In this document you can find the output of a technology-push innovation process. Starting from the market analysis, till the definition of the UX and the BM to adopt to win the market, including the definition of the ecosystem where the technology will move.

1. 21th
DEC
2018
THE PINK
FLAMINGO
for HITOE

2. in collaboration with
POLITECNICO DI MILANO
School of Management
Design Management Lab
prof. Zurlo F., Press J., Cautela C.
tutors: Melazzini M., Pei X., Bellis P., Lollio V.,
a.a. 2018/ 2019
NTT
team: Brambilla, Broering, Chandan, Farina, Tamburello

3. INDEX
Abstract
Starting
Framing
DESIGN CHALLENGE
DIRECTION
PROBLEM DEFINITION
RESEARCH EVIDENCES
Reframing
HUMAN-PET ECOSYSTEM
DESIGN OPPORTUNITY
Visioning
THE RESEARCH
THE PROPOSITION
THE ROADMAP
Developing
BROAD SCENARIO
NEW ECOSYSTEM
CHALLENGES
MVP
PILOT PROGRAM
REFRAMED QUESTION
PRODUCT-SERVICE LAUNCH
Annex: Financial analysis
Designing
BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS
CONSULTANCY SERVICE LAUNCH
USER EXPERIENCE
. 1
. 3
. 5
. 9
. 13
. 15
. 19
what to look for >
what we envision >
how to get there >

4. The pet-human relationship is a bond known to
exist since ancient times. This relationship and
the role played by pets in our lives has been ever
changing - from a survival dependency in ancient
times up to the emotional-based relationships
established nowadays.
This changing relationship has been further
enhanced and shaped with the inclusion of the
fast developing technological world.
The Pink Flamingo team envisions the potential
of bringing HITOE, NTT’s technology, to the pet
market. It would not only be a disruptive and
meaningful reframe of its application and use, but
also could generate value for all the actors inside
the industry with NTT as an enabler. Creating
new value for NTT not only financially but also
with new sources of data.
For this reason, based on research papers and
economic data about the pet industry, the team
conceives the creation of an ecosystem that will
embrace all the actors and players involved in the
pet life-cycle, meeting their common demand for
specific data and information - in order to better
develop and enhance their multiple and diverse
relationships with pets.
In order to reach its goals, the team proposes the
creation of a huge data-management-platform
where the different market segments of the
industry will be linked, exploiting network effect
and creating valuable relationships in both - inter
and intra-segment.
According to the proposed vision, the Product-
Service-System for the different horizontal
markets will allow them to enhance the
relationships (personal or professional one)
with pets, exploiting the power of first-hand
treated data provided. At the same time, NTT
will be pushed to develop a Client-as-a-Source
strategy, with possible customization and
personalization of the service offering for each
of the players/industries that benefits from pet
market knowledge and data, leveraging on their
data management and consultancy capabilities.
In addition, the huge web traffic that will be held
inside the platform, will allow a Client-as-a-Target
strategy to gain additional value.
The following report aims to describe the results
of the Pink Flamingo team’s intense research
and project development, revealing in details the
solution envisioned as well as the strategic plan
for entering the market.
Abstract
THE CLIENT
NTT, is a Japanese telecommunications
company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.
It is the fourth largest telecommunications
company in the world in terms of revenue
and has a presence worldwide.
Their core activities are related with
Information and Communication
Technologies (ICT) that is believed to be
a mean of developing solutions that can
bring value to clients and society.
NTT Data, one of the business units of
NTT, is a technology-driven institution
that provides a range of services to
their customers: system integration,
consulting, digital and security,
application management & outsourcing,
internet of things, virtual reality and
artificial intelligence.

