1) Knotch STORY

We all have an urge to "judge" the world around us. In other words, we are programmed to have opinions about the people we meet, the places we go to, the TV shows we watch and the music we listen to. And it is based on these opinions that we often define ourselves, especially in relation to friends, acquantainces and family.

We (my co-founder and I) started Knotch with the intention of giving people a fun and engaging tool to help them capture, express and gauge opinions on things they cared about. And moreover, we wanted to build a community around these opinions, a community where people could connect with each other based on their opinions. A community where their opinions mattered.

So we set off on a "journey" to find the most emotional, fun, engaging & simple way for people to express sentiment whie still quantifying meaningful data. We build a few web & mobile tools based on the five-star system, emoticons, thumbs up & down, sliders to the left & right etc. And nothing was really working. And then we landed on the idea of color and more specifically of a feeling thermometer that would allow users to "take their temperature" on how they felt about really anything around them. We named it "The Knotch Color Spectrum" and launched a very simple version of Knotch to a small group of users: the color spectrum & a feed. And things started taking off.

2) Knotch TODAY aka "Describe your product" (photos below + explanations in between).

Today Knotch has become a vibrant community of opinionated folks who come to the app to make their opinions heard and to build up a knotch identity based on their "true colors." See below.

Knotch - The Color Revolution - image 1 - student project The Knotch Color Spectrum = a simple, fun, granular & meaningul way to capture & express your opinion. (from hot colors/positive to cold colors/negative)

Knotch - The Color Revolution - image 4 - student project

Knotch Topic Profiles = a quick view at how the network feels about a topic (with the interactive color bar that functions like a horizontal scroll through knotches from hot/red to cold/blue).

Knotch - The Color Revolution - image 5 - student project

The Knotch Feed = what our users call "the black hole" because once they are on it, they cannot stop scrolling left & right for content on the same topic or up & down for different topics.

The Knotch Categories = recently implemented, they enable search by category for the times when our users are trying to see what movies are trending and what the aggregate sentiment on them is (same for music, food, tech etc).

Knotch - The Color Revolution - image 6 - student project

The Knotch User Profile = a collection of all knotches, arranged by temperature, that gives our users an identity based on interests & opinions which they use to connect with other knotchers.

3) THE MAP

1. List all major “players” in the system

a. Users (Knotch CONSUMER)

b. Medium Run: Brands, politicians, celebrities, publishers etc. (Knotch DATA)

c. Long Run: Ad networks, big publishers. (Knotch DATA)

4) List out any selfish reasons why each player would need their contacts/friends to join the service.

<<only Knotch CONSUMER matters to us at this point so I will discuss that>>

FOR THE USER:

- it gives them a medium via which they showcase their interests & opinions ==> validation, recognition

- we are thinking of converting that medium into a "pedestal" by awarding people with the title of "opinion-leader" so that they have more of a reason to invite

- for the thrill of seeing how similar you are to friends

- to source sentiment on issues & topics they care about

5) List out all things you could possibly charge each player for on the service

<<not sure it applies, we are a free iPhone app>>

6) For 2 and 3 above give a very short reason you think the player would be motivated to need their contact or pay for the service

- to gain more "klout" within the knotch network

7) List the channels (email, facebook, text message, etc.) that you will send your users’ invites through and how you will get that contact data

Facebook - our invite flow is through FB (and our Login which is how we get the emails of our users)

Email - we use as an external trigger to get people to come back

8) Create what those invites will look like

Knotch - The Color Revolution - image 7 - student project

Anda Gansca

CEO @ Knotch

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