After discovering the competitive service, I got lost. I had a dilemma of either pursuing the original Nail Art Recipes idea or the new Nail Party Planner concept. In confusion, I presented my struggle in class, hoping to get some feedback on which direction I should explore. Here are notes copied from the feedback index card.

  • I like your social networking idea (Nail Party Planner), because it’s based on the mobile technology.
  • Regarding your recipe idea, it seems that you’re trying to bridge professional nail artists and amateur nail art lovers. How are you going to control the quality of photos and postings made? (Very good point about the quality maintenance issue… I didn’t really figure it out. Thanks, EJ!)
  • For recipes idea, try including stores from which customers can purchase products.
  • For recipes idea, try creating conversations around it. In “Instructables,” some people have Instructables site as their default home page. People buy “Processing” T-shirts. Why? I think it is more about having open source community that people are creating together. For example, Processing has forums, which create conversations around the topic. They also have thought leaders like Casey, Shiffman, etc. So maybe you can find “nail artists” to control the community.  Those thought leaders can keep updating and posting stuff.  Like Processing.org, you can have an exhibition of your work (nail art). Make your site open, make user forums, and find good people who can drive other people into the site. Giving the feeling of “exclusiveness” is another important factor. Users should feel that their work are chosen. (Mustafa gave me a very detailed suggestion for the Nail Art Recipes concept. And I really like the idea of creating a open community with thought leaders as driving force behind it. Thank you so much!)
  • Recipes: business model, visibility, first adopters (Leejay made a valid point about getting the first adopter. How am I going to market my service?)
  • Focus on social networking and face-to-face interactions (thanks, Cameron!)
    • Find the sweet spot
    • Face-to-face seems important to you. Do it!
    • Combine face-to-face with online user interactions
    • Business owners can be your first adopters
  • Network: how can people see nail art from other social network settings?
  • How do you make it more social – web forums?
  • The balance of face-to-face and real-time online communications
  • You can build social networking thing later.
  • Nail artists vs. nail lovers.
  • Get some teens for user testing, if possible. (Thank you, Gloria. Yes, I will have to find some focus groups…)