5. 1. THE RESEARCH
Framing
THE DIRECTION
‘‘
THE DESIGN CHALLENGE
‘‘Technology as an enabler
of valuable services and
experiences.
NTT Data developed in recent years a
new technology, Hitoe, that combined
human health hydrophilic, textile
technology, electrical evolution,
organic conductors and information
interface into a innovative t-shirt, made
with a conductive fiber polymer, that
collects and sends to the transmitter
vital and postural parameters.
Hitoe t-shirts and pants have, as basic
functionalities: heart rate monitoring,
ECG and heart rate variability
monitoring, SOS and localization,
surface electromyography, posture
monitoring and stress measuring
(by stress index) compressing also a
mobile interface.
Hitoe technology have been already
used in some fields of application,
the most important ones being those
of sports, wellness & healthcare and
work & safety.
The company identified a saturation
in those markets, with a great
presence of competitors, which do
not undermine the value of their
developed Hitoe technology.
For that reason, and trying to expand
their fields of application, NTT Data
proposed to:
“Design new experiences enabled by
the HITOE, focusing on the different
field where the technology still need
to be explored”.
Given the brief, the project started with a process
of mind mapping.
It helped the team to assess all the possible
applications for the data obtained by Hitoe.
The team proceeded with a selection of the
possible envisioned opportunities, the ones with
most promising growth, value aggregation and
disruption.
The market opportunity defined by the team was
the pet market.
As showed in the image below, within the market,
a wide range of actors were identified.
Within the mentioned market opportunity, the
main customer identified was the pet owner.
To develop a customer-centered solution and
and assess the value Hitoe could provide, the
team proceeded by defining the personas.
When assessing pet owners’ main problems by
interviews and use cases, it was concluded that
their inability to understand pets was one of their
most significant concerns.
Motivated by the identified problem, the
addressed market was further explored.
< what to look for? >
PROBLEM DEFINITION
PET
MARKET
food
accessories
gadget
furniture
toys
healthcare
vets
grooming
multiple services
THE RESEARCH EVIDENCES
The pet market: an overview
Having the pet industry and all its players in mind,
the market was assesed based on it’s growth and
financial potential.
It was found that the pet market has:
• Huge potential of market growth (5,65% in
2017) and profitability (USD 29 billion in 2017).
• Great number of players with different needs.
• Trends towards the inclusion of rapidly
changing technological world with a lot of
innovative gadgets appearing in the market.
It revealed a market with great growth and
profitability potential, recently with high
dynamism of changes.
Pet Wearable Market Analysis
Coherently with the technology proposed, the
pet wearable market has been analysed.
It can be highlighted that:
• The global pet wearable market size was
estimated at USD 1.07 billion in 2016.
• The industry has witnessed considerable
growth owing to the increasing awareness
amongst owners about pet well-being.
• This technology enables activity tracking,
monitors heart and respiratory rates along with
rest patterns and calories burnt off by their dog
or cats.
• Owners use services to manually log food
consumption of their pets, which is useful to
analyze their health and well-being.
• Some wearables also offer a correspondent
platform and user-interface, where a community
of pet owners is created.
The next step was to understand the different
services and products established in the pet
wearable market - not just the gadgets offered,
but also the platforms and communities created
in parallel. This involved verifying which kind of
data are gathered and provided by established
solutions, and the purpose of the data provision
to the customer.
Concerning the kind of data gathered and offered
to customers, it was identified that the existing
solutions are based mainly in three types of data:
geographical tracker, heart-rate monitoring and
activity monitor.
Unlike the competitors, the Hitoe technology
offers superior functionality through integration
of existing features and addition of extras like -
Stress and Posture monitoring.
As conclusion, this addition can lead to the
provision of better insights and real-time
information for pet owners.
The outcome
By digging deeper into the research and acting
upon feedback, the team initiated a converge-
diverge process by taking a step back. A different
perspective to envision a more valuable problem
to solve, which addressed all the trends and
developments occurring in the pet market.
The reframing of the problem was necessary as
the team verified:
• Possible gadgetization of the previously
suggested design opportunity, with low value
aggregation and low differentiation from
competitors.
• Although HITOE could generate value in the
industry, its significance is low given the huge
disruptive potential of the market opportunity.
• Rapidity of change in the pet market, that
could outdate our solution and problem definition
obsolete quickly.
HITOE
activity
monitors
heartrate monitors
stress&posture
geo
tracker
Fig. 2 Data provided by Hitoe
“I try to
communicate
by making
stupid voice.”
“I use face
expressions
to make she
understand.”
“Words and
tone of voice
make him
understand.”
“Eye Contact
is a powerful
tool to
communicate
. 3 4 .

