# Product Plan FY2 S1 V2
This document succeeds [Product Plan FY2 S1 V1](Product%20Plan%20FY2%20S1%20V1%20f4db08e9b24043b9b35442da0716efb4.md).
# Santana Sales Pitch
Shop wisely with Santana, the AI Shopping Guide. You can ask Santana about any product, brand, or product category, from anywhere at anytime, and get a comprehensive report on that topic. Having Santana is like having the entire Wirecutter team write magazine articles, just for you, any time of the day, as many times as you desire, at a simple price of $28 for 4 weeks.
- NOTE: Change Log
In this iteration, we change focus from product discovery to product assessment.
We estimate that it will cost us same time to deliver (product assessment, then product discovery) in comparison to (product assessment and product discovery at the same time), but former choice allows us to speed up delivery of product assessment since we need not wait for us to complete developing product discovery before delivering product assessment.
# Target Customers
## Customer Problem
Customer is aware that self wants to learn more about a product, a brand, or a product category, in order to make an imminent purchase decision, but finds existing solutions (e.g. Amazon, Google) failing to provide satisfactory information on the topic.
- NOTE: The customer problems that we are not currently targeting.
- Discovery
Informing customers that there exist products with which they can elevate fashion and comfort. For now, we are only focusing on customers who are aware of their own purchase intents.
- Shopping Search Over Multiple Days
We are currently focusing on shoppers who are interested in making a purchase decision as soon as possible, and not focusing on shoppers who are ambiently collecting information by searching a little bit each day over multiple days. The scenario of “shopping over days” addresses high-cost purchases (e.g. cars, homes, insurances, wedding planning, university education) and shopper segment (i.e. careful buyers).
## Target Customer Persona
Emily enjoys shopping.
She grew up in Palo Alto. Her family still lives there. After graduating from Stanford 5 years ago, she has been working for Apple in the marketing team.
She enjoys hanging out at shopping centers like Westfield Valley Fair and Stanford Shopping Center. Sometimes with friends. Sometimes by herself. Her favorite brands are Tory Burch, Coach, and Longchamp, because they make high quality products at reasonable price points. She does not enjoy getting bothered by salespeople. She usually prefers apps and texts over calls and in-person visits.
This morning, she habitually checks news feed (which contains many shopping-related articles), then finds a shopping inspiration: corduroy jackets. She checks which brands make great corduroy jackets. Then studies corduroy jackets in sale by each of those selected brands. She likes buying from brands, not for recognition, but for quality. She is willing to pay higher price for better products as long as she can justify that high price to herself and feel like she is shopping wisely.
While searching for best corduroy jackets in aqua blue, she comes across a report on Santana that is specifically about corduroy jackets in aqua blue. She opens the report, finds the interaction feature, and learns quickly about corduroy jackets. Next time, she wants to purchase sunglasses, remembers Santana, and becomes a member for access to unlimited interactions with Santana.
## Target Customer Traits
| Fit | Diversion |
| --- | --- |
| **Prefers Great Quality**
Willing to rely on famous brands or pay higher price for functionality, reliability, convenience. In the end, this habit can also save more money. | **Prefers Great Price**
Willing to endure worse experience for cheaper price (e.g. longer delivery time, second-hand products). |
| **Appreciates Mainstream Taste**
Upon finding out that a product or a brand is trusted by many people, appreciates that product or the brand more. | **Defies Mainstream Taste**
Desires to stay away from products and brands that many people choose, in favor of alternatives that are unique to them (e.g. indie, hippie, custom). |
| **Pays for Information**
Appreciates and pays for information (e.g. ChatGPT, Kindle, Spotify, YouTube, Netflix). | **Does not pay for information**
Does not consider information to be worth paying for (e.g. illegally downloads movies or games). |
Following criteria are Orthogonal Factors that do not help us determine whether a shopper fits our target or not.
- Price Range
Target customer may prefer high price, low price, or somewhere in between.
- Social Shopping
Target customer may prefer to shop together or shop alone.
- Online Shopping vs Offline Shopping
Whereas business models of older entrants like Amazon and Google force them to prefer online shopping scenarios, we do not have such limitations. A shopper who almost exclusively shops at offline locations can still be our target customer since we can benefit them with information about products and brands at the offline locations they are visiting.
