Nunamaker, et al., 1991), Cole (Cole, et al., 2005), Peffers (Peffers, 2007) and Alturki (Alturki, et al., 2011).

Table 4 exhibits the advantages and disadvantages that have been identified for each methodology. No disadvantages have been found for the methods proposed by Nunamaker and Peffers.

iv. Final decision

Table 4 indicated that there are two methods that are considered as the most-suitable for this project. These are: Nunamaker et al. (Nunamaker, et al., 1991) and Peffers (Peffers, 2007).

Peffers was selected as the DSR methodology for this project mainly because it is easy pairable with CDM.

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Table 4 Advantages and disadvantages of the selected methodologies. Source: Author

Methodology Advantages Disadvantages

Bunge - It’s the most fundamental DSRM.

- Simplicity

There are other more robust methods.

Nunamaker et al. - Introduced DS in the area of IS.

- Includes the formation of theories in the development of systems; which is similar to the creation of hypotheses in CDM.

-

Cole It’s the first one to explicitly mention interaction.

- Does not consider “lab tests”, only real tests.

- Intervention is already the second step, which forces the researcher to implement the artifact in the organization.

Peffers - Created specifically for IS projects.

- Easy pairable with CDM.

-

Alturki It’s the most complete of all methods Extremely complex

2.3 Scope of the methodologies

It is important to delimit the scope to which the methodologies will be used for the creation of the directory.

Blank’s Customer Development includes a 4-step process for the creation of a full-fledged company. However, the development of this project comprehends only the creation of the directory and the possibility to create a business from it. This possibility is intended to be ratified through the methodology. Therefore, only the first step of the methodology will be considered. That is: Customer Discovery.

As for DSR is concerned, the whole methodology will be considered as it is entirely related to the creation of a new artifact; that is, the directory.

2.4 Customer Discovery Breakdown

Customer Discovery (Figure 2) comprehends 4 phases:

1. State your hypotheses. Draw Business Model Canvas.

2. Test Problem Hypotheses

3. Test the solution (product concept) 4. Verify or Pivot

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The sub-steps included in each of these 4 phases are illustrated in Figure 3.

2.4.1 State your hypotheses. Draw business model canvas.

“Phase 1 deconstructs the founder’s vision into the nine parts of the business model canvas.”

(Blank & Dorf, 2012, p. 67) For each element of the BMC, a brief is written. This brief captures the hypotheses embodied in the founder’s vision. “These hypotheses are the assumptions about your product, customers, pricing, demand, market, and competition.” (Blank, 2006, p. 32) In this step, it is important not only to write the briefs, but also the list of experiments or tests that the entrepreneur needs to conduct to prove or disprove the hypotheses. (Blank & Dorf, 2012, p. 67)

Figure 3 displays all the sub-steps involved in this phase. A step for each element of the business model canvas is included. The purpose is to clearly define how the business will work and portray this vision in the BMC. The final output of this step is a BMC depicting the founder’s vision of the business.

2.4.2 Test problem hypotheses.

What makes CDM unique is that it considers the BMC not as a static element of the business plan; but rather as a live, dynamic element that can change through time. The BMC developed in phase one is considered as a series of “guesses”. However, in order to make the business run, the founder needs to validate these guesses, and that is the main purpose of this phase.

Figure 2 Overview of the Customer Discovery Process. Source: (Blank, 2006, p. 32)

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26 In Blank’s words:

“In addition to using the business model canvas as a static snapshot of the business at a single moment, frozen in time, Customer Development uses the canvas as a “scorecard” to track progress in searching for a business model.” (Blank & Dorf, 2012, p. 65)

“Once a week update the canvas to reflect any pivots or iterations, highlighting in red the changes from the last week.” (Blank & Dorf, 2012, p. 65)

To do this and know what needs to be changed, Blank suggests “getting out of the building”

and contacting customers directly.

Tests are designed in the first step of this phase. These tests are run against customers in an attempt to validate (or refute) the hypotheses written in the previous phase. Findings from customer contact provide enough insights to better understand: the problem that customers are facing, who the customers are, how a day in their life looks like and what is the current situation of the market.

According to the official CDM, described by Blank, this step should also comprehend the development of a Low-fi MVP and its testing. These steps have been removed in favor of a single MVP Test, which will be included in the next point.

