Product Games 3.0 – Singapore – Nov 2019 – Competition

Background

Internet companies founded in the US i.e. eBay, Amazon, Netflix, Uber, Tinder etc. have in some shape or form been replicated in other markets (the Rocket Internet model). In the past few years however, the emerging markets (think China) is championing innovation in technology. Today, unicorns in the payments, logistics, e-commerce, and mobility ecosystem have completely transformed the way of life in countries such as China and Indonesia.

Problem Statement

As product managers, you don’t just build new products, but sometimes adapt successful solutions from other regions to meet local requirements. We wonder: Why did WeChat fail in its attempt to enter India while TikTok seems to be doing quite well globally?

  • Can you think of a successful product/service built for an emerging market and localize it for a developed market (say the US, UK, Germany, Norway, Australia etc.) of your choice?
  • Please justify your selection of product/service, target market and how the new solution is incrementally better than the existing one. Tell us in detail how you’d customize the product/service to be more assistive and useful to users in the target market. We don’t want you to just adapt an existing solution, we’d also like you to make it better by considering local tastes and needs.

The Challenge

Participants are invited to form teams and select a unique solution from an emerging market that makes everyday task(s) faster and more delightful for customers and localize this for a market of their choice. The chosen solution must have been first built for an emerging market and must be considered successful because it addressed unique challenges in that market. It must not be already present on a large scale in the chosen target developed market. For the purpose of this challenge, we consider emerging markets as China, India, South East Asia, South America and Africa. Teams must consist of at least two members, and a maximum of five.

Evaluation Metrics

  1. Choice of product/service (including business model viability, assessment of launch market)
  2. Product-Market fit evaluation: Why was the target market chosen? How well has the chosen solution take into consideration specific local problems?
  3. Product Augmentation: How has the product been improved over and above the needs of adaptation?
  4. Identification of KPIs: How do you define success in the target market?
  5. Specifications of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for launch in the target market, including roadmap for potential iteration
  6. Go-to-market strategy (i.e path to user-adoption)

Your Submission

  • The submission should be in the form of a presentation (PDF or Google Slides), no more than 15 pages (excluding cover page, agenda and appendices).
  • Imagination is the limit – participants may use mock-ups, text, graphs, gifs, screenshots, spreadsheets, etc. to support the presentation.
  • For further details and discussion please join the INSEAD ProG-3 Slack Channel or email us at [email protected]