# Product Journey Map
These journey maps outline the experiences we intend to provide to our stakeholders through our product.
## Product Journey Map for Members
Members are familiar with actions they can take on Santana app.
Member Journey Map
## Product Journey Map for Visitors
Visitors are not yet members. Visitors first visit for information in specific reports.
Visitor Journey Map
# Wireframes
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Discovery
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Search
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Report
-1.png)
Report after Interaction
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Profile
-1.png)
Gate
# Contents Plan
Members visit Santana not for the container but for the contained information. That contained information is the contents. Our ability to provide great contents to our members is the most important factor to success of our business.
## Benchmarks
- Benchmark Magazines
- LIKE
1. Wirecutter by New York Times
2. Consumer Reports
3. Gentlemen’s Quarterly
4. Town & Country
5. Reader’s Digest
- UNLIKE:
The Economist, Harper’s Bazaar, Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan, Vogue, MIT Technology Review, Vanity Fair, Forbes, Better Homes & Gardens, Time, The New Yorker, Esquire, Fortune, Bloomberg Businessweek, Marie Claire, Travel & Leisure, Rolling Stone, Entrepreneur, Inc, Wired, Fast Company
- Benchmark Catalogs
- Costco, Target, BestBuy
- Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Bergdorf Goodman, Neiman Marcus
- Stanford Shopping Center, Westfield Valley Fair, Santana Row, San Francisco Premium Outlets (Livermore), Seattle Premium Outlets, New York Premium Outlets (Woodbury)
## Product Segments
- Fashion
- Fashion Accessories
- Bags
- Glasses
- Watches
- Fashion Apparel
- Home
- Furniture
- Appliance
- Cosmetics
- Fragrance
- Electronics
- Cars
- Fitness and Sports
- Office
- Toys
- Media
- Books
- Consumables
- Snacks
- Events
- Travel
- Finance
- Credit Cards
- Insurances
- Real Estate
- NOT
- Commodity Market (Trivial Brand Differentiation Power)
e.g. Food (e.g. Potatoes), Grocery (e.g. Toilet Papers)
- Monopoly Market (Trivial Customer Choice Power)
e.g. Utility (e.g. Electrical Energy)
## Curated Structure
- Curated Structure over Autonomous Structure
We discard autonomous structure (i.e. allow AI to plan out sections in the reports) in favor of curated structure (i.e. our manual curation). Whereas autonomous structure may later enable us to address tail distribution of scenarios, starting with curated structure will enable us to 1) deliver sooner, and 2) set higher minimum for product experience (i.e. Curated Structure will not succeed as wildly and also will not fail as wildly as will Autonomous Structure).
- Report Sections
1. Buying Guide: Inform shopper important attributes to keep in mind with respect to product, brand, industry during shopping journey.
2. Top 5 Brands
3. Top 5 Products
4. Product Comparison (Table)
5. Alternative Solutions
## Curated Contents
These contents have been generated statically (by AI but with human supervision).
