Spotmojo
Small business meets big data.
Spotmojo represents a new way to empower small businesses, by enabling them to conduct in-depth market research and polling early in their business planning process — just like the big dogs.
Role: Creative Direction, Design, UX Design / Research, Product Development
Scope: Brand development, naming, wireframes, user testing and acceptance, interface design and creative direction for site, sales collateral
Challenge
Spotmojo began as a brain child of a small business owner in San Francisco who was frustrated by the arbitrary nature of how small businesses collect information before committing to a long-term investment like a lease or lease improvement.
The platform had to address the needs of the small business entrepreneur, real-estate professionals who would add their listings to the platform, civic departments who wanted to support area growth and monitor activities and the end users whose opinions were being sought.
Solution
Through a series of interviews, the final site design and UX was developed to accommodate the two largest user groups: the small businesses and the public. Refinements were made to the architecture and the end result was a platform that pulled in notoriety and nation-wide visibility.
The first success milestone was achieved when a would-be brewpub owner was able to secure funding from an investor who was ultimately convinced by the data the entrepreneur obtained from Spotmojo.
01.
The MVP was a lean build that was intended to gauge consumer interest in participating in a voting process that would help them shape their neighborhoods.
WHAT WE LEARNED:
Users found the concept immediately engaging and liked the idea of making suggestions for vacant buildings.
However, the interface itself was limited and feedback suggested a stronger community feeling and more engagement by potential businesses.
CHALLENGE:
Entrepreneurs needed to be educated on how to get the word out and become social marketers for their ideas. Ultimately, the final design adapted to the needs of the users desire for voting and cross-talk and giving the entrepreneurs a forum to vet ideas and gauge interest.
02.
Business goals were matched against user needs to determine the largest user pool with the most influence over traffic and usage. Several iterations and features were prototyped and/or rapidly developed to aid in testing and serve as proof points for several business model pivots.
03.
A feed design was added to the landing page along with easy access for users to quickly find business proposals in their area, comment and vote on concepts directly from the feed.
A business pitch page was designed to allow the entrepreneur ample room to sell their idea to potential customers and investors and easily glean statistical data about usage and voting results.
04.
Spotmojo partnered with local commercial real estate agents to canvas target areas with vacant retail storefronts with the highest potential growth rate.
The team placed posters in each building and assigned a code to that unique location with a toll-free call-in, text or QR code. Each poster challenged the viewer to make suggestions for the types of businesses they would want in that location, while communicating to entrepreneurs that there was a wealth of information they should be accessing before using hard-earned capital.
05.
The team iterated designs based on user-ship and analytics data gleaned from daily use in multiple markets to come up with a final solution that made it easy for entrepreneurs to sign-up and pitch their idea, for users to vote and comment on ideas and for realtors to match entrepreneur ideas against the vacant properties they had to offer.
“When I shared my Spotmojo data with my realtor, he became an instant believer and ended up becoming my new backer. We opened our doors 9 months later.”
— Adam, Alameda Brewing Company
