Journey of Creating ShopTalk AI - Part 1
Welcome
In this blog series, I will be documenting my journey of creating my first SaaS product, ShopTalk AI. As a developer, I am excited to share my experiences, challenges, and learnings with you. In this first blog post, I will discuss how I am preparing my knowledge to start the project.
The story
The idea for ShopTalk AI came to me while my girlfriend and I were dining at 4Ps. We wanted to create a chatbot that could assist her in selecting clothes and accessories for her upcoming vacation. The AI would not only provide recommendations but also provide direct links to add the products to the cart for a quicker buying experience.
Where to start
To begin my journey of creating ShopTalk AI, I believe it is important to start with thorough preparation and research. Drawing from my 4 years of industry experience, I understand the significance of having a well-defined and tested idea.
As a first step, I have been following a series of Harvard i-lab startup secrets that discuss the best practices for building successful startups. - Kudos to Harvard
The agenda is:
- What It Takes: Vision, Mission & Culture
- Designing a Customer-Centric Business Model
- Value Props: Create a Product People Will Actually Buy
- How to Build a Product that Scales into a Company
What It Takes: Vision, Mission & Culture
In this day one, I learned about the importance of having a clear vision, mission, and culture for a successful startup.
Here are some questions and quote that might help you begin define your vision, mission, and culture:
Vision
Visions and missions help keep everything clear, to clarify what I’m doing
Set a direction to persuade, simple, easy to understand
Starting: trying to be clear, easy to understand, rememberable
Long-term: so that others can grow within the long term
- Why should a customer engage with you when you are not clear about what you doing?
- Reflect on your founder market fit
- Why are you bhuilding your solution differently?
- How are you creating a unique advantage that way?
- How will the market envole?
- How will you lead it?
- What is one element you’d like to include you your vision?
Mission
Different Vision and Mission: Not an answer, just need to answer what are you doing? something like what is your purpose?
- Does your mission memorable?
- Does your mission manageable?
- Does your mission measurable?
- Does your mission motivational?
Culture
Define Culture as early as possible
If doesn’t define it in the first place, the culture with define on it’s own
Identify your values
- Without culture, how to pick a member? what is the criteria going to use for hiring people?
- Why are you uniquely qualified to solve a problem? what will drive you through tough times?
- What is one value your company needs when your company in hard time?
- What is one behavior you’d like to model in your business?
ShopTalk AI
Vision
Help businesses to increase their sales by providing a personalized shopping experience to their customers.
Mission
Our mission is to make shopping a joy with our AI chatbot that easily leads customers to their perfect products, making buying a snap.
We’re also passionate about helping Vietnamese businesses tap into the latest technology in a way that’s affordable, easy, and quick.
Culture
Professionalism