6. 1. THE RESEARCH
Reframing
THE REFRAMED QUESTION
The first step for the problem reframing was
broadening the scope that was identified: the
problem would be expanded into a deep research
into the human-pet relationship, and the different
meanings that this relationship has been given
over time.
In ancient times, pet and humans relied on each
others’capacitiesandstrengthsforsurvivalintheir
harsh environments. Following, the relationship
evolved into a functional one: pets served the
purpose of helping humans with their daily
activities and jobs - security, rescue, plantations,
mobility. Later the, human and pet relationship
got a new meaning of companionship, with pets
assuming the role of human’s best friend. The
relationship was further enhanced, reaching the
emotional meaning that it has today: pets are
no longer seen as mere friends, but they are a
scapatory from the realities of the world with
increasing lonliness and ever reducing human-
contact
In this context, pets act as family, and have an
immeasurable value and priority in the their
owners’ lives. However, within an ever changing
world, replete of new technologies, the pet-
human relationship will not stop changing it’s
meaning soon.
The questions that arose, then, were: what
would be the next evolution of the human-pet
relationship? How is it going to be enhanced
and which are the levelers to enhance it?
Getting deeper into the motivations of this
movement of shifting human-pet relationship
meaning, it was verified that the role of pets
has always been changing as a response and
adaptation to changes and needs of humans.
Nowadays, the use of high volumes of data,
with high processing velocity, gathered from
a great variety of players (Big Data) enables
product and service providers to improve their
decision-making process, basing them on more
reliable, instantly collected data to provide better
solutions to its customers.
The use of data certainly will play an essential
role in the pet ecosystem and will leverage the
change of meaning in the human-pet relationship,
as it is happening in the human world.
To get deeper in the “pet-human relationship
world” and to verify that data can aggregate value
inside pets’ environment, the team interviewed
significant service providers.
As result of the research phase, the team was
able to map all the players present in the pet
ecosystem, by re-clustering them according to
the stages of human-pet lifecycle.
The team identified three main stages of this
lifecycle: acquisition, pet community and pet
healthcare.
Expanding the insights given by the interviewees
to the other players of pet industry, it was verified
that all of them could benefit from better real-
time data treatment and insights.
To mention some of the benefits: pet owners can
better understand their pets and control their
health status; veterinarians can better assess
the effectiveness of their treatment and take
preventive actions sooner; food manufacturers
can develop better solutions, improving pets’
health.
However, in order to do so, it is necessary to
family
handler
friends
vet
volunteers
groomer
dog sitter
pet shop
other
owners
breeder
shelter
food
industry
local
govenment
service
providers
hospitals
acqusition
petcom
m
unity
petcare
THE PET ECOSYSTEM
Fig.3 Stakeholders map
ALDO LA SPINA
Director and educator of the European cinofilo center (APNEC)
ANNA MEAZZA
Responsible for “Atelier di movimento”, pet therapy center (Mi)
MARTA
Pet handler at “Centro il Girasole” (MI)
ZACK
Dog trained at “Center for Zooantropologic Professional Activities”
MANUELA MICHELAZZI
Sanitar director, veterinary doctor specialized in ethology
FRANCESCA CIRULLI
Researcher at Center for Behavioral Sciences and Mental Health, ISS
from the upper left
“Actually, in my job the most important part is to work
with the owner. They must be aware of their pet.”
“The pet-human relationship has huge potentialities to
explore. Technology can help in unveiling them.”
“By training, we carefully observe the “action-reaction.”
What if we collect and track some pattern of behaviour?
“Empathy: this unbeliavable super-power hidden in the
child-dog relationship.”
“Different from what happens today, what if children
could understand the dog emotions more effectively ?”
“Woof, woof!”
. 5

