The Team Eleven had the first meeting on 7th March 2018, when each member brought up an idea for a new online social network or web application so we could discuss and choose the best option considering the aspects of value proposition, innovation, profitability and social impact.
In order to compare the four suggestions, we used the basic criteria from the Business Model Canvas (Figure 1) and the SWOT tool (Figure 2), largely utilized for managers applied to businesses and projects.
Source: http://www.business-to-you.com/swot-analysis
Source: https://strategyzer.com/canvas/business-model-canvas
We created a spreadsheet on Google Drive with nine columns related to the Canvas’s blocks and inserted the main information from every idea discussed. Then, we made a SWOT analysis for each of them according to the tool methodology.
The group had a few days to review and study all the ideas so on 15th March 2018 we would be able to vote for one of them. To be reasonable, each person should not vote for the own suggestion. In the end, two ideas had equal votes: 1) Travel Social Network: website and app for services reviews; and 2) Platform for sentiment analysis on social network content.
Next day, we had a virtual meeting with our mentor Anna Kent-Muller. She helped us to analyse the pros and cons of both proposals, then decide what our project would be. As we had found out that TripAdvisor, the most popular app for travellers, have already developed features for disabled people, we had a unanimous vote for the sentiment analysis platform, considering its innovation characteristic.