In Pursuit of the iDream

Opportunities and challenges in the children's

app market

Dr. Carla FisherNo Crusts Interactive

A Gamer’s Guide to Parenting

1. Take shelter and wait it out

8. Ambush

http://www.slideshare.net/thulme/ideo-workshop-for-techstars

The Challenges• Differentiation• Discovery• Money Money Money

How will you differentiate

your product?

The Problem: Everyone Does

the Obvious

Numbers Colors

Shapes

Puzzles

MatchingLetters

Animals

Coloring Memory

Opportunities?

Do one thing really, really,

really, really, really well.

Indispensably well.

Oh No Fractions!

Dinorama

DragonBox Algebra

Jack and the Beanstalk by

Nosy Crow

Augment common activities with

technology

Big Bird’s Words

Little Zebra Shopper

Folidify

Storybots

Solve a problem

Have you ever played a YouTube video for your kid only to end up with a list of "recommended" videos which aren't really appropriate? This happens all the time with me and my daughter, so we created FirstVideo.

FirstVideo

Monster Meter

Add a new spin to a familiar and

common mechanic

Tiny Terrorsat Christmas

Chicken Cha Cha Cha

Make a great game mechanic

kid friendly

Point and Click Adventures

Myst

Mystery Lighthouse

Mystery Math

Museum

Endless Runners

Canabalt

Stride & Prejudice

Hidden Object Games

Where’s Waldo? In Hollywood

Little Things Forever

Look and Find Elmo

Be stupidly difficult to play*

* But not so ridiculously difficult that you drive users away

Super Hexagon

Top 100 in 88 countries

Flappy Bird (iOS)

#1 in 116 countries

Hardest Game Ever 2

#1 in 35 countriesTop 100 in 111

Be humorous or irreverent

Hipster’s ABC

My Little Alphabutts

3 Simple* Steps to Differentiation1. Research the market exhaustively– Play the top 200 games in your target categories– Use an RSS feed to review new content– Keyword searches (on all platforms) and ask around

2. Identify the trends, gaps, and opportunities (educational, theme, mechanics, etc)

3. Produce amazing product* Sarcasm

How will people

find your product?

“Apple will feature us!”

How do parents find educational media?Come across it while browsing

50%

Recommendations from teacher

40%

Suggestions from friends or family

35%

Child comes across it 20%

Child hears about it from friend

20%

Results from Learning at Home Study (Cooney Center)

Parents’ Media Sources • Parent watches or plays the content first 56%• Recommendations from friends 34%• Reputation of the company or network 33%• Child finds it his/herself 25%• Website reviews 13%• Newspaper or magazine reviews 5%

Source: Parenting in the Age of Digital Technology

Word of mouth matters.

Make content that can be easily shared on mobile devices

Source: http://blog.sharethis.com/

iPhone vs iPad Content Sharing

Make things people want to share

Humans share items that cause emotion, especially positive feelings.

Interest Amusement Surprise

emotionwisegroup.org

Timely + Funny

My Little Alphabutts

3 Simple* Steps to Discovery1. Work your connections at the app markets

and press2. Make sure you have sharable, mobile friendly

materials3. Focus on messaging that triggers emotions,

particularly amusement, interest, or surprise* More sarcasm

How will you make

money?

How do you define success?

Success Metrics• Revenue• Downloads• Daily/monthly

average users• Time on task• Email sign ups

• User Ratings• Press stories• Facebook Likes• License requests• Tweets

Success metrics need timelines and plenty of room to

grow

Once the game launches, the real work begins

Give yourself plenty of runway

Measure metrics methodically

Set goals and hold yourself to them

Sell 10% more apps each week.

Aspire to growth hacker

Become a Growth Hacker• Pick 1 or 2 metrics• Live or die by those metrics• Set a goal for each week• Experiment to raise the metrics. Abandon those that don’t

work. Iterate on those that do.

Growth hackers increase a metric through methodical and measurable tests.

A/B Tests

Pick this one! Pick this one!

Which one is more successful?

A/B Tests

Please rate us! Please rate us!

Which one is more successful?

No thanks

Rate now

No thanks

Rate 5 Stars

A/B Testing1.Create two options, nearly

identical, but with one key difference.

2.Release both to users. 3.Measure which one is

more successful. 4. Iterate.

Winner!

Smashing Magazine: Ultimate Guide to A/B Testing

QuickSprout: Definitive Guide to Growth Hacking

3 Simple* Steps to Defining and Achieving Success

1. Clearly define a small number of metrics2. Set appropriate goals and timelines3. Growth hack your way to success with

measurable experiments

* Still sarcasm

The Challenges• Differentiation• Discovery• Money Money Money • Success Metrics

Thank you• Carla@NoCrusts.com • No Crusts News – free, weekly

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