2.4.3 Test the solution.

All the knowledge collected in the previous phase has to serve to update the BMC. If the hypotheses were confirmed, then the team can continue. Otherwise, they must pivot and go back to hypotheses statement.

After the hypotheses are corroborated, then the team can continue developing an MVP and testing it directly with the customers.

Please note that this step has been adapted. The original process required the creation of a Hi- Fi MVP; which has been replaced for a more general creation of an MVP. Also, the last step:

The creation of a 1^st advisory board has been disregarded.

2.4.4 Pivot or proceed

The last step of the customer discovery process consists in the evaluation of the lessons learned and making decisions on whether to continue or make changes and go back to step one. Blank articulates three questions:

1. Have we found a product/market fit?

2. Who are our customers and how do we reach them?

3. Can we make money and grow the company? (Blank & Dorf, 2012, p. 258)

The most-general question that the team should answer is: Is this business worth doing?

(Blank & Dorf, 2012, p. 258) If the team can answer in the positive, they are ready to move on to Customer Validation.

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27 1) State your hypotheses

2) Test the problem

3) Test the Solution

4) Pivot or Proceed

Figure 3 Customer discovery process, step by step. Source: (Blank & Dorf, 2012, p. 52) Edited by: Author.

Market Size

Proposition^Value

^Customers^(Who) ^Channels

Market Type

Relationships^Customer

Key Resources

^Partners

^{Revenue /}^Pricing

Design Tests Customer

Contacts Problem

Understanding Customer

Understanding Market Knowledge

Update Business Model

and Team

MVP Test Test Solution with customer

Update Business model

again

Verify: Product / Market fit

Verify: Customers and how to reach

them

Verify: Can we

make money? Pivot or proceed

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2.5 Peffers’ DSRM breakdown

Peffers’ DSRM starts with the identification of the problem. During this step, the researcher creates answers to the questions: (1) What is the problem? (2) How important is to solve this problem? To answer these, the researcher must investigate the current state of the problem.

(Peffers, 2007, pp. 52, 55)

Afterwards, the researcher defines objectives for a solution; which can be either qualitative or quantitative. For this step, the researcher should investigate current solutions and measure their efficacy in solving the problem. The desired state of the system should be considered when defining the objectives. (Peffers, 2007, p. 55)

Step 3 consists in the design and development of an artifact that complies with the objectives stated in the previous step. This artifact can be everything from a construct, model, method or an instantiation. “This activity includes determining the artifact’s desired functionality and its architecture and then creating the actual artifact.” (Peffers, 2007, p. 55) The design of the artifact should imprint the desired functionality.

After having developed an artifact, the next step is to demonstrate its functionality and its effectiveness in solving the problem. This can be done either through simulation (in laboratory experiments) or through intervention in a real-life scenario. For the present project, only simulation tests are considered relevant.

The next step consists in making an evaluation of the performance of the artifact. In simple terms, this step answers to the question: How well does the artifact solve the problem? Does it comply with the set objectives?

Figure 4 Research method proposed by Peffers et al. Source: (Dresch, et al., 2015, p. 84)

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Appropriate metrics should be applied. For instance: “objective quantitative performance measures such as budgets or items produced, the results of satisfaction surveys, client feedback, or simulations. It could include quantiﬁable measures of system performance, such as response time or availability.” (Peffers, 2007, p. 56)

The last step is the need for communication; in which scholars publish the results obtained with the artifact; as well as the problem, its importance, the novelties involved in the design and the effectiveness achieved in solving the problem. For the creation of the directory, the present document will be considered as the mean of communicating the results.

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3 Practical part – Designing the services directory

3.1 Pairing Blank’s CDM with Peffers’ DSRM

Blank’s CDM and Peffer’s DSRM share a lot of similarities. In fact, all the steps included in Peffers are also included in CDM. Therefore, CDM can also be considered as a DSRM whose artifact to be created is the business model. In the same line of thought, Peffers can be considered as a subset of CDM; which focuses solely on finding a problem/solution fit, not taking into account whether a profitable business can be built from the solution.

