Context
A founder wanted to test a 0→1 idea: make college students feel recognized and supported by delivering personalized gifts and messages at key moments in their journey. He wanted to pilot it the following semester, so he needed product requirements and a go-to-market approach grounded in what students actually wanted.
I ran the research end to end: interviews, surveys, and anonymous polling in online student communities such as Sidechat and Reddit.
Constraints
- One month from kickoff to findings.
- A $100 budget to incentivize responses.
Problem
The founder had a hypothesis but not the details. Four questions had to be answered: which moments in a student's academic and social life make them feel most isolated or most in need of recognition; who they most want to be seen by; what makes someone feel seen or heard, and where gifts and messages fit; and whether students would enter data about their goals every week or month, and what would make them keep doing it.
North starClear enough requirements for the founder to pilot the next semester.
Decisions
Triangulate three methods
- Options
- One method, or interviews, surveys, and polls together.
- Evidence
- Interviews give depth, surveys give breadth, and anonymous polls reach many more students quickly.
- Chose
- 10 user interviews, 32 surveys, and 8 polls averaging 677 responses each, with insights kept only where the methods agreed.
- Didn't build
- A single large survey.
- Cost
- Three methods in a month meant each got less depth than it would have alone, and the $100 stretched thin.
Lead with relationships, not the gift
- Options
- Building the product around the gift, or around the connection behind it.
- Evidence
- Two interviewees said club merch has no meaning, and 30% of interviewees said non-personalized gifts wouldn't be impactful. In surveys, 43.8% cited deep emotional connections as what makes them feel seen, and 25% cited shared experiences.
- Chose
- Recommend personalized recognition and shared experiences first, with any gift or memento following the connection.
- Didn't build
- A generic gifting or merch service.
- Cost
- It pushes the product toward community and relationship features and away from a simple gift catalog.
Split by who the student is
- Options
- One design for the average student, or specific personas with different needs.
- Evidence
- International students, freshmen, students with disabilities, and heavily involved club members described different moments of isolation and different people they want recognition from.
- Chose
- Four personas, each with its own minimum viable experience.
- Didn't build
- One product for everyone.
- Cost
- Four experiences are more to build than one, so the pilot would need to pick a persona first.
Solution
Eight insights, each turned into a how-might-we question. The most telling ones: students are least likely to share highlights with professors even though 80% of interviewees mentioned professors and one called a letter from a professor their most meaningful recognition. 43.3% of survey mentions named academic milestones as the most significant. Students feel seen when their effort is recognized, including event planning, which is often overlooked. Some students use gift cards as a small weekly incentive, which matters because they'd have to log goals regularly. Preferences on gifts timed to moments versus at random split evenly, so the design has to balance both.
Outcome
We delivered four personas and, for each, the minimum viable experiences the research showed they need. International students need connection that crosses cultural differences, a US support system, and a way to show their true personality. Freshmen need to forge at least one peer connection beyond their roommate during orientation week, and a safe outlet when interpersonal conflict causes stress. Students with disability or health needs need faculty acknowledgment and personalized notes, and club recognition that isn't generic. The average, heavily involved student prefers personalized recognition and individual feedback over gifts tied to achievements.
The research was delivered within the month. I don't have results from a pilot.
Do differently
- Test a rough concept with students during the sprint rather than only asking them about gifts.
- Recruit beyond one campus, since most of what we heard came from one student community.
- Agree on the pilot's success measure with the founder before the research ended.