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READ.WRITE.REPEAT.
DISCOVERY
Research
The idea for the app was based on conversations with many book lovers and aspiring writers. A lot of research was also done by scraping through popular Facebook groups for writers wherein they share their frustrations and desires.
Persona
User 1- The Reader
A who seeks to find out how an author draws from his/ her experience while writing and how it reflects in his/ her work
User 2- The Writer
An avid book lover interested in reading all genres of books and trying to find the best authors to read from a huge pile of books out there.
Pain Points
User 1- The Reader
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With the rise in self-publishing, it is hard to determine the quality of books out there. The quality of the book depends on a lot of factors, the major being the credibility of the author. Most book reviews give a short summary of the author but it doesn’t paint the whole picture. The author may have political affiliations which make him biased while writing. The reader has a right to know about these before he/she decides to read a book.
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He may wish to go from reading to writing but has no insight into the thought process of his favorite authors.
User 2- The Writer
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Not sure how and where to draw inspiration from- wants to emulate the writing process of successful authors.
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Wishes to collaborate/ confide in other writers.
DEFINITION
Product Vision
Every voracious reader dreams of writing his/her own book someday. Today, writers don’t need to get accepted by a publishing house; they can just self-publish their book. But with so much of information out there, it gets difficult to differentiate signal from noise.
2 main themes around which the app will revolve-
1. Every writer is a voracious reader and takes inspiration from other authors.
2. Writing can get lonely. A community of writers one can reach out to at any time is exactly what one needs.
Solutions
Solution | Applicable for | Business Value |
|---|---|---|
Providing in-depth information about an author’s childhood, education, affiliation as well as controversies. | User 1, User 2 | By giving readers access to this information at one place, we ensure that this will be the one-stop platform where readers will come to choose the right authors to read. They can verify the credibility of the author and make sure they don’t get cheated by words on a paper. We will cultivate a loyal base of users who are serious about reading. |
A community feature where people can start their own threads and discuss on various topics related to reading & writing. | User 1, User 2 | A community is the best way to engage users and help grow the platform with network effects. |
An exclusive space for writers where they can exchange ideas on writing or find beta readers. | User 2 | An exclusive space will ensure we get serious writers only and establish ourselves as a dedicated platform to aid writers during the entire writing process. |
Data about genres, character demographics, locations used, most used tropes, etc | User 2 | Providing these analytics would differentiate us from other platforms and give unique insights into the world of successful writers. |
Prioritization
Solution 1
Solution 2
Solution 3
Solution 4
Value for User 1- The Reader
The reader will be well aware of the kind of biases that the author harbors and would keep that in mind while reading their work.
Readers can discuss about their favorite authors, books, genres and share what what they feel.
May encourage some readers to take up writing. Can act as beta readers for other writers.
Readers thinking of taking up writing may find these insight useful in getting a clear direction
Value for User 2- The Writer
Effort Required for Development
The reader will be well aware of the kind of biases that the author harbors and would keep that in mind while reading their work.
Information is available but scattered across the internet. It will need to be organized in one place.
Writers can start a thread on anything they want and gain valuable knowledge from the engagement generated.
An in-app community is a tried and tested feature and we don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Once it is up and running, users will themselves use and grow the community.
Writers will be able to meet like-minded people and get suggestions on multiple topics.
We need to set up a few cards and topics under which discussions should take place. Moderation will be needed to ensure high quality.
Writers will get an idea about what readers like, what works and can learn to target set of readers.
Needs a lot of data (continuously improving) to generate insights and analytics.
We will go with solutions 1 and 2 for MVP 1 considering the tradeoff between value and development efforts. We will also include solution 3 since an exclusive space for writers will aid the writers as well as serve as a catalyst for avid readers to take up writing. This will, in turn grow our user base.
Roadmap
We can put the final solution in our product backlog and can take it up in future phases.
DESIGN
This is the launch screen which the user sees after installing the app and launching it for the first time.
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