NOV 6 - FEEDBACK SESSION

Todays lessen, all teams were given the opportunity to pitch their ideas to members of other project teams and receive feedback. It was also a good way to test, how well the story that we were telling explained the problem we were trying to solve, and if our suggested solution would be perceived as reasonable and viable.

After internal team discussions, some more research and the guided idea finding process within the lectures, our team was able to narrow down the possible solutions we wanted to focus on:

A service for travelers in a foreign environment, that gave them instant access to personalized and first hand local advice and would assist in situations were e.g. foreign language skills or local knowledge is needed. 

The pitch we gave was based on the following concept:

Do you travel a lot? Yes? Thats great, we do too. So in this case, you certainly know how big of a difference it makes, if you visit a place were a friend of yours is living. He or she will give you advice on what to or what not to do and will guide you to the interesting sites, restaurants, clubs and places that are not as touristy and expensive. Instead you are getting a much more authentic experience, are more relaxed because you don't have to spend hours on researching good locations and in case something happens, or if you get lost you always know who to turn to, right? Well...  this is something a lot of travelers highly appreciate - but most of them do not have. A lot of tourists in barcelona for example complain a lot, how they end up paying horrendous prices in touristy restaurants, how its difficult to find out what places are actually worth visiting and how they find them selves staying at places with only other tourists and not a single spanish person. Also, they might get in tricky situations if they have an emergency in some sort, because many things like police stations or hospitals work differently then in their home countries. With an additional language barrier it easily turns into a very stressful experience. This is the problem we want to solve! We want to provide tourists the information and assistance, they would usually get if they personally knew somebody in town. We want to be their Local Companion. 

The core assets for this kind of service is good knowledge of the local environment as well as language skills. But also a good understanding of customers interests to be able to make suggestions for places and activities that both locals and the visitor will enjoy. Also, the answers would have to be available the moment that questions arise and visitors would have to feel comfortable about asking these questions when needed. 

The service that we had in mind would consist of two parts: (1) a get to know meeting between a local guide and the visitor and (2) the possibility to contact the guide e.g. via phone or WhatsApp to ask for advice or assistance. Additional services could include a smartphone for rent, so the visitor does not have to worry about high telephone charges abroad. And the experience could be enhanced through providing an application that already includes some sort of recommendations but also facilitates the communication with the guide. Income would be generated directly from the customers through e.g. a one time charge. 

The main feedback we got was the following:

• the idea of the problem was understood in general but people did not immediately see its application or a personal need
• there were questions about the way of communication and e.g. privacy and security issues if the two parties would have to leave personal contact information
• it was pointed out that a good match of interests and personality between the local and the traveler was essential
• the biggest question seamed to be about the customers willingness to pay and if the on demand assistance was actually doable and helpful
• the additional value of a person that was continuously available by a simple call was doubted
• it was pointed out that scalability was very difficult because the current concept required staff at the actual location. 

These questions were all very legitimate and we started thinking about options how to adapt our idea in a way that the concept would be focussed more on the essential needs and allowed for more scalability.