In Pursuit of the iDream Opportunities and challenges in the children's app market Dr. Carla Fisher No Crusts Interactive
May 09, 2015
In Pursuit of the iDream
Opportunities and challenges in the children's
app market
Dr. Carla FisherNo Crusts Interactive
A Gamer’s Guide to Parenting
1. Take shelter and wait it out
8. Ambush
http://www.slideshare.net/thulme/ideo-workshop-for-techstars
The Challenges• Differentiation• Discovery• Money Money Money
How will you differentiate
your product?
The Problem: Everyone Does
the Obvious
Numbers Colors
Shapes
Puzzles
MatchingLetters
Animals
Coloring Memory
Opportunities?
Do one thing really, really,
really, really, really well.
Indispensably well.
Oh No Fractions!
Dinorama
DragonBox Algebra
Jack and the Beanstalk by
Nosy Crow
Augment common activities with
technology
Big Bird’s Words
Little Zebra Shopper
Folidify
Storybots
Solve a problem
Have you ever played a YouTube video for your kid only to end up with a list of "recommended" videos which aren't really appropriate? This happens all the time with me and my daughter, so we created FirstVideo.
FirstVideo
Monster Meter
Add a new spin to a familiar and
common mechanic
Tiny Terrorsat Christmas
Chicken Cha Cha Cha
Make a great game mechanic
kid friendly
Point and Click Adventures
Myst
Mystery Lighthouse
Mystery Math
Museum
Endless Runners
Canabalt
Stride & Prejudice
Hidden Object Games
Where’s Waldo? In Hollywood
Little Things Forever
Look and Find Elmo
Be stupidly difficult to play*
* But not so ridiculously difficult that you drive users away
Super Hexagon
Top 100 in 88 countries
Flappy Bird (iOS)
#1 in 116 countries
Hardest Game Ever 2
#1 in 35 countriesTop 100 in 111
Be humorous or irreverent
Hipster’s ABC
My Little Alphabutts
3 Simple* Steps to Differentiation1. Research the market exhaustively– Play the top 200 games in your target categories– Use an RSS feed to review new content– Keyword searches (on all platforms) and ask around
2. Identify the trends, gaps, and opportunities (educational, theme, mechanics, etc)
3. Produce amazing product* Sarcasm
How will people
find your product?
“Apple will feature us!”
How do parents find educational media?Come across it while browsing
50%
Recommendations from teacher
40%
Suggestions from friends or family
35%
Child comes across it 20%
Child hears about it from friend
20%
Results from Learning at Home Study (Cooney Center)
Parents’ Media Sources • Parent watches or plays the content first 56%• Recommendations from friends 34%• Reputation of the company or network 33%• Child finds it his/herself 25%• Website reviews 13%• Newspaper or magazine reviews 5%
Source: Parenting in the Age of Digital Technology
Word of mouth matters.
Make content that can be easily shared on mobile devices
Source: http://blog.sharethis.com/
iPhone vs iPad Content Sharing
Make things people want to share
Humans share items that cause emotion, especially positive feelings.
Interest Amusement Surprise
emotionwisegroup.org
Timely + Funny
My Little Alphabutts
3 Simple* Steps to Discovery1. Work your connections at the app markets
and press2. Make sure you have sharable, mobile friendly
materials3. Focus on messaging that triggers emotions,
particularly amusement, interest, or surprise* More sarcasm
How will you make
money?
How do you define success?
Success Metrics• Revenue• Downloads• Daily/monthly
average users• Time on task• Email sign ups
• User Ratings• Press stories• Facebook Likes• License requests• Tweets
Success metrics need timelines and plenty of room to
grow
Once the game launches, the real work begins
Give yourself plenty of runway
Measure metrics methodically
Set goals and hold yourself to them
Sell 10% more apps each week.
Aspire to growth hacker
Become a Growth Hacker• Pick 1 or 2 metrics• Live or die by those metrics• Set a goal for each week• Experiment to raise the metrics. Abandon those that don’t
work. Iterate on those that do.
Growth hackers increase a metric through methodical and measurable tests.
A/B Tests
Pick this one! Pick this one!
Which one is more successful?
A/B Tests
Please rate us! Please rate us!
Which one is more successful?
No thanks
Rate now
No thanks
Rate 5 Stars
A/B Testing1.Create two options, nearly
identical, but with one key difference.
2.Release both to users. 3.Measure which one is
more successful. 4. Iterate.
Winner!
Smashing Magazine: Ultimate Guide to A/B Testing
QuickSprout: Definitive Guide to Growth Hacking
3 Simple* Steps to Defining and Achieving Success
1. Clearly define a small number of metrics2. Set appropriate goals and timelines3. Growth hack your way to success with
measurable experiments
* Still sarcasm
The Challenges• Differentiation• Discovery• Money Money Money • Success Metrics
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