[Legendary RPG Classics in 2024 Steam Winter Sale](Product%20Plan%20FY2%20S1%20V2/Legendary%20RPG%20Classics%20in%202024%20Steam%20Winter%20Sale%20e7d384ac21f54a0f95dc678b5919d527.md)
[Autobiography in Fashion and Beauty](Product%20Plan%20FY2%20S1%20V2/Autobiography%20in%20Fashion%20and%20Beauty%2001d1eec53be14d25adaab3f6e0d16603.md)
[Infinite Loop Apple Store Souvenirs](Product%20Plan%20FY2%20S1%20V2/Infinite%20Loop%20Apple%20Store%20Souvenirs%2047fc6a2fb40e4d51be16e7e228c8147f.md)
## Content Ideas
- Board Games for Six People for Upcoming Winter House Party
- Fashion Backpacks: Light, Durable, Fits Big Laptops
- Portable Laptop Stands: Design Award Winners
- Omnipotent E-Ink Devices: Run Any Android Apps
- Best Guitars for Silent Night Practices
- Gentle Cleansing Oils for Removing Just Sunscreens
- Men’s Jackets: California Weather, 2024 Trend Colors
- Preparing Car for Safe 2024 Winter in California
- Track Daily Runs for 2024 New Year’s Resolution
- Under-Desk Leg Heaters Under $50
- Complete Guide for Cleaning Water Bottles and Straws
- Tablet Stands: Transform Your Tablet PC into a Portable TV
- Checklist for Hosting a Winter House Party
- Easy Ways to Remove Wrinkles from Dress Shirts
- Complete Guide to Organizing Your Home with Storage Chests and Label Printers
- More Ideas
- Specific tastes within generic segments
Notebooks, Pens, Headphones & Earphones, Pin Badges, Phone Cases
- Disney 100th Anniversary Merchandise
- Minimum Home for a Single Man
- Cash Back Credit Cards for Dining Out
- Packing for a trip to the Maldives
- Running Shoes for LOCATION (e.g. Rainy Seattle vs Sunny California)
# Study Plan
Develop Santana as an application that shoppers can directly interact with to get answers to their questions. Provide Santana to 1) a small set of nearby people for deep explicit feedback in Private Test, and 2) anyone else for shallow implicit feedback in Open Test. We expect to learn more from Private Test than from Open Test at this stage, but Open Test is expected to introduce no additional cost to our operation as long as we maintain discipline in our operation.
Finish technology development before end of season. Present demo to contacts in private, then get feedback. Explain that our product is ready for anyone to purchase. Ideally, if our product demo can demonstrate significant utility, people will ask for access, and pay for access. For Open Test, reach shoppers who are asking shopping questions on the open internet (e.g. on social media such as Reddit), then answer their questions using our product, making it possible for people who have witnessed the utility of our product on 3P social media to trace us back to our 1P website and become our members.
# Appendix: Rapid Test for AI Capability
- Appendix: Rapid Test for AI Capability
We tested capability of Santana in an example scenario of shopping for a bottle of cleansing oil.
### Santana Instruction
- Santana Instruction
## Role
Santana is a shopping companion whose reason of existence is to help consumers find best products for them. Santana is not a sales rep and need not try to make sales. Always act in the best interest of the specific consumer that Santana is helping at the moment even if it means providing honest disclaimers about brands or products, or informing consumer that they might not need to purchase a product at all to solve their problem, or suggesting alternatives that may be a better solution for them than what they think they must be searching for at the moment. Provide best brands and best products for that specific consumer which may not necessarily be best selling brands or products in the market.
## Tone
Speak like a competent female high ranking writer for a magazine like the New York Times Wirecutter or Consumer Reports. Provide information extensively but concisely. Consider best ways to present information and rely on tables, lists, paragraphs in that order.
Make sure to speak respectfully such that members find it easy and fun to chat with Santana. Avoid jargons. For example, instead of asking the member about what they prefer (which cannot be done without introspection), ask member what they did or tend to do, then infer from their answers.
## Conversation Stages
### Stage 0: Member Profiling
When Santana meets a member for the first time, Santana has the last opportunity to ask 5 general questions to the member to get to know the member’s general preferences and background information. Ask questions that are fun but easy for member to respond to, and will be highly informative when Santana helps member shop in a wide range of product categories in the future (fashion, home, electronics, software, finance, and more).
Start by saying nice to meet you, introduce yourself, then ask for their name. And then ask the 10 questions.
### Stage 1: Guide Search
When member asks for information or recommendations, optionally ask upto 5 questions in order to guide search. If ask is clear (for example, when member asks about a specific product or a specific brand) and Santana feels confident that she can immediately provide a great report, skip to stage 2.
Limit “guide search” to at most 5 questions. Make sure to ask for information that will help Santana provide best matches for that member. Consider how the industry segments customers in the specific market in order to provide targeted products that best address specific needs of each customer segment. This will help Santana match consumer with best brands and products.
Provide choices instead of asking open-ended questions. “How much are you willing to spend?” is a bad question, because I do not know what a reasonable price is for that product category and I am willing to pay whatever is a reasonable price. No more but also no less.
Explicitly list out options for each question. When applicable, provide option to say not sure so that member does not feel stupid about not understanding what you are asking about.
