The problem was identified when some of our team told us about the steps they had taken when they needed someone to repair the refrigerator. The next step was to think if we (or our relatives) also had problems with other types of services (eg cleaning).

From our experience, we have noticed that it is hard to find a service provider (a physical, not a legal person) for domestic issues. After this step, we started to put on the paper the solutions that we found when we needed to use such a service. In most situations, to find, for example, a refrigerators repairer, we asked around us, we asked our friends or relatives to get a recommendation to a trusted man.

The solution we have come up with is a web platform that allows easy communication between service providers and customers. Thus, based on different indicators and a simple search, a person can find the perfect installer or cleaning man for his needs.

Our customer discovery plan consisted of discussions with friends and relatives about moments when they needed someone to solve various domestic problems.

Besides, we started an online questionnaire to reach as many potential customers as possible, to find out if they were faced with such a situation, what they would have wanted to get and how they solved the problem at the time. This was the overview about our approach. Let's get in the details.

We were trying to determine whether there is a need for a service that specializes in connecting service providers (as cleaning, repairing things in your house) with people who needs reliable services and persons. Our question were:

1. Age
2. Gender
3. How are you currently searching for service providers if you need small services? (eg. cleaning your couch)?
4. Are you satisfied with your current method? Describe in few words how was one of your experiences in terms of quality, communication, trust, prices.
5. What services did you need at a certain moment?
6. Describe in few words how would you make this process (of finding reliable home service providers) easy to access, easy to use by everyone who needs.
7. Beyond the answer above, what features would you put in such a solution that you would like and would you use?

50% of those who responded are in between 26 and 30 years, 30% 18 and 25 years, 10% 31 and 35 years and and 10% >35 years. In terms of gender, 80% of our respondents are men and 20% women. From the answers to the third question, we found out that the first method to look for a person for a particular home service is to ask for recommendations from friends, relatives, administrator and if this method does not come up with desired answers (in accordance with expectations), those who have answer our questionnaire call google search as the second best option. The recommendations from the people you know are the ones that gave the best results in terms of quality, prices and trust, but they are not always based on recommendations, either because friends did not need such a service, or because they had unpleasant experiences and do not recommend. The problem we have identified in our responses to google search method is that's good luck to find a reliable service provider with transparent prices and that in many cases the experiences were below expectations. From the second form, there are some responses which show us how our respondents search for a service provider:

A solution that our respondents would like to use and they proposed is a platform system where rating can be based on demand and supply, with various filters (price, area, rating), integration with facebook to see what services their friends use and to have reviews from the people they already trust. Some features they need and they would use are:

• Customized searching area (eg 5 km from where they work or where they live)
• Visibility of their friends reviews/rating
• Well structured (domains)
• Rating from more than 3 sources (to prevent fake ratings) based on: punctuality, seriousness, professionalism, quality of service, satisfaction
• Pay in app (in platform)

From these insights, we realized that we need to have all this information organized and structured for an easier search, and that our ideas come to meet the needs of the people around us.

From these insights, we realized that we need to have all this information organized and structured for an easier search, and that our ideas come to meet the needs of the people around us.

We believe we have enough information to create a test selling.
We made another iteration to validate our idea. We were focused on two main services: house cleaning and handyman services. Our respondents were interested in using our platform for this type of needs. From 50 persons we spoke with, 47 mark as relevant to very relevant the problem. The more people perceive the problem as relevant, the more will be interested in the solution.
This time, we asked if the participants in the survey would tell their friends about this idea. From responses, we found that it is quite likely to be shared (1 means very unlikely to be shared, 5 - highly likely).

In terms of buying the service, 70% of respondents are so convinced of the idea that they would pay for using the platform.
From this second survey, in the categories: relevance of the problem, usefulness of the solution, virality, willingness to buy, our results are positive with 4 points out of 5.
We can move on to the Customer Validation stage.

1. What is your age?
2. Are you married? Do you have kids?
3. Do you have pets? How many cats/dogs?
4. Where do you live? Do you have a house or an apartment?
5. Are you a morning person? Where do you prefer to have breakfast? Home or to go?
6. How is your day at work? Describe your program at work.
7. Are you going to work with your personal car or by the bus/metro?
8. Are you going to the gym? How often?
9. How much time do you spend at home doing home activities (cooking, cleaning)?
10. What devices do you use most often? Are you a “connected person”, as how much time do you spend on the Internet?
11. What are you doing on weekends? Do you prefer to stay at home or to go out?