7. gather and integrate information from multiple
sources and players, promoting an exchange of
information in both, inter and intra-segment.
In fact, when we benchmark the multiple sources
of data currently used by the actors onto a
positioning map, A large gap can be found right
at the center.
The data sources were positioned based on the
data origin (x axis) and the purpose of the data
(y axis).
It seems to lack one player that collects data
from multiple players, treat and gather them, and
provides customized insights for the multiple
players to develop an enhanced relationship
with the pets - from providing better services
and products to better understanding pets and
developing a stronger bond with them.
Also, it was seen that the different actors have
great interest for the gathered data. Data has
great potential in the market, and most solutions
limit its use in the pet-owner interaction cycle or
are focused on one certain kind of community
(veterinarians, groomers, trainers, etc.).
This analysis revealed a valuable market, with
untapped potential to explore.
The team, by highlighting all the mentioned
points, reframed the problem definition to a most
valuable one, identifying that there are scarce
1. THE RESEARCH
THE DESIGN OPPORTUNITY
emotionalphysical
meaningful
fun
WAMIZFELCANA
MOGGIE
PETABLE
FURBO
DOGSTAR
INUPHATY
WONDERWOOF
POOF
WHISTLE
FITBARK
PET PACE
KYON
Fig. 4 Positioning map
sources of accurate, real-time and treated data
to enhance the human-pet relationship.
Within this problem definition, the team assumed
that a large chunk of the players inside the pet
industry need data or would benefit from the
data gathered from pets.
NTT, in this sense, could leverage its data-
management and consultancy capabilities in
order to enter the defined market and play the
critical role of data manager and service provider,
further enhancing human-pet relationship.
Wrap-up
• Humans are changing as a result of
technological developments, which are defined
by the world megatrends and actual velocity
of information - Big Data. The Human-pet
relationship has also been changing meaning
rapidly over time, with the role of dogs changing
as a response of human-beings change.
• As human-pet bonds are getting stronger
with pets assuming immeasurable value to their
owners, the need for addressing this market
gains more significance.
• Pet market has a huge size and potential of
growth. It involves a lot of different players, with
different needs. The numerous actors of the pet
ecosystem can benefit from better and faster
data collection and provision.
• The pet market is characterized by dispersed
and focused data - that addresses partially the
needs of one specific player -, with low exchange
between different actors.
emotionalphysical
meaningful
fun
WAMIZFELCANA
MOGGIE
PETABLE
FURBO
DOGSTAR
INUPHATY
WONDERWOOF
POOF
WHISTLE
FITBARK
PET PACE
KYON
Fig. 5 Filling the gap
consolidate
integrate
THE FUTURE
OF HUMAN-PET RELATIONSHIP
The human-pet relationship has been
changing meaning rapidly, strengthening
the bonds between pets and its human-
related actors - from pet owners
to pet product & service providers.
Within a context of rapidly developing
technological world, the relationship will
be further enhanced and strengthened
by gathering and promoting exchange
of information between the different
sources, combining them with the
power of real-time monitoring data. This
combination is the key for aggregating
value for all the actors in the industry
and to enable the provision of multiple
new and better products and services,
leading the human-pet relationship to a
higher level.
. 7

8. Visioning
THE MISSION
“Enhance the fast changing human-pet
relationship, by gathering, integrating, treating
and exchanging information between the actors
involved into pets’ life-cycle.”
The pet ecosystem is crowded with a large range
of valuable data from multiple sources.
This data includes a variety of information: data of
pedigree and hereditary acquired characteristics,
nutrition and diet, behaviour, biometric, etc.
Usually, the actors involved in human-pet
lifecycle use selected data, giving them a partial
comprehension of the pet.
In this sense, the pet ecosystem is characterized
by a wide range of actors, that collect multiple
valuable information about pets, and use partially
this huge volume of information to provide
solutions for dogs. Owners, at the same time, are
unlocking a higher level of their relationship with
pets by having access to real-time monitoring
data that enable the closer examination of pets’
health