Figure 5 Problem/solution, product/market fit. Source: Author

Figure 6 displays the conversion between both methodologies and the order in which they will be worked in the present project. The author attempted to respect the order originally presented by Peffers and Blank. There is; however, one exception to this order:

The question How important is the problem? is addressed directly in the first step in Peffers;

whereas Blank addresses this question in phase 2, step 3 Problem Understanding. This is because Peffers is a problem-centered methodology and CDM can be considered as an objective-centered methodology, that departs from the founder’s vision instead of starting from the problem.

In the present project, Peffers’ first step will be preserved and will be the first step of the whole research. CDM’s Problem Understanding will be used to corroborate the author’s initial observations.

Peffers’ definition of objectives is limited to the functionalities of the directory; whereas Blank’s CDM comprises not only the functionalities of the directory; but also, everything around it to make it a profitable business. Therefore, the output of Peffers’ methodology is but a subset of the output obtained with CDM.

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Peffers does not consider any pivoting or testing the hypotheses. It only proposes pivoting as a repetition of the whole methodology. Therefore, CDM’s phase 2 Test the Problem does not have an equivalent in Peffers’ DSRM.

Steps 3 and 4 of Peffer’s methodology are; as much as this document is concerned, equivalent to CDM’s steps 3.2 and 3.3, respectively. Namely, Peffers’ step 3 Design and development is considered equivalent to CDM’s step 3.2 MVP Test and Peffers’ step 4 Demonstration is covered by CDM step 3.3 Test solution with the customer.

Evaluation is a rather a complex step; which is represented in CDM by step 3.4 Update BMC Again. Also, the whole phase 4 of CDM can be considered as part of the evaluation process:

Proceed or pivot.

It is important to note; however, that CDM comprehends not only a problem-solution fit; but also a product-market fit, as it was represented in Figure 5. It might be the case where a solution to the problem is found; but it is not reasonable to create a business from it. In this scenario, it would be wise for the founders to decide not to proceed with the business or pivot.

However, as long as Peffers is concerned, the artifact might have been successful in solving the problem in the expected way. Thus, a successful artifact in Peffers does not necessarily represent a successful artifact in CDM.

3.2 Step 1. Problem identification

As was stated in the chapter Peffers’ DSRM breakdown, the aim of this step is to answer two questions:

a. What is the problem?

b. How important is to solve it?

3.2.1 What is the Problem?

The identification of the problem started with the author’s observations about his own and his friends’ life. He observed that it was very hard for him to find products from his country of origin: El Salvador. Some of these products were virtually inexistent. Also, despite having 35 compatriots (Czech Statistical Office, 2019 a, p. 3) in Czechia, the community was quite dispersed. They didn’t know each other, and their ties were; at best, very loose.

Regarding services, the author didn’t experience much problems as he had the support from the Czech government from the beginning. However, it was very different for some of his friends.

The author observed how all his friends from Latin America had problems finding products from their country of origin and most of his friends had problems finding services. The problem was exacerbated by the fact that some of the author’s friends didn’t speak English very well and they had only a basic knowledge of the Czech language.

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32 Figure 6 Peffers' DSRM and Blank's CDM equivalences. Source: Author.

This pairing will be used in the present document to design the services directory and its business model.

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From time to time the author saw how his friends looked for different services: from dentists to lawyers, that could speak Spanish. They usually asked for contacts through Facebook groups and; eventually, found someone. This process; though, could remain unresolved for a couple of weeks before finding someone suitable.

One day, the author received a call from one his friends. A girl from Venezuela that came here as Au-pair and decided to stay. Her knowledge of English was OK; but she didn’t speak Czech at all. She called asking if the author could help her find a doctor that could speak Spanish. She was already very sick, with high fever, cough and bedridden. Her situation was bad and she needed immediate treatment.

The author started looking for a doctor. He contacted his friends to check whether they knew of any; but it took some time before they answered. He decided to look for it in Google; without results. Then he remembered about Facebook groups. He found out that asking about doctors was a recurrent question in these groups. After a cumbersome process of scrolling through posts and reading unrelated, irrelevant comments, he found a couple of contacts from doctors that were supposed to speak Spanish. However, most of these contacts were outdated, leading to unanswered phone calls. After about 4 exhausting hours of asking people, googling, scrolling in Facebook groups and getting missed calls, a suitable doctor was found in a website published in the Czech language.

