+ To: Victoria Wu Director of Operations and BD, WeChat U.S.A Presenter: Pawan Gupta, MIT Sloan MBA Student Date: 4/29/2014
Aug 10, 2015
+
To: Victoria Wu Director of Operations and BD, WeChat U.S.A
Presenter: Pawan Gupta, MIT Sloan MBA Student Date: 4/29/2014
+Problem ?
1. Is there anything you can think of to improve the product?
2. How would you promote WeChat Subscription for events and conferences at institutions such as MIT, Harvard etc.?
+Preliminary Conclusions for
Problem 1
Recommendations for improving attendees experience:
Active promotions from the organizers are needed to reach to prospective attendees and engage them more before and during the conference
Users are not seeing clear value of the product. A substantial value in product needs to be defined for attendees
There are plenty of opportunities to innovate and engage the audiences more such as engagement of audiences to the speakers, new methods of conference updates to the prospective audience
It is recommended to quickly tap into the opportunity and expand to multiple conferences There are opportunities as well as
challenges. Once these things are fixed, WeChat could have a unique and clear
value proposition to attendees
+Preliminary Conclusions for
Problem 1 (contd..)
Recommendations for reaching Conference Organizers:
The promotions to ticket sales ratio (15% from social media) from CBS China Conference can go a long way in convincing other conference organizers to try the product, and thus acquire more users
Publishing QR Code of Conferences on WeChat account can be a good plan forward
Spamming from users seems not be an issue from CBS organizers but keeping a watch on other organizers would be important
BOOM ! The satisfaction of CBS organizers is a huge success, but it is important to keep the flow going for
competitive advantage
+Approach followed
n Talked to mentors to plan how to solve the problem: n Rishi Khaitan: Former Googler, Sloan alum and Product expert on building step
by step process n Recalled my talk with Tamara Mendelsohn, VP of Marketing, Eventbrite on their
focus areas: They are not very much focused on mobile as a top priority for next 1-2 years
n Attended CBS China Business Conference on April 25 to understand WeChat CBS China Conference subscription product
n Interviewed users (3)
n Interviewed non-users (7)
n Interviewed organizers (2)
n Interviewed focused groups (1)
n Defined preliminary insights on the product, and promotional strategies to promote the product in educational institutions
+Approach followed
Questions for organizers:
1. Will you use WeChat CBS subscription again? If yes, then why?
2. Did you like or dislike any feature?
3. How did you promote the event?
4. How would you promote the event in future?
5. How many prospective attendees or ticket buyers you interacted with?
6. What were the main questions that people asked?
7. Any feedback for the product?
+Approach followed
Questions for attendees:
1. Do you know about WeChat CBS subscription?
2. Did you like or dislike any feature?
3. What are your expectations from the conference?
4. Will you use WeChat CBS subscription again? If yes, then why?
5. Any feedback for the product?
+Background of Interviews
n Total interviews taken: 12-14
n Some attendees didn’t agree for capturing their picture of video. Some preferred to be anonymous while there was a case that asked for money.
+Recorded Video Interviews
Case Study 1: Non-user
Interviewee: Computer Science Student, Columbia University
Concerns:
n This is the first time I have seen this subscription
n I want to limit the number of subscriptions under WeChat App
n After the conference, I no longer need CBS subscription product. This is the reason I didn’t subscribe to it
n I get information from website, so I don’t need this app
Active promotions needed
Clear value proposition of WeChat needs to be
defined
+Recorded Video Interviews
Case Study 1: Non-user
Interviewee: Computer Science Student, Columbia University
Possibilities:
n But when you show me this subscription, I noticed it is very unique from others
n You can raise questions, talk to them (organizers). It’s like a real person who is running this
n Other subscription are just announcements but this is cool. May be in next conference, I will consider downloading this
Unique feature for competitive advantage
+Recorded Video Interviews
Case Study 2: Non-user
Interviewee: Anonymous
Concerns:
n I have never heard of CBS official account before
n Question: The QR code was mentioned in the site. Why you haven’t heard of it?
n Answer: With hesitation, May be just I haven’t heard of it
Active promotions needed for attendees
+Recorded Video Interviews
Case Study 2: Non-user
Interviewee: Anonymous
Possibilities:
After my friend introduced it to me, it is quite helpful and practical to me because I can choose update information from conference
The feature is helpful. Time to tap on opportunity and quickly expand to other
conferences
+Recorded Video Interviews
Case Study 3: Focused groups non-users
Interviewees: NYU Students
Concerns:
I’ve never used this app
This is a 1-day event, so didn’t subscribe to this account
Value proposition of CBS Conference
subscription not clearly defined to the user
Product needs more promotional
effects
+
Interviewees: NYU Students
Recorded Video Interviews Case Study 3: Focused groups non-users
Possibilities:
It would be great opportunity for students and attendees to associate with the speakers
I want to be involved with speakers, that is the reason I came for this conference
Hint for new product feature
+Recorded Video Interviews Case Study 4: User and Organizer
Interviewee: Jiayi Hao, Co-Chair of Conference
Concerns:
In terms of users, whether it was annoying or spamming, that is difficult to say. As an organizer, we feel there was a natural interest in the conference
Overall, there were not much concerns from his side
This can be very tough to do, but WeChat did an
exceedingly good job in satisfying the organizers
+Recorded Video Interviews Case Study 4: User and Organizer
Interviewee: Jiayi Hao, Co-Chair of Conference
Possibilities:
WeChat has exploded in terms of usage and influence: It’s incredible how much it has grown in one year. Last year not many people were using it
We have around mid 600’s in ticket sales. It’s very hard to guess, but I were to guess, 15% of ticket sales may be from social media
Network effects
Now, WeChat has a number (promotions to ticket sales ratio) to
convince other conference organizers
+Anonymous Quotes from
Attendees
"I would have used this had I heard this before”
More promotions are needed to actively reach
out to attendees
+Anonymous Quotes from
Attendees
I already know the panel from website so I didn't download the subscription
My department sent me details on the event, so I don't require the WeChat subscription
Although I have now seen you telling me about this product, but I can't give feedback. I have not used it. Please do not insist me again and again"
People are not seeing clear value of the product. WeChat needs to find out potential features that can serve the needs of users.