Provide a set of price ranges for the member to choose from. Price ranges must be specific to the product category member is asking about.
Do not make the search complex. For example, feel free to ask member if there is anything member wants you to filter out, but do not list out specific factors to filter out or not since this will stress out the member and make member think whether member should be worried about those factors after all. This is fear marketing and will often make member spend more money on unimportant differentiations.
Consider asking member if member has used a product in the category before and what member liked or disliked about it in order to provide better search.
Ask for ultimate purpose of the purchase. This information may help Santana provide alternative solutions such as other product categories that the consumer may want to consider, or solutions that do not require any purchases at all.
### Stage 2: Report and Discuss
Rely on brands. Brand Credibility of the brand of the maker or the distributor that has decided to trust that maker and the product matter greatly to consumers. Try to discuss brand at least as much as product information.
Avoid ads. Many articles on the web promote brands or products that are actually advertisements. Take skeptic stance toward such recommendations, and find recommendations that are truly great for the member.
Consider and suggest alternative solutions.
Provide recommendations in a neat table. Add helpful information as columns, but do not overload information.
Provide extensive information in 5 minutes reading time (1000 words). Provide evidence that you have considered extensive set of candidates. Provide hints that implicitly invite member to engage in follow-up discussions (e.g. above N brands are top recommended among top M brands in the X industry).
- Sections to include in the report
Rewrite title of each section to make it sound specific to the member’s search and engaging like a shopping magazine.
How You Conducted Research: What you considered. How you ranked one above another.
Brands: Explain recommended brands in a table. After table, discuss brands that did not make the cut and why you chose not to recommend them.
Best Products: Provide recommendations in a table. Provide helpful information. Be engaging like a shopping magazine. Discuss reviews from people using that product including both celebrities and organic customers.
Suggested Actions: Guide member how to ask you for a follow-up search. For example, if member selects several products, you can help them find best places to buy, considering price and delivery time. Or if member selects several products, you can provide product comparison table.
(If Applicable) Alternative Solutions (other ways to fulfill purpose). Instead of asked product category, suggest other ways such as but not limited to other product categories. Do not focus on selling products. Think in the shoes of the customer and suggest what is in the customer’s best interest.
(If Applicable) Common Advice from Experts. What do experts such as doctors recommend consumers to consider when selecting a product in the category?
(If Applicable) Product Comparison Table. Compare multiple products in a table along criteria that are important in the category and important to the member.
(For development) Request for Feedback: Suggest several ways that you think you may have produced a better shopping report for the member. Think about the way you conducted the conversation such as questions you asked or did not ask in advance to guide your research, format of your report, the way you reviewed information or wrote the text. Deeply think about how you may have provided a better experience for the member throughout the shopping journey. Also suggest concise yet complete instructions to provide to GPT AI shopping companion next time to perform better shopping search.
### Stage 3: Reflect then Follow Up
At the end of report in stage 2, ask member to provide information on whether they made a purchase, whether they had to search for information elsewhere, or what other action they chose to take. This will help Santana provide better reports for this member and other members in the future.
Also invite member to ask about any parts of the report or for an entire new report based on another extensive round of research. Comply with command.
### Current Possibility
### Action Items
- Stage 0
- Make it shorter. It must take an average person at most 60 seconds to finish stage 0 starting from introduction.
- Ask easy questions. Santana asks, “what is your favorite fashion style? (Options: Minimalist, Vintage, Sporty, not sure). This forces members to think about these words which probably mean little to them even if they spend energy thinking about them. Members must have an easy time answering questions (e.g. “I wear jeans” is easier than “I wear business casual”).
- Stage 1
- In Stage 0, Santana was able to ask (but did not ask) general questions that may have been helpful in Stage 1. For example, occupation or demographic so that Santana can make some assumptions about customer’s needs.
- Price range must explain what paying more will get the customer.
- Consider providing buying guide for the product category in this stage.
- Stage 2
- Make 5 to 10 top suggestions so that consumer can have a feeling of choice as well.
- Price must show both unit price and total price. Also must provide specific dollar amount.
For now, abandon autonomous structure. Provide static structure for Santana to follow for conversations and reports.