This significant incident made the author realize the importance of creating a repository or a directory of the services offered in Spanish in the CR.

Problem Statement

The problem can be articulated as follows:

The process of finding services (or products) targeting Spanish speakers in the Czech Republic is difficult.

This problem is caused by:

There’s no centralized services directory for Spanish Speakers in the Czech Republic.

3.2.2 How important is to solve it?

Initial observations led the author to think that this problem is of medium importance. This initial assessment is supported by the following observations:

✓ In most of the cases, people can get by without getting the contacts or they can wait a couple of weeks, before finding someone that provides the services they need.

✓ Most of the times people solve the problem through a third person, for instance: a friend, the landlord, an institution, among others.

✓ Although they would like to have them, people can live without the products from their country of origin.

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✓ Just in few cases, the need of getting the contact is urgent, as it was the case with the author’s friend.

3.3 Step 2. Stating the hypotheses and defining objectives

The present section has 3 sub-sections:

First, a general objective for the creation of the services directory is articulated. This objective is line with Peffers definition of objectives. Second, business objectives are expressed through the business model canvas. Each element of the BMC represents an objective and together conform the founder’s vision of the company. Last, an overview of the current solutions is given; as well as the problems they present. This is; again, part of Peffers’ DSRM.

3.3.1 General Objective

The general objective of the project can be articulated as follows:

Design an online services directory for the SS in the Czech Republic, in order to expedite the process of looking for services.

A specific quantitative objective is to obtain a degree of acceptance of at least 80/100 for the proposed artifact.

3.3.2 Business objectives. BMC creation.

According to CDM, the first step in the creation of the directory is setting the hypotheses¹. These hypotheses are derived either from observations or from the vision of how the business should work. These observations and vision are stated in the business model canvas. The BMC v1.0 for the services directory is displayed in Figure 7. A brief explanation of each element is presented below.

a. Customer Segments There are two types of users:

a) The seekers, who are the users looking for services.

b) The providers, who are the professionals that offer (provide) services for SS.

b. Value Proposition

The added value of the project depends on the customer segment. Each segment has its own benefit:

1 Hypothesis, in the context of this document, should be understood in the same sense as it is used by Blank in “The Startup Owner’s Manual”. It should be understood as a guess, an assumption and not in the scientific meaning of the word.

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✓ For the seekers; the users looking for services, the main advantage is the shortening of the time spent looking, which is achieved thanks to the centralization of contacts.

Also, being an online platform, the search of the services will be available uninterruptedly, at any time the user needs it.

✓ For the providers, the main benefit is to reach their target audience and gain more customers. Providers have the chance to promote their services through the platform and gain online presence.

✓ The whole SS community is benefited by strengthening the ties among its members

c. Key Partners

Key Partners for the directory are:

a) Institutions that work with foreigners. For instance, NGOs that work for the integration of foreigners in the Czech Republic.

b) Institutions or companies founded by SS or where usually a great number of SS work.

Some potential partners that were identified are: Latin-american or Spanish restaurants (“Las Adelitas”, “Las arepas de Lyna”, “La Casa Blů”, etc), “Dům zahraniční spolupráce”, “Instituto Cervantes en Praga”, “Poradna pro integrace cizinců”. Latin- american embassies and the Spanish embassy, etc.

d. Key Activities

There are 4 most-important activities identified by the author. These are:

✓ Creation of the database of professionals and companies working in the Czech Republic.

✓ Continuous maintenance of the database.

✓ Formation of partnerships.

✓ Development of the artifact.

The creation of the database is -probably- the most important point thanks to its close connection with the intended added value of the project: “look for everything in a single place”. For this activity, there are some relevant points to consider:

✓ GDPR. Each and every person should consent sharing their personal data. They should also consent the publication of these data in the directory.

✓ The directory should be launched with an already robust number of services, so that both user segments can see the benefit of having the platform. The estimated number of professionals that should be enlisted at launch time is 80.

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The author has also identified the need to keep this DB up to date. Therefore, a continuous maintenance of the DB is needed, to validate whether the contacts of the professionals are still valid.

The formation of partnerships is considered an essential part of marketing. The intention of the directory is not to be propagated predominantly by paid advertisements. On the contrary, the directory should be promoted mostly by organic sources e.g.: events, word of mouth, etc.

