Week 5 - solutions that exist in the market

This week, our team embarked on an important task: identifying competitors and exploring existing market solutions. We quickly realized that the issue of solutions is far more complex than we initially thought, encompassing multiple perspectives. Through a brainstorming session, we identified several market solutions—some short-term, some long-term—that address the various viewpoints we researched. To better understand these solutions, we plotted them on an X-axis and Y-axis: from "planned purchase" to "spontaneous purchase" and from "personal" to "universal."

In parallel, we met with Noa and Hadas to refine our application idea. Our goal was to ensure that our app could offer users significant and valuable benefits. During this meeting, we concluded that our initial focus on coupon association was relatively marginal and lacked substantial value, leading us to rethink our direction. We then convened a team meeting to explore new ideas. A recurring theme from both our interviews and literature review was "reliability." We discovered that influencers place high importance on being perceived as trustworthy by their followers, avoiding an overly commercialized appearance that could harm their ability to sell through social networks.

As we delved deeper into the concept of credibility in the influencer world and social networks, we recognized the significant impact it has on user behavior. Our research led us to explore the realms of dark patterns and cognitive biases prevalent in social networks, which often drive users to make decisions misaligned with their true desires. This insight prompted us to shift our focus towards helping people make more rational purchases on social networks. Our primary goal is to create an app that enhances well-being by safeguarding users' true interests and desires.

Understanding that credibility is crucial, we conducted an in-depth investigation, reviewing studies in social psychology and marketing. We found that cognitive biases often lead consumers to make irrational decisions, which are detrimental to their well-being. This issue is highly relevant today, as nearly everyone is susceptible to the traps set by social networks. Our mission is to restore control to consumers, allowing them to make informed decisions aligned with their genuine needs.

The decision to pivot our idea came just a day before our class presentations, requiring us to spend an entire day revamping our presentation and concept. Leveraging our extensive literature review, we successfully identified the problem we wanted to address and began the process of devising a solution.