Recently we participated in the Oberlin College LaunchU accelerator program where we were able to test out our model. We worked closely with a company called StoryBook to help them clarify and refine their idea. We took them through our process, working with them to develop their concept into something that people could see the immediate value behind. With our help, they secured $15,000 in funding!
We met the founders of Storybook while participating in LaunchU ourselves. We were excited to use our time at LaunchU to refine our focus, but more importantly, we wanted to work with the other participants in our cohort and add value to their projects.
Storybook’s idea was simple: social media is cluttered. You are bombarded by content from people you don’t really care about. Sharing and reliving memories amongst people you actually care about (instead of the releasing it to the masses for “likes” or “views”) is almost impossible. Wouldn’t it be great if there was an app that let you seamlessly take content you create, share it within an intimate group of people who value that content highly, and then be able to access that content in the future to relive the best parts of your memories?
It is easy to think that this idea seems a bit too similar to Facebook, Snapchat, or some other combination of social media apps. But we saw some real potential in what they were working with. So we gave them a simple proposition: let us try out our process on you, and see what we can come up with!
Stage 1: Define
Where does Storybook have an opportunity to generate real value? To answer this question, we applied the core principle of our framework: blow up the elements of the existing technologies to figure out exactly what they offer, and where there is room for a new product.
Facebook, GroupMe, and WhatsApp allow you to easily create groups, but seamlessly sharing content to those groups is not easy. Snapchat allows you to seamlessly share content, but sharing amongst a specific group of people is labor intensive. Facebook allows content to be posted, but isn’t meant to allow you to download content that others post for personal use later. Dropbox allows you to share access to high-quality content, but you still have to go through the labor-intensive process of selecting photos and uploading them.
Stage 2: Design
We worked with Storybook to identify three key pillars for their app: seamless group creation, painless ability to share content to these groups, and an interactive system to curate content to be stored and relived later.
Honing in on these features, we built some prototypes that would allow Storybook to visualize a simple user interface and create an app that really differentiated itself from the competition.
When you open the app, you are taken to a native camera screen, and when you take a picture, you can choose which group (or groups) to send it to. That picture is then immediately uploaded to a centralized location where it remains for up to 48 hours. During this process, group members curate content. Low-valued content disappears, and the best memories are stored forever!
Stage 3: Develop
To really make their app work, Storybook needed to develop a fun, interactive system to curate content. We suggested Storybook capitalize on the new trend of Tinderization and helped them develop a basic algorithm to decide which photos would be stored.
A swipe up gives the photo a like, a swipe down downloads the photo to your phone and gives it a like (in case there are some photos you really want that the group doesn’t), and a swipe left dismisses the photo.
Because content is being shared amongst an intimate group, you can trust that the people you share amongst won’t misuse the content you share. The final step was to develop a simple algorithm to serve as a base for deciding how many votes a photo needed to be stored. We collaborated with Storybook to develop the following algorithm:
A photo is stored as long as: number of likes > (number of group members)*(photos uploaded per group member)/average activity.
A photo will be uploaded if the number of likes > mean number of likes. Depending on how far away the median is from the mean, more or less than 50% of photos will be saved.
Stage 4: Deploy
Using our process, Storybook managed to focus in on their idea, and develop it further, and talk about it in a way that clearly conveyed their simple, elegant solution to this annoying problem. It was thrilling to see Storybook take the foundational framework we provided and run with it – developing it further on their own.
When they won the $15,000, we were ecstatic. Our process worked! And in this case, we were able to increase the value of their product by more than 15,000% 😉
Working with Storybook helped us crystallize our four tiered consulting process, and allowed us to take an enormous step forward in figuring out exactly what we could offer, and how we could go about offering it. Storybook’s case demonstrates exactly why we are so interested in partnering with incubators and accelerators.
Working with Storybook helped us crystallize our four tiered consulting process, and allowed us to take an enormous step forward in figuring out exactly what we could offer, and how we could go about offering it. Storybook’s case demonstrates exactly why we are so interested in partnering with incubators and accelerators.
Incubators and accelerators offer access to a wide variety of early stage startups with interesting ideas. However, as we so firmly believe: innovations and ideas do not succeed based on merit alone. By working with companies in the early stage of their innovation lifecycles, we can apply our methodologies for maximum impact. Our process works best when we can form a lasting partnership with a company and collaborate with them to adapt as we test and revise our assumptions. This period of adaption is a symbiotic one: as we help our client adjust, we also evolve our own practices and processes.
We’re excited to see where Storybook goes next, and help them realize the full potential of their innovation.