The last key activity consists in the development of the artifact. Digital means have been chosen; specifically a website and a mobile app. This is in accordance with the channels, specified in (g).

e. Key Resources

There have been identified three key resources. These are: the artifact (directory), the DB and GPDR consent.

Once again, the DB is considered the most important resource that the directory can have.

Intrinsically related to the DB is the GDPR consent. As it was stated in the previous point, each and every professional listed in the directory must consent with sharing their info and publicizing it into the directory. This fact; however, provides a competitive advantage. It would be hard for any other competitor to get the consent of all the professionals, making the creation of the directory a task difficult to replicate.

The artifact itself is another key resource. According to the founder’s vision, the artifact will have a digital nature and will be presented in the form of a website and a mobile app. Under this assumption, the code becomes a key resource for the project. Only the website will be considered as part of the MVP.

f. Customer Relationships

The directory will be offered as a free-to-use platform where both kinds of users can get the benefits for free. Seekers will be able to look for services for free and service providers will have the option to promote their services without paying. This is intrinsically connected with the revenue streams.

Free trials will be offered to encourage providers to acquire a paid subscription.

Incentives will be given for the first providers that enroll in the system. These incentives might be in the form of a temporal paid subscription. Also, providers will be encouraged to refer other providers to join the directory.

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37 Figure 7 Business Model Canvas v 1.0. Source: Author.

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38 g. Channels

The channels for the distribution of the value are fundamentally online: The website and the mobile app. Only the web interface is considered as part of the MVP due to (a) its simplicity from a technical standpoint and (b) its affordability from an economical perspective.

The prototype presented in the present document will cover only the MVP for the web platform.

h. Cost Structure

The most-costly item in the cost structure is the cost to develop the web platform and the mobile app as it requires programmers and testers, which are among the highest paid professions in the Czech Republic in 2019. (Czech Statistical Office, 2019 c) Monthly costs include staff, maintenance and marketing.

i. Revenue streams

Two sources of revenue are being considered for the portal: Subscriptions and Affiliate marketing. A possible source of income is Google AdSense. However, this source will be disregarded due to the difficulty to estimate how much money it can generate.

✓ Subscriptions: Paid subscriptions will be offered to service providers. The benefits a service provider gets from acquiring a paid subscription are stated in Table 5.

✓ Affiliate marketing: For those providers who want to gain more visibility, affiliate marketing will allow them to publicize directly in the homepage of the directory.

✓ Google AdSense. It is difficult to guess how much money this source of revenue can generate.

Overall, the revenue streams should cover all the costs; even if the platform is free to use for both kinds of users.

3.3.3 Market Size

Market size comprehends the first step outlined by Blank in CDM and illustrated in Figure 3.

In simple words, the target market for the directory are all the Spanish speakers that inhabit the Czech Republic. Furthermore, the following groups are considered as potential clients:

✓ Italian speakers living in Czechia

✓ Portuguese speakers living in Czechia

✓ Tourists that speak Spanish, Italian or Portuguese and come to the Czech Republic

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These groups have been considered as potential clients because they are closely connected to our target market in terms of language and culture. For the purpose of the present document, only the main target market will be studied.

Analysis

The analysis of the market is divided in several phases, responsible for finding:

a) Total Addressable Market (TAM) b) Served Available Market (SAM) c) Target Market (TM)

a) Total Addressable Market (TAM)

The TAM is calculated using the statistics provided by the Ministry of the Interior of the CR. For this purpose, file 1 was processed.

File 1 - Cizinci 3. zemí se zaevidovaným povoleným pobytem na území České republiky a cizinci zemí EU + Islandu, Norska, Švýcarska a Lichtenštejnska se zaevidovaným pobytem na území České republiky k 31. 12. 2018 (Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic, 2019)

File 1 reveals the number of foreigners with registered stay in the Czech Republic to 31/12/2018 by nationality. The file was processed to identify all those nationalities whose official language is Spanish. In total 19 countries were identified and a total of 4867 foreigners that come from such countries. Among them: 3309 have temporal residence and 1558 have permanent residence.

