The Map
1. List all major “players” in the system (eg. a marketplace may have two major players: buyers & sellers)
- Teachers
- Students
- Venues for offline classes
- Event newsletter curators
2. List out any selfish reasons why each player would need their contacts/friends to join the service
- Teachers
- They want to get enrollment fees [money]
- They want to establish their reputation as a good teacher [recognition]
- Students
- They don’t want to learn alone [social acceptance]
- They want to show off to their friends that they know certain skills. To be that cool kid of the party [status]
- They want to be known as someone who shares bargains and deals [recognition]
- They get a $5 voucher for every friend they refer [money] (this is not already on skillshare, just thought it's a good idea)
- Venues for offline classes
- They want their venues booked [money]
- Event newsletter curators
- They need to fill their inventory and be recognized as a source of good events [recognition]
3. List out all things you could possibly charge each player for on the service
- Teachers
- Pay to list service
- Students
- Pay-per-transaction
- Venues for offline classes
- Get venue providers to give discounts for bookings coming from Skillshare
- Event newsletter curators
- Not needed. They provide free marketing I would otherwise need to pay.
4. 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
{{see above in section 2 and 3}}
QUESTIONS
1. I believe that each points I've made for question #2 are all hypotheses. Maybe the Skillshare's students don't like to show off etc, I won't know. But I'll like to do a test to find out. So my question is, how do I systematically plan and test out these hypotheses?
2. how long should the experiment run? (400 views? 100 students?)
3. How do I validate my viral map?
4. What tools will you recommend me for testing?