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      VJ
      • The Evolution of MEET

        The sections below outline the evolution of MEET - an ephemeral messaging app to plan & coordinate meeting up. I would mock up designs in Sketch and link them together in Flinto (a prototyping tool) to get feedback from roughly 300 college kids across 3 colleges over 9 iterations to finally get to the MEET app!

        Context

        In January 2015, I joined my flatmate Ryan Valles, an Entrepreneur in Residence (EiR) at Accel Partners as a Director on his stealth messaging startup Limitless Venture Holdings, Inc. We started with a blank canvas and wanted to build something in the messaging space given that messaging apps had started getting to a billion+ daily active users.

        Target Market

        We decided to settle on teens & college kids as the ideal target market given their likelihood of adopting new apps. All very large social apps in the last couple of decades started first by teens and college kids adopting them first before becoming mainstream.

        Problem Statement

        We started with a blank canvas but with the overarching idea of building something within the messaging space. After conducting multiple interviews with our target market of college kids; we identified planning & meeting up as a problem to solve for. WhatsApp was the most popular messaging app amongst teens & college kids at the time. In addition to P2P (Peer-To-Peer) chats, WhatsApp Groups were being used extensively when it came to a large number of users. WhatsApp groups were often used to plan and coordinate meeting up and once the meet-up had concluded, these groups got very spammy and participants weren't sure whether to exit the group or continue to be a part of it for future meetups. In addition, WhatsApp Groups weren't quite built to facilitate the planning & coordination of meetups.

        MEET

        After conducting deep user research with 300 college kids across the 3 colleges of Jyoti Nivas, Mount Carmel College (MCC), and Christ University and over 9 iterations (please see the screens I designed to test the concept below) - we settled on building MEET - an ephemeral messaging app to plan & co-ordinate meeting up & events across common categories detailed below.

      • The Elements of MEET

        1

        Discover & Plan

        The first part of the app was about discovering a Meet across multiple categories, such as:

        1. Meals

        2. Drinks

        3. Movies

        4. Deals

        5. Custom

        2

        Chat & Co-ordinate

        Once a Meet had been set up, participants could chat about the Meet and see the status of everyone's RSVPs.

         

        Attendees could even book cabs (via integration with Uber) to the Meet.

        3

        Location Tracking & ETA

        15 minutes prior to the Meet, all confirmed attendees' tentative location and the time to the destination would be visible to all other attendees eliminating the need to check this constantly.

      • Element 1: Discover & Plan

        This was the first element of MEET that we built based that allowed us to integrate with other third-party apps to populate our home feed with pre-existing Meets. Users could pick Meets across multiple categories (Meals, Drinks, Movies & Deals) to start off with or could create their own Custom Meet by clicking on the + button.

        broken image

        1. Meet Home Screen

        Users could create a Meet in:

        1. Meals

        2. Drinks

        3. Movies

        4. Deals

        5. Custom (by clicking the + button)

        broken image

        2. Meals Screen

        On location preferences, Meal would show Meal options with:

        i. Cuisine

        ii. Rating

        iii. Price for Two

        iv. Ability to Call the Venue

        ...clicking a Meal Card would open up the Menu

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        3. Movie Screen

        On Movie theatre preferences, Movie would show Movie options with:

        i. Genre

        ii. Rating

        ...clicking a Movie card would open up the Trailer

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        4. Deals Screen

        Based on location preferences, Deals would show Deals options with:

        i. Name of Venue

        ii. Category

        iii. Rating

        iv. Price (and discount)

        v. Ability to Call the Venue

        ...clicking a Deals Card would open up the Full Deal Screen

        broken image

        5. Drinks Screen

        Based on location preferences, Drinks would show Drinks options with:

        i. Type of Outlet

        ii. Rating

        iii. Price for Two

        iv. Ability to Call the Venue

        ...clicking a Drinks Card would open up the Menu

        broken image

        6. Custom Meet

        The + button would create a Custom Meet.

        Users could then:

        i. Set a Title

        ii. Invite Friends

        iii. Set Time & Date

        iv. Set Location

        broken image

        7. Invite Friends

        Once users had selected a Meet or created a Custom Meet, users were shown a list of contacts from their phonebook / social media platforms they could invite to the Meet

        broken image

        8. Select Date & Time

        For certain type of Meets, users had the ability to define the time of the Meet.

      • Element 2: Chat & Co-ordinate

        This was the second part that we tested where we gave all attendees the ability to chat back & forth regarding the specific Meet up.

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      • Element 3: Location Tracking & ETA

        This was the third and final leg of the app that got the most traction in our early testing. Because all attendees knew who the other attendees were, they were okay sharing their exact location; but if they didn't want to; they could even choose to hide their exact location and only let others know their Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) to the Meet.

        broken image

        Uber Integration

        With one click, users could book an Uber from their location to their Meet

        broken image

        Location Tracking & ETA

        Based on individual preferences, users could let fellow attendees know their exact location OR their Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) or both.

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