It is estimated that 100% of them speak Spanish. Therefore:

TAM = 4867 b) Served Available Market (SAM)

The served available market is the share of the whole market, which can be reached by all the companies that offer a specific product (group of products) or service. The directory is focused on Spanish speakers; however, it is logical to assume that some of them would not use it due to a variety of reasons, such as:

✓ They don’t have access to internet.

✓ They don’t know how to use the internet or a computer (they are of an advanced age)

✓ They don’t want to use the directory. They don’t need it.

Thus, SAM is calculated as 90% of the TAM. That is: 4867 * 0.9 = 4380 SAM = 4380

Note: 90% is an optimistic estimate.

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Figure 8 Market size. The numbers represent the amount of SS. Source: Author.

c) Target Market (TM)

The target market covers all those users that would effectively use the directory. These are calculated as a percentage of the SAM. Again, an optimistic 90% is given.

TM = 4380 * 0.9 = 3942

Summary

Figure 8 summarizes the market size in a pyramidal form.

Market Trend

It is important to know not only the size of the market; but also its trend. In this section, two questions were investigated:

1. Trend of the market: Is it a growing market?

2. How fast is this market changing?

For this investigation, another file was examined and processed.

File 2. - R07 Foreigners holding residence for 12+ months by citizenship in the years 2008–

2018 (as at 31 December) (Czech Statistical Office, 2019 b)

The aforementioned file contains the number of foreigners in the Czech Republic from 2008 to 2018. The steps used to process the file were:

1. All the countries that have Spanish as native (official) language were identified.

2. Countries; whose native language is other than Spanish and do not consider Spanish as their official language, were deleted from the list.

3. The yearly total of foreigners for the selected countries was calculated.

4. The fluctuation of the number from year to year was calculated as a percentage.

TAM = 4867

SAM = 4380

TM = 3942

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Figure 9 Trend in the number of registered SS in the CR. Source: (Czech Statistical Office, 2019 b).

Edited by Author.

Figure 9 displays the trend in the total of SS in the CR. From this graph it can be easily seen that the trend is growing. The number of SS grew from 1806 registered foreigners in 2008 to 4867 in 2018. These numbers represent a growth of 269% in the term of 10 years.

10 years is; however, a very long period. Therefore, the growth was calculated as an average for a term of 10 years and for the last 5 years.

Average growth in 10 years = 10.47%

Average growth during the last 5 years = 12.01%

3.3.4 Value Proposition

Blank states 3 important areas that should be covered in this step. These are: Product Vision, product features and MVP. (Blank & Dorf, 2012, p. 76)

Product Vision: The product is an online directory of products and services offered for Spanish speakers in the Czech Republic. The directory will enable its users to look for services, professionals and products in their location. In the same manner, service providers will be able to offer their services through the platform.

Product features and MVP: The project aims to be created as a web platform, in which its users will be able to:

i. Register. Create an account.

ii. Look for services or products offered for SS in the CR.

iii. Create advertisements for the promotion of services or products.

iv. Manage advertisements and monitor their efficacy.

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Hlavní práce70759_rege00.pdf, 3.3 MB Stáhnout

University of Economics, Prague

Faculty of Informatics and Statistics

ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF AN ONLINE SERVICES DIRECTORY FOR THE SPANISH SPEAKING

COMMUNITY IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC MASTER´S THESIS

Declaration

Acknowledgement

Abstract

Keywords

Table of Contents

List of Figures

List of tables

List of abbreviations

Introduction

Objectives

1 Starting point

Problem consideration

Proposed Solution

2 Methodology

2.1 Customer Development

2.2 Design Science Research

2.3 Scope of the methodologies

2.4 Customer Discovery Breakdown

Design Tests Customer

Contacts Problem

Understanding Customer

Understanding Market Knowledge

Update Business Model

and Team

MVP Test Test Solution with customer

Update Business model

again

Verify: Product / Market fit

Verify: Customers and how to reach

them

Verify: Can we

make money? Pivot or proceed

2.5 Peffers’ DSRM breakdown

3 Practical part – Designing the services directory

3.1 Pairing Blank’s CDM with Peffers’ DSRM

3.2 Step 1. Problem identification

3.3 Step 2. Stating the hypotheses and defining objectives

TAM = 4867

SAM = 4380

TM = 3942

Number of registered SS in the CR