Overview Due to COVID-19, an exponential amount of people are now faced with the challenges of working from their homes. According to Forbes approximately half of the workforce is now working from home. For many, this adjustment to working from home has introduced personal distractions to an already hectic workday. This population of people not only have to adjust to working in a new environment but also have to adjust to the added distraction for those who may have pets, family, and spouses who are working from home as well. Along with these distractions, many workers are struggling to adjust emotionally to the newfound isolation of working from home. These issues may result in less productive workers due to stress from both acclimating to working from home and the added distractions. The website, Busy Bee, was created to help combat these issues. It offers options to keep track of tasks and the emotional well being of those who work from home, which may ultimately lead to more productive workers.
Team Members
Samuel VanDenburgh (Project Manager/Software Developer, CPE Major at RHIT) Along with some helping with some minor Front End Code. Sam managed the Git repository and Deployment of the website and connected Netlify’s login capabilities for use. Keagan Wong (BackEnd Developer, Senior Informatics and Mathematics at IU) Keagan created the database for employee task management and mood scores and inserted sample values for user tasks. He also developed the PHP connections that allowed users to view and insert tasks into the database. Kalista Ballard (UI/UX Designer and FrontEnd Developer, CIT Major at IUPUI) Kalista designed the front end and all of the pages that are included in the application. Kalista also used React, Javascript, HTML, and CSS to style and develop the website.
Nyjah Jones (Marketing, Senior Sociology at Ball State University)
Nyjah held a focus group to better understand customer pains and gains. Nyjah was also in charge of communicating with the tech team. She also wrote and created the visuals for the business model and value proposition as well as assisting in designing the logo. Lastly, she worked in conjunction with the team to create pitch materials.
CaVonte Glass (Marketing, Graduate from IUPUI Political Science)
I participated in discussions and helped brainstorm the ideal. I helped write the focus group questions and the environmental analysis portion.
How did you decide on this customer segment, problem, and solution? For our team, obtaining input from people who work from home about what they want and need to be more productive was imperative to the development of our website. This preliminary study showed that many were concerned with task management and needing a method to cope with distractions that usually aren’t present in the workplace. To accomplish these tasks we interviewed several people in different fields who have transitioned to working from home due to COVID. In these interviews, we asked questions about what type of work they did and how it has changed since the transition. We also inquired about how their mental health was impacted, and what they need from an app to improve both productivity and their mental well-being. This preliminary study showed that many were concerned with task management and needing a method to cope with distractions that usually aren’t present in the workplace. With that information in mind, we determined that our website needs to focus on task management, but also place equal importance on tracking the state of the user's emotions.
How did your team build and iterate on the solution? Deciding basic design and functions Creating a mockup page Individuals work on front and back end, testing components as they go Feedback from friends/family/selected employees on design/functionality Trello for project management Git for code version control Key Metrics 4 interviews 4 application tests Technical Architecture Github Repo: https://github.com/vandensp/Work-From-Home-Team-09 Back-end Hosting: https://infinityfree.net/ Key Tools, Libraries, and Frameworks Material UI-Optimal for design and responsiveness React- Optimal for front end development and deployment to netlify Netlify-For easy deployment Javascript, HTML, CSS- Front end development languages need to develop user interface PHP, MySQL - Back end databases and connected to the front end If you had another 5 weeks to work on this, what would you do next? Primarily, we would use this time to iron some of the bugs with the application, mostly present in the login page. Furthermore, we would spend more development time to ensure frontend and backend ran more seamlessly together. We would also flesh out our mental health function with more in-depth research so that users could receive more data on their mood as well as a better understanding of what the data means. To test our product, we would insert sample data into the mood score database based on the requirements that our research would find. Lastly, we would want to incorporate a reminder system for breaks into the brain break function so that customers would be less susceptible to burning out during the workweek. Our future plans beyond 5 weeks include moving our application to a mobile platform and connecting employees to their employers to allow people to share tasks to complete.
Checklist of Completed Items
Item Confirmation of Submission Explanation if not submitted Environmental Analysis
Business Model Canvas
Value Proposition Canvas
Customer Persona(s)
Within the marketing evaluation of Busy Bee we notice that to maximize profits in obtaining complete working requirements for users and output data to the company that they are hired from. We utilized the fundamental aspect of allowing the company to purchase the app in the large mass which would be given to each employee for mental and emotional support during and post covid; of working from home. By understanding the Competitor Analysis, strength and weakness, Marketing elements and Evaluation and control.
· Market growth and trends – The market for this company can grow with the more companies or independent users sign up for the access of the application. Making the right improvements around the application over time will keep the company and app in the profitable margins even if new companies come in the market.
· Stability – The company when launching this app to compete against other competitors will have to create an updating code that will improve the interface for each user and become more functional for each company over time. The point price should be fair.
· Total Available Market – This industry is for everyone that is currently and going to apply for jobs that are home based that needs help with mental, emotional and help with staying motivated to keep up with work productivity during and after post COVID.
· Serviceable Available Market – This market will go after business either call centers or fortune 1000 companies for remote locations to keep access and communication among team members, staff, and management to achieve daily company goals.
· Target Market – Focusing on task management and employee wellness
STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES OPPORTUNITIES THREATS
· Capabilities · Glitch in Application · Areas to improve · Not working from home
· Price · Cash Flow · New segments · New app with better interface
· Interface · Not being used · Industry trends · Cheaper App
· Design · Market · New products · Companies find no use
· Reputation · New innovations · Market Demand
· Key partnership
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