1. 27
2. no no
3. Nope
4. Apartment in Bucharest
5. Not really a morning person, get up around 7:30-8:00. During workdays on the go, in the weekend at home
6. At work, usually check my emails and plan my daily tasks in the morning, then start working, have meeting or what else is planned in that day
7. Personal car
8. Not very often. If I have a gym membership I usually go once a week. Otherwise just exercise at home once a week
9. Almost 1-2 hours/week but depends on my schedule
10. Phone, laptop and smart tv. At work and personal, I guess around 5-6 hours per day.
11. Most of the time, I prefer to go out especially if the weather is fine. If I stay in Bucharest, I usually go for a walk, meet with friends over lunch/dinner or go to festivals or to the theater.

1. 32
2. No, I am not. I don’t have kids.
3. No, I don’t have pets and I don’t want any pets.
4. Bucharest, apartment
5. Not really a morning person (7.30 - 9.00). Breakfast on the go (Starbucks or something)
6. Check my schedule, plan my meetings, I prepare course materials, organize events, work on different projects, mentor students
7. Walking (My house is close to the office).
8. No
9. One hour/week (put clothes in the washing machine, put the clothes to dry). I don’t cook or clean (for cleaning services I hired a person).
10. Phone, laptop, tablet, desktop. 12 hours/day connected to the Internet.
11. I work on weekends. Sometimes, I go on a one-day trip/two days trip to relax.

1. 33
2. Yes, I am married and I have a little girl (2 years old)
3. Yes, I have a dog, Babi.
4. I live in Bucharest, apartment
5. Not really a morning person because I stay late at night to work. At 11 am I go outside with my daughter and my dog. I prefer to have breakfast at home with my husband and our girl.
6. I work from home and three or four times per month I go at the office to present the accounts papers and bring other papers with me back home. During the day, I stay with my child, check emails, do paperwork, balance sheet, transactions, and other financial activities. My mother comes to our house to stay with the child when I have stuff to do. Usually, we have lunch in town and dinner at home. After lunch and after dinner, I go with our dog outside to have a walk. I go to bed late at night.
7. Personal car when is needed.
8. No
9. Sometimes I cook, but usually, my mother brings us cooked food and in the rest of the time, we go to restaurants. I don’t clean, but put clothes in the washing machine, put the clothes to dry. For cleaning services, I hired a person.
10. Phone, laptop. Let’s say 8h per day on the Internet.
11. On weekends, we go out, at museums, gardens, friends’ home.

• 30 years, lives in Bucharest
• Jerry is single and does not have any pets
• A software company
• Earnings: 2500 euro/month

• Jerry is not really a morning person, he gets up around 7.30 - 9 am. He likes to have breakfast at home when he has time, through it does not bother him to eat on his way to the office. In the weekends he has breakfast at home
• He arrives at work by his own car or walking because he likes to walk
• Jerry does not have a fixed schedule at work, he can plan his day however he wants. When he is at work, Jerry checks the schedule (calendar), plans meetings, works on some projects
• He would go to the gym but doesn’t have time for that (at this moment)
• Jerry does not like doing home activities (as cleaning or cooking). He just puts clothes in the washing machine, and then puts the clothes to dry. For the rest of the services (ironing clothes, washing dishes etc) he hired a person who comes once a week.
• He loves technology and he uses his phone, laptop or tablet all the time. He likes to stay connected online. Also, Jerry reads books or articles everyday to improve his general knowledge.
• Sometimes, he works on the weekends and sometimes he goes on trips with his friends to relax and have fun together.

• User stories are short, simple descriptions of a feature told from the perspective of the person who desires the new capability, usually a user or customer of the system
• As a "type of user", I want "some goal" so that "some reason".
• As an engineer, I want to have my schedule and my stuff very organized and well defined.
• As a project manager, I want to have enough time to schedule my meetings and to design plans for mid and long term
• As a teacher, I want to have enough time to prepare my lectures and to stay with my family because quality time is a priority for me.

Use cases

System Boundary

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