3 ms·

Ask HN: Review my product, Peers

1 points by tolarewaju3 13y ago

I'd like to ask for some feedback on the 1st version of a product my team and I worked on http://www.peersapp.com It's a friendly planner for college students. We are trying to build a network around work and social plans students have everyday. - What would make you never use this app daily? - What do you currently use to plan (work, social) ?

moneyrich4 13y ago
thats looking very nice sir, having done something similar i know it its a lot harder to do that it looks. very good job. a point on these is traction may build really slow and you might have to hang in there for many months, but try to keep at it!
- tolarewaju3 13y ago
  Thanks. We're really committed to serving students in some form. We will definitely hang in there!
kkowalczyk 13y ago
It's impressive that you've build a good looking app. Good job on that. Unfortunately, the app seems to fall into "build it but they won't come" category i.e. lacking product-market fit. I used to be a student and I don't remember planning activities being a significant problem. Another problem is that you have no monetization strategy. If your app is not free, no-one will use it and it obviously requires massive adoption to be useful. Even if it gets massive adoption, then what? Will you put ads in the app? How will you keep getting new users to offset the loss from people finishing college? You have a chicken-egg problem when it comes to adoption, built-in 4-year churn and very few options to make money. It might be a useful app but a terrible business.
- tolarewaju3 13y ago
  Oh, we definitely lack product-market fit. We just launched a couple of days ago. Also, we have made a point not to advertise. We'd like to see how a small subset of students use it so we can adapt. Our monetization strategy comes from following students to where they go to spend money and providing them those services cheaper. The first being books. If you're able to get a large number of students on one platform, I believe they'll show you what services they need. But adoption comes before all of this And you're right, part of what we are trying to figure out with a v1.0 MVP is exactly how the problem/solution fit the market. Thanks so much for your feedback
pedalpete 13y ago
I was looking at doing something similar a while ago, but, at the same time, (and this is weird to say after my last comment), I don't understand what you're doing. Ok, it's a shared calendar, that I get (or I think that's what it is). A demo video would be great, but going from your screenshots (in order) 1) Ok, nice clean calendar, it shows me my events. Did I create all of those? Was I invited to? Who else is going? Have I RSVP'd? I'm a bit lost here. I'm sure the colored dots mean something, but I don't know what. Now, I'd know if I created an event, but how about showing me if anybody else is going. That would probably be nice. 2) I think this is a peer's profile. Cool that it shows how many friends we have in common, and that we have friends, classes and events in common. WOAH, classes?? What if I'm not in school? Is a class just a repeated event? Why is that different from another type of event. This could use some work. Can I send a message directly to my peer? 3)Comments or Feed?? I thought it was comments about a single event at first, but now I'm thinking it's a feed, because I think it is referring to multiple classes. Again, classes is limiting your market, but ignoring that, you could do with some visual layout to show that the comment belongs to x event better. Look at Facebook's nested comments. The last two screens are OK, again, Class or Work may not make sense to everybody, the less decisions a person needs to make the better. On the last page "Invite friends", am I inviting them to an event or to use the app? Hope the feedback helps. Off to a good start, keep up the good work.
- tolarewaju3 13y ago
  1) It shows all events and assignments. So the assignments you follow and events you accept are here. Colored dots are color coded by class. If anyone else is attending the event it'll show their name below the event. 2) Classes are more like groups. You can't send a message to a peer yet. But thats absolutely something we are doing for the next iteration. Communication is key, I think. 3) Feed w/ comments. If you post to a class, it'll show up here. Comments for events/assignments are coming. Ahh, ok. Class is just adding a class like you would in a homework planner. Work was "supposed" to be either a test or assignment. Invite friends is an invite to the app. Perhaps this can be changed to "Share Peers with a friend" This is probably the best feedback we have received. We wanted to make things as simple as possible so that we can see how people use it and follow to what students use most. I agree that a demo video would be good. And, alot of the things you pointed out are obviously not clear. Every iteration I think we get better and better at this. So v1.0.3 will hopefully make even more sense. I can't thank you enough for the feedback. We're trying to pull negative feedback from people and make a product that serves students. THANKS AGAIN!

1 points by tolarewaju3 13y ago

moneyrich4 13y ago

thats looking very nice sir, having done something similar i know it its a lot harder to do that it looks. very good job. a point on these is traction may build really slow and you might have to hang in there for many months, but try to keep at it!

tolarewaju3 13y ago
Thanks. We're really committed to serving students in some form. We will definitely hang in there!

kkowalczyk 13y ago

It's impressive that you've build a good looking app. Good job on that. Unfortunately, the app seems to fall into "build it but they won't come" category i.e. lacking product-market fit. I used to be a student and I don't remember planning activities being a significant problem. Another problem is that you have no monetization strategy. If your app is not free, no-one will use it and it obviously requires massive adoption to be useful. Even if it gets massive adoption, then what? Will you put ads in the app? How will you keep getting new users to offset the loss from people finishing college? You have a chicken-egg problem when it comes to adoption, built-in 4-year churn and very few options to make money. It might be a useful app but a terrible business.

tolarewaju3 13y ago
Oh, we definitely lack product-market fit. We just launched a couple of days ago. Also, we have made a point not to advertise. We'd like to see how a small subset of students use it so we can adapt. Our monetization strategy comes from following students to where they go to spend money and providing them those services cheaper. The first being books. If you're able to get a large number of students on one platform, I believe they'll show you what services they need. But adoption comes before all of this And you're right, part of what we are trying to figure out with a v1.0 MVP is exactly how the problem/solution fit the market. Thanks so much for your feedback

pedalpete 13y ago

I was looking at doing something similar a while ago, but, at the same time, (and this is weird to say after my last comment), I don't understand what you're doing. Ok, it's a shared calendar, that I get (or I think that's what it is). A demo video would be great, but going from your screenshots (in order) 1) Ok, nice clean calendar, it shows me my events. Did I create all of those? Was I invited to? Who else is going? Have I RSVP'd? I'm a bit lost here. I'm sure the colored dots mean something, but I don't know what. Now, I'd know if I created an event, but how about showing me if anybody else is going. That would probably be nice. 2) I think this is a peer's profile. Cool that it shows how many friends we have in common, and that we have friends, classes and events in common. WOAH, classes?? What if I'm not in school? Is a class just a repeated event? Why is that different from another type of event. This could use some work. Can I send a message directly to my peer? 3)Comments or Feed?? I thought it was comments about a single event at first, but now I'm thinking it's a feed, because I think it is referring to multiple classes. Again, classes is limiting your market, but ignoring that, you could do with some visual layout to show that the comment belongs to x event better. Look at Facebook's nested comments. The last two screens are OK, again, Class or Work may not make sense to everybody, the less decisions a person needs to make the better. On the last page "Invite friends", am I inviting them to an event or to use the app? Hope the feedback helps. Off to a good start, keep up the good work.

tolarewaju3 13y ago
1) It shows all events and assignments. So the assignments you follow and events you accept are here. Colored dots are color coded by class. If anyone else is attending the event it'll show their name below the event. 2) Classes are more like groups. You can't send a message to a peer yet. But thats absolutely something we are doing for the next iteration. Communication is key, I think. 3) Feed w/ comments. If you post to a class, it'll show up here. Comments for events/assignments are coming. Ahh, ok. Class is just adding a class like you would in a homework planner. Work was "supposed" to be either a test or assignment. Invite friends is an invite to the app. Perhaps this can be changed to "Share Peers with a friend" This is probably the best feedback we have received. We wanted to make things as simple as possible so that we can see how people use it and follow to what students use most. I agree that a demo video would be good. And, alot of the things you pointed out are obviously not clear. Every iteration I think we get better and better at this. So v1.0.3 will hopefully make even more sense. I can't thank you enough for the feedback. We're trying to pull negative feedback from people and make a product that serves students. THANKS AGAIN!