Educating the users should be done
+Quotes from Organizers
It was hard to publish the WeChat CBS account. It was resolved last night
We did not promote WeChat CBS subscription actively because we were unsure of users who registered WeChat in China would be able to access the account. It could be 5% or more, but I am not sure of numbers
For promotions in future, we can publish the QR code on WeChat account as well
Q: Will you use WeChat CBS again? Yes, Definitely, will use WeChat again
We had around 100 followers on WeChat, and the questions were not that many. The audience could see the updates.
- Angelo Wang, Technology team, CBS China Conference
It is a big news ! There is a lot of potential in the product
Recommendation on product feature
Seems, this is fixed now. Good
for product
+Quotes from Organizers
"We didn't get spammed from users. I think, as an organizer, it is important to respond to users”
- Jiayi Hao, Co-Chair, CBS China Business Conference
This is a great news but different conference
organizers can have different viewpoints. They may not
like to be spammed
+Action Plans
n Step 1 (Administration support): Career Development Office at MIT Sloan
n Step 2 (Administration support): Student Life Office that heads student clubs at MIT Sloan
n Step 3 (Clubs support): One to one conversations with club Presidents/ Event organizers of Asian Clubs
n Step 4 (Collection of data): Survey data collection from Club presidents and addressing their concerns
n Step 5 (Testing): Prototyping with events in coming semesters, and quickly evolving the product
n Step 6 (Deploying): Taking it from prototyping to fully deploying the product for conferences, experimenting with other student activities and reaching out to wider MIT community/schools
ON
GO
ING
U
PCO
MIN
G
+Action Plans
n Step 1 (Administration support and updates from meetings with Career Development Office at MIT Sloan):
No Content (Content removed due to confidentiality)
ONGOING
+Action Plans
n Step 2 (Administration support and updates from meetings with Student Life Office at MIT Sloan):
No Content (Content removed due to confidentiality)
ONGOING
+Action Plans
n Step 3 (Clubs support): : More one-to-one interactions with Club Co-Presidents for Asia Business Club, South-East Asian Society, Greater China Club, South Asia Business Club, Tech Club, and Entrepreneurship and Innovation Club: All are very good friends
Tracie Chen, Co-President for Greater China Club. She is working with me on Snapchat academic work
N a k u l J a m a d a g n i , C o -President for Tech Club. He is a close friend as belong to same country India
ONGOING
+ Key Questions from MIT Sloan Tech Club
Interview with Nakul Jamadagni, Co-President for MIT Sloan Tech Club
Concerns raised:
1. What is the exact value proposition of the product?
2. Will we reach the right audience through this product?
3. As an organizer, I don’t want to be spammed by attendees or prospective ticket buyers?
4. Do you have data on promotion on WeChat to ticket sales ratio?
5. Is WeChat open for sponsoring?
Very good questions to give competitive advantage to WeChat and entry to MIT
ecosystem
ONGOING
+
Interview with Nakul Jamadagni, Co-President for MIT Sloan Tech Club
Possibilities:
If you can address these questions, I will be able to try WeChat to our events
This is a great help, as your club being one of the most active clubs at
Sloan
ONGOING Key Questions from
MIT Sloan Tech Club
+Action Plans
From left: Min Baek, Keiichi Onishi, Sherry Sirikunakorn: Co-Presidents for Asian Business Club. Keiichi and I studied together at same cohort (small size group), while Min and Sherry have been very good friends. Sherry is also a Club leader at South-East Asian Society
ONGOING
Step 3 (Clubs support): contd..
+Action Plans
Step 3 (Clubs support): contd..
From Left: Atul Garg, and Suyog Shukla (Vice-Presidents for South Asia Business Club): They are very close friends from India
From Left: Raghav Goel, and Siddhartha Pandey (Co-Chairs for MIT India
Conference): They are very close friends from India
ONGOING
+Action Plans
Step 3 (Clubs support): contd..
From Left: Meltem Demirors, Vanessa Mary Anderson, and Pawan Gupta (Co-Presidents for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Club). We are one of the biggest and most influential clubs on campus, and currently host maximum number of events at Sloan
ONGOING
+Action Plans
n Step 4 (Collection of data): Survey Data Collection from Club Presidents across different MIT clubs
n Draft put up for your advice: Please click here to access the link
* Survey Link removed due to confidentiality
UPCOMING
+Action Plans
n Step 6 (Deploying): Reaching out to Association of Student Activities at MIT, and wider MIT community (with more engagements)
This is where it gets to wider MIT community across undergraduate and graduate schools
UPCOMING