A Story of Product Development
By: Laine G
Tags: Domestic Violence, Homelessness, Startup, Product Development

Timing

That which has been labeled as “the homeless problem” is at an all time high with expected increases in growth as more millennials become disenfranchised.

“According to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Annual Homeless Assessment Report, as of 2018 there were around 553,000 homeless people in the United States on a given night, or 0.17% of the population.” -Wikipedia

Immigration and population growth have both slowed. The job market is starved for qualified candidates in more than one field. These factors appear to indicate that the time is ripe for new solutions.

Thanks to incentives to get phones and even smart phones to low income populations, more people are connected than ever, including those who are homeless. Timing could be ideal if new ideas could be combined with emerging tech and if that tech is mass produced efficiently enough that it can quickly be made easily accessible.

One of the current factors that might be cross currents or obstacles to the achievement of the goal are that many homeless people do not have phones, or if they did, those phones get stolen.

Competitive Landscape

Within the issue of homelessness, from my current knowledge base, many approaches have already been tried that have produced only limited success. Failing to approach these issues holistically has potential for massive amounts of wasted resources. Directing efforts and energy to only one part of the problem will not result in a whole solution. There are often multiple factors at play to be discovered.

I’ve been trying to formulate an idea of what this ghost product/app is going to be, but it has not yet materialized. In the meantime, I decided to research what apps are already available that might be accessible. I found what at first looked like a number of apps, most of which are locally focused, but upon closer examination discovered that almost half of the links led, not to apps but to webpages where it’s not necessarily clear how to get help. The few viable apps, with functionality available within the United States, I was able to find are:

Our Calling: Christian religion based. May not be a comfortable option for non-Christians in need.

Concrn: Limitted reach. Focus is on intervening in the stead of law enforcement.

WeShelter: Donation app that doesn’t address most of the issues homeless people face. Gamed approach. Possible funding source for homeless related projects.

Samaritan: My favorite of the potential competitors. They have a motto that says “You’re not Invisible” and have a springboard type platform that allows stories to be told and those who need help to be found.

There’s even a SF based app called “Shelter Space” that came out of AngelHacks “Tech4Good” hackathon in March of 2017. (May still be in development)

In my evaluation, overall, Samaritan is the strongest competitive factor.

According to lifehacker, “A running theme in the news coverage of these apps is that they’re underused, and the lack of reviews and ratings in the app store confirms it. (Many apps never even get past the institutional resistance and regulation.)”

Softonics.com also reiterates, saying “A quick look through the App Store or Google Play reveals a lack of reviews, and it seems that people are still reporting homeless activity to the police or trying to get in touch with over-extended city service departments.”

Social Factors

Some of the people who are on the front lines of these issues are law enforcement officers and social workers. Having apps that connect them to resources to help others is a vital work tool.

The social factors that work against solving the issue are of looming proportions, but not insurmountable One of those factors is that many hold opinions that people who are in a homeless situation want to be that way and are choosing to stay in that lifestyle. There is a concept that any effort to help these people is a waste of time. Many homeless people are struggling with issues of addiction and/or mental illness, in addition to not having a secure place to sleep.

Often, even if there is success in bettering their circumstances, there remain strong influences that draw them back. Part of the workload of addressing the issue is persuading a different perspective among society and the general populace. A skilled marketing professional with an adequate budget has no problem spinning things to suit the interests of the project.

What Do People Say?

The User Interview

To gather more information, and also to prove or disprove personal evaluations of social attitude, we went out onto the streets to survey random people who might be willing to answer a few questions. These reasons are why we do user interviews. It’s not possible to give the market a product it actually wants, without knowing what is wanted.

The key to effective interviewing is the abilty to formulate and ask questions without bias. That means that the questions asked cannot influence the interviewee to answer one way or another. The question set used was minimal by design. It contained one basic demographic question, two elimination questions, and three open ended questions that allowed the interviewees the opportunity to contribute ideas to the project if they so desired. It’s debatable whether or not one of my questions, about who should help, was leading. It did in a way assume an ideology that when in human being is in a miserable situation, and in need of help, that someone is responsible to help.… even if that only means that they are responsible for helping themselves. Speaking to strangers was challengingly in opposition to my childhood behavioral training, but I managed to find 4 out of 6 people who were willing to talk and be interviewed.

An interviewee selection strategy was employed to get as wide a cross-section as possible of opinions and ideas. I looked for people who appeared to be of different economic and age groups and ended up interviewing two black men, one born in the 80s, one in the 90s, and two white women, one born in the 70s and one in the 80s. My demographic question was about the decade they were born in. Two of the interviewees asked what I meant by decade, which I explained was like the 60’s, 80’s, etc. Both of the interviewees who were born in the 80s were homeless.

Another Tool of Product Development:

Mind Map

This diagram shows the different aspects of the issue that were shared during the user interviews. This experience of user interviewing led me to find deeper insights into the depth of the issue and to develop a more realistic idea of the types of help that are needed.

The Product Idea

By now I should have no issue with saying, this product/app-to-be will help the homeless by giving them better access to information about resources they need to help them change their situations. However, I still don’t know exactly what it will be.

One of the things students of software product development learn is the concept of MVP which is minimal viable product, which uses a metaphor of a skateboard, a bike, and a car. This comparison shows how an MVP aka skateboard can be built out to eventually become something with more power and functionality, such as a car. It also shows how there can be viable stages on the way to reaching its full potential, represented by the bicycle.

While I might not be able to see exactly what this application I’m developing will evolve into, I think I can say that I have my skateboard.

User Journey

Another tool of product development we were taught as students is the user journey. This is a way of putting ourselves momentarily into another person’s perspective in order to make an attempted prediction of what they may want from the app.

We ask ourselves, what will they see when they open the app? What are they most likely to be looking for? What types of functionality do they expect and/or need? These are the types of questions that a user journey can help answer.

Wireframes

The most recent tool of software product development I was introduced to is the wireframe. In CAD (Computer Aided Drafting/Design) a wireframe is a collection of interconnected vertices that define the shape of a 3D object. It is a communication tool, in many cases that allows information to be passed from designers to manufacturers.

In SPD, just as in 3D design, they are drawings that act as a type of blueprint for the design of a user interface. They show the basic placement of various components as the designer would like to see them represented on the screen. It should also show how subsequent pages connect with and are interacted with through the various elements. They define the basic “shape” that the designer of an app would like it to take.

example wireframe drawing

In Conclusion

There are many steps and tools used in SPD. They address the many aspects of not only doing the job, but doing it in a researched and well thought out manner.

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