CasaOne Case Study Exercise

First, I will work to scope out our problem/scenario to understand all factors and components before we drill into specific pain points and solutions. As part of the growth team, I know that we have large spikes in customer acquisitions and user orders, as well as churns and rental terminations within our platform during certain times of the year. I will carefully define and segment our users to gain a better understanding of their needs, pain points, goals and behavior.

Second, I will use this research to develop new improvements to the CaseOne product with a pair of specific business goals in mind: user acquisition and revenue. Because we value new sales from both current and new users, this will be the primary theme when brainstorming how we can improve our CasaOne experience for students. I will then choose one idea above all based on a pro/con analysis for each idea and visualize the idea via a Balsamiq mock-up. I will also include feature specifications to provide our engineering teams the right items to get started.

First Step

There are different types of students who carry with them different lifestyles, behaviors, and preferences that ultimately mean different user goals, so let’s define them. Keep in mind these are all in SF bay area. Here are the following different user types we should focus on:

• College freshmen away from their parents’ home and moving into expensive dorms/housing spaces (that do not offer on-site furniture).
• College student who are moving out of their living spaces after graduation to relocate to the area where their new full-time job is (let’s assume this will also be in the SF area).
• College students after their 1, 2 or 3 year who are moving from University residences to privately-owned housing in their University towns that are more affordable.

I have done some research on our user types to understand the goals of each. My references are located at the bottom of this assignment. Here is my research for all 3 users listed above:

• Our first user type is college freshmen. Many college freshmen have the common goal of obtaining cheap furniture to rent or buy due to their budget capacities and being able to do so swiftly without too much hassle. Pricing is important, especially for the expensive housing in the Bay Area. Many who currently still buy furniture rely on large retailers who offer a cheap price point. Some include IKEA and other furniture outlets (such as Bed, Bath and Beyond) (Folgate, n.d.). Another interesting study by Tyson Schritter from Colleges of Distinction is that many students only bring with them their most expensive or largest pieces of furniture when moving into their new college home (Schritter, nd.d). Items that students deem are only needed for the short-term are often purchased after the student has moved into their new home. However, these items are not great purchases as they are bought out of whim to enhance the student’s living experience. Think lamps, chairs, trash containers or fans. Other miscellaneous items purchased after moving in can include diffusers, pen holders, vases, etc. Finally, a third study I looked at described how many students don’t buy or use the right furniture they need to maximize their studying. Some students study better than others in the right environment; this should also be a consideration for our other user types as well, since they are all students who are studying and attempting to achieve their educational goals (Mitchell, 2016).

Thus, we can conclude the following as primary traits for these users:

• Students value cheaper price points for furniture.
• Students tend to purchase other furniture goods after moving in.
• Students study better in specific environments, but don’t think about this enough.

Here are some pain points we can consider and address:

• Post move-in items are bought frequently but are not long-lasting or provide lower value than expected.
• Furniture may not be tailored enough to enhance students’ studying environment.
• The second user type are those who are about to graduate. They find no more value in renting or purchasing furniture for their college living space, since they are usually moving to different areas to begin full-time work. This hits hard for CasaOne’s platform, because students are terminating rental agreements and thus the flow of revenue from these college students stop. While we can accept that eventually students will stop using CasaOne because of this, it may be wise to think of new ways we can support graduates when they’re working full-time. However**, it cannot be assumed that Bay Area graduates are moving to a new place (not their parents’ homes) in the Bay Area for a full-time job**. A study from Zach Friedman shows that as many as 50% of millennials move back home with their parents after college (Friedman, 2019). However, noting that our target is within the Bay Area, it is safe to assume that graduates (who are unable to live with their parents) who earn a high enough salary to afford living in the area are the only ones who will continue living there (Donaldson, 2018). If parents’ homes aren’t originally in the Bay Area, then a market would open for the graduates who earn a high enough salary. Thus, the market for these types of students may be lower than expected.

Here are our primary traits for these users:

• Back when they purchased/rented furniture for their college housing, they only did it with their college career in mind – not after graduating.