Waitaway Deck

its time to outsmart the lines

the problem

Americans spend 37 billion hours each year waiting in lines

the problem

2012 MIT study

the solution

Occupied time feels far shorter than unoccupied time

2012 MIT study

waitaway is a mobile application

for the urban communitydevoted to appreciating good fooddiscovering local business, and outsmarting the lines.

waitaway is a mobile application

for the urban communitydevoted to appreciating good fooddiscovering local business, and outsmarting the lines.

join us.

Key screens and features

No time to wait Patience is a virtue

Key screens and features

No time to wait Patience is a virtue

hrd coffeeshop small

foods

planning

method: I sent a survey out and got 50 responses and conducted interviews with 8 people

findings: Individuals expect dining out to be a pleasant experience in itself; lines are a huge cause of stress and consume an immense amount of time

opportunities identified: to disrupt this system, to make institutions more efficient and minimize waits

Affinity Diagrams

Background: Nikki works as a marketing manager at at a start up in San Francisco. She lives in an apartment with friends in the Marina and spends lots of time in the area. She is very active on social media and loves exploring the city. She often goes out to lunch with co-workers during the day, and out to dinner or drinks at night with friends. She rarely has a reservation unless she is going out for special occasions. She enjoys trying new types of cuisine and being “in the know” as far as the cool restaurants and bars. She uses a variety of social media platforms to share information with friends.

Key Characteristics• 24 years old• Lives in an apartment in the Marina• Disposable Income• Loves exploring the city

Habits• Eats at least one meal a day at a restaurant• Drinks coffee daily• Active on social media; twitter, facebook• Checks in on foursquare/uses Instagram• Spends lots of time with friends/groups

Motivations•Loves exploring the city•Unpredictable schedule- likes to try popular places•Busy and doesn’t like to waste time waiting •Likes to pick up coffee on her way to work•Can’t be late•Likes perks as far as free drinks

Nikki

Background: Thomas is in his mid 30s with a wife and two kids. He lives in Palo Alto with his family but commutes in to the city for work. He is an investment banker in the city and so has an unpredictable work week. He often meets friends, his wife, and sometimes the family in the city for dinner. They make reservations at restaurants on special occasions and when they want to try a new place, but they often don’t have time to cook and make last minute decisions to go out. Thomas and his wife are foodies and enjoy trying places recommended by friends. Doesn’t often engage with social media but uses Linkedin and Twitter. He is tech savvy.

Key Characteristics• 35 years old• Investment Banker• Disposable income• Two kids• Lives in Palo Alto

Habits• Eats dinners out• Commutes daily• Eats meals out with clients• Often can’t make reservations• Packed schedule daily• Uses Linkedin and twitter

Motivations• Has two kids and so can’t deal with long waits• Commutes in from Palo Alto for dinners in SF• Eats at a variety of places (kid-friendly, etc)• Foodie- likes to try good food• Likes to try recommendations from friends• Wants to stay up to date with social circles

Thomas

Method: I sketched out potential user scenarios to identify how the user would interact with Waitaway

1. a user going to lunch @ peak hour2. a user going to dinner without a reservation3. a user meeting friends at a bar 4. a user grabbing coffee in the morning

Core product experience: Waitaway eliminates the mystery around wait times enabling users to become more efficient through discovery of new places

Scenarios

First iteration: Hypothesis

Method: Tested 10 people with a pop app prototypeFindings: Users were confused by the menu and the report/check in optionsOpportunities Identified: After user testing I realized that many of the menu features would logically live within other features. As a result of user testing I moved the “check in” option to the individual restaurant pages, and I created an entire report menu on the home page.

No time to wait Patience is a virtue

Second iteration

Method: Findings: Opportunities Identified:

No time to wait Patience is a virtue

hrd coffeeshop small

foods

Second iteration

Method: Findings: Opportunities Identified:

High Fidelity Prototype

method: Tested the prototype on 10 individualsfindings: The monocle feature was very successful but the map feature can be better developedopportunities identified: This functions as a proof of concept but then I would like to expand the wait service to hospitals/security lines/etc

Link: https://www.flinto.com/p/fa9f47e4

Design Iteration

User

Heads to Darwin for

lunch

Discovers a huge line and

hops in

20 minutes later she

realizes she

Rushes back to the office

and wasted a lunch break

User is hungry and frustrated

Checks the wait at Darwin and its 45

mins

Looks up highly reviewed restaurants

in the area by wait time

Discovers Garaje that only has a 15 minute

wait

Heads there to pick up lunch

to go

The time the user is in Garaje is recorded as

“wait” time

The wait time is recorded and

posted

Is hungry and wants a Kale Salad

Checks Yelp and finds Darwin

The Future

Today

Restaurant users

Hostess reports wait manually for

parties 2/4/6

The app automatically

records the wait

Option to only report if the wait is < 30

Wait is updated

periodically

If reservations are available last minute

Its posted if OrderAhead or pick up options

are quicker

Restaurants acquire new customers!

Verified merchant account is

created

The Future

Competitive Analysis

Competitor Market Service Cost Features Type

Yelp Urban dwellers of all ages

Local search: Reviews all

merchants and is a forum TO review

Free•Local search•Crowdsourced•Vast amount of data•Recommendations

Indirect

Urbanspoon Younger demographic

See restaurant reviews and make

reservations at select restaurants

Free•Write reviews•Find restaurants•Reserve tables

Indirect

OpentableEveryone looking to reserve, majority of

restaurants are members

Allows users to make reservations online, penalizes

for missing reservations

Low cost for users, expensive for restaurants

• Reservations• Review restaurants• Incentive system to make reservation

Indirect

NowaitCurrently only in Philidelphia, only

for sit down restaurants

allows users to see waits at restaurants

and place themselves on a

waitlist

Free• Local search• Put yourself on waitlist ahead of being there

direct

Key Partners Key Activities Value propositions CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS

Customer Segments

Key Resources

COST STRUCTURE

CHANNELS

REVENUE STREAMS

RestaurantsIn the initial stages, we would rely on restaurants to post their wait times whether it be manual or automatic through their opentable system into a customized app

OpentableThis would allow cancelled reservations/no shows to appear on the application. Also, wait times could automatically be reported.

PeopleAs a crowdsourcing application, people would need to input data into the system. I am working on making this as seamless and easy as possible for the user.

YelpIt would be beneficial to be able to include yelp reviews on the app. User research showed that people look to yelp to assess restaurants.

1.Restaurants input data2.Users input data3.Users verify data

For the Individual1. People become more efficient2. People are happier3. Complete transparency4. Individuals gain points by contributing to the system

1. People going out for meals without a reservation2. People who want to grab coffee or a drink at a bar but are interested to know the wait3. Individuals going out for lunch with limited timeFor the Restaurant

1. Bring in business on slow days2. Encourages efficiency3. Complete transparency

For Yelp/Opentable1. Increases traffic to their site2. Help generate reviews for new/less reviewed institutions3. Reduces lost business due to cancelled Opentable reservations

1. iPhone app2. iPad app (restaurant)3. Users inputting data4. Technology in restaurants

1. Will assist local business2. Will increase customer satisfaction

•Cost of developing the application•PR (getting restaurants on board)•Getting people to generate content

• Boosting business at local restaurants• Advertisements

1.Customer satisfaction- no longer a mystery around wait time2.Discover new great restaurants3. Point system with rewards for participation

next stepsstreamline designpartnershipsbuild community