Who were the intended stakeholders? (Pre-test assumptions)

After testing for a year with minimal results (not able to acquire paying customers), the Voltset team had to reconsider its business strategy. The team assumption was that the makers and the tinkerers were going to be excited about Voltset, and these kind of person had the highest tolerance for innovative products (they were mostly innovators themselves). The Voltset team should go to the place where the makers hangout the most. After some search, the team was able to find information about registration for Maker Faire and signed up for the World Maker Faire 2013 thinking that was the biggest Maker Faire annually and hoping to find first paying

stakeholders.

4.3.4 How was the test setup?

In short, the end goal was to present the mini Voltset and mega-Voltset to generate pre-orders.

So strictly only paying customers were count as a validated data. Since the Voltset team was not confident about whether if the team would get any order or not, there were plenty of trackers trying to make this trip count. Both online and offline.

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After a year of work, the Voltset team were able to put together the following for the validation process:

● An application that worked with the mini-Voltset to demonstrate how the module could work with smartphone. The application shown connectivity from the module, could read live data and display the correct value on the phone screen. A couple of expansion features were also included into the application to test customer feedback:

○ Smart box: Voltset application would compare live reading with its data base to provide useful information. For instance, a common AA battery with 1.45volt would show 1.45 V in the application and also a green illustration of the battery to show user that despite that the battery clams to have a 1.5V normal voltage, the battery was still good to be used.

○ Calculator box: build in calculator to do simple calculation. This was not functional and was illustrated with a picture in the application. The picture popped out at the proper location when the feature was selected.

○ Life charting: This was to test the need for graphing live data. When user engage this function by tapping onto the icon, an illustration of the setup was presented.

○ Excel logging: This is to test out logging ability. When user engage this function, a pre- defined Excel process flow would be called out. User would be given instruction to perform three different tests. After the test, user could display the test result in a newly created excel sheet and view it from the phone.

○ Hacker box: This section was created for users to create or download project specific add-on. The page contained three hyperlinks, ‘Upload add-on’,

‘Download add-on’, and ‘Download SDK’. The page was constructed as a clickable website format. Links could lead to the project landing page instead to download pages (which did not exist)

● An introduction game was designed to encourage hands on experience with the module.

A couple of mixed batteries and a power extension cord were placed on the table. The users were supposed to use Voltset to measure the battery voltage, through the information window in the application, the user got to know if the battery had enough

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power or not. Time used would be recorded to show which user was the fastest and can get a prize.

Figure 4-7Booth planning in Taipei before bringing it to Now York. Booth table design and the actual set up. A “play free win prize” game to the left. Two models in the middle for demonstration. A couple old multimeter on the table for visitors to

quickly understand what we are doing here.. Source: From this study.

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Figure 4-8Booth design blueprint. The table is cut into two sections. Both were hands on activity to observe user behavior. The background board is designed to express the product concept as quick as possible. Source: From this study.

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● Two types of handout were designed and created.

○ General hand out (see Figure 4-9 General survey hand out.)

○ Paying customer handout (see Figure 4-11)

● Trackers: Multiple trackers were created such as QR code, and special RUL link. These trackers are to be used to analyze which link were used at what place for what purpose to help gathering information about what kind of people are interested in our offering. Survey: an online Google Forms survey was created to

LEFT: QR Code with tracker to analyze which method was most effective for scanning.

RIGHT: QR code leads to a website, connecting to Facebook page and pre-order page.

The goal is to put entry barrier as low as possible for interested individual to sign up and to share unbiased information that will later be analyzed to understand interest group’s background.

Priority are as followed:

1. Get user contact info 2. Ask to buy pre-order.

3. Give us insights about how they could connect the concept in the most valuable way possible. This was an important feature to ensure the experience and knowledge from the current team will not become the limiting factor of the project.

This was not to be passed out but only for people to come grab by themselves.

Each handout is numbered for tracking.

Figure 4-10 QR code with tracker for quick website entry and behavior study. Source: this study (2013 Sep.) Figure 4-9 General survey hand out. Source: From this study.

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understand potential users. Questions include self-identification, most used mobile platform, ideal Voltset features.

Figure 4-11 Pre-order form. Paying customer survey. This would be given when someone paid for a pre-order at the faire as a receipt. Source: From this study.

4.3.5 How was the test carried out?

The faire was a two day event starting Saturday September 21th and ends on the 22th. The show ground was open to exhibitor days before to set up

the demonstration. Author suggests that people were very friendly and happy to greet each other.

Several person came to talk to the Voltset team about the project after looking at the team setting up the booth. After talking (was more like pitching) to a person named Andrew, he expressed his

interest in the project and asked if the Voltset team had any good pictures he could use. He turned out to be an author/editor(Terranova, 2013) from the

Figure 4-12 Top left is Voltset mini. (Functional model) Bottom right is Mega Voltset (non-functioning model) Source: From this study.

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Make Magazine. The Voltset team promised to deliver him with some better photos of the project later that night. The next morning the project Voltset were featured on the Make Magazine’s front page. The Voltset team saw many traffic coming from Andrew’s article into voltset.com

Voltset.com had some simple description, a live chat box directly to founder’s smartphone and a working payment system ready to take in orders. A copy of the website at that time was nowhere to be found but on the top of the purchasing page says something like “This is a beta project, meaning the product is not likely to work. It will require tweaking and comes with no guarantee.

Purchase at your own risk.” in bold and red highlight.

Endless stream of people rushed in just minutes after the gate was opened to the public. The Voltset team started with one person presenting, but since new visitors would come and start asking questions, it was required to have several person pitching and answering questions at the same time.

After a couple hours of constantly refining our presentation formation. Handouts were put on the two end of the long table for easy grabbing. Handouts were not to be passed out but to be

grabbed passively by visitors. Two person on each end of the table. A third person takes care of special needs such as passing writing equipment to person who are willing to sign up.

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Figure 4-14 Customer experience flow designed for Maker Faire 2013. Source: this study.

Figure 4-13 Actual flow of visitors. Higher frequency is presented with thicker line. Source: From this study.

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