The Yo Mentor App
The Yo Mentor App is a web and mobile phone based app that avails career guidance and mentors services to youth and young entrepreneurs overriding geographical, human interaction and access challenges. With this app, the user will be able to search for expert mentors, consultants, careers, education information and other professionals and be matched with one at a place near him/her for a meeting. The team was very enthusiastic about signing up a number of mentors to support the ever growing number of young unemployed graduates. In their pitch, the team did not clearly state what other offerings they would propose to the mentors with exception of being uploaded onto their platform. Their estimations on users and mentors were also not supported by statistics as well as the fields of mentorship they would be concentrating on. Nonetheless, the team was supported to understand that User Research (Needfinding) was a critical stage that they had skipped yet it informs and guides the development of a solution that is customer centric. Additionally, the team was also advised to develop a prototype of their application. The prototype helps the user to understand and experience the solution before a lot of [unnecessary] resources can be injected in the development process. They were encouraged to spend some more time with the innovation department at RAN to get the guidance they need.
Ebbzworld App
Ebbzworld App is a mobile based platform that enables the user to easily locate and book items that they intend to purchase online. The application has a two-way signup platform for both the user (customer) and the merchant (shop-keeper). The shopkeeper uploads the items that are up for sale with a short profile of their business whereas the customer will have a separate account where they upload their information and shopping requirements.
How it functions; when the user is out shopping, he/she makes a search for a category or item they intend to buy and the application easily generates all the registered shopkeepers around the user that have that particular item (category). It makes use of geo-mapping which brings all the service providers closer to the buyer. The system also notifies the merchant the customer’s existence with-in their area. Among the feedback received from the RAN team, the innovators were asked to localize the statistics of projected customers and shopkeepers so as to keep within a feasible range especially as they plan to pilot the app. They were challenged to think about other potential uses for the application for example veterinary officers using the app to scan through a specific location for sick animals (that will have been registered by farm owners).
They were also asked to state the cost of developing and piloting the application, the monetization strategy and how they will get customers to sign up on the platform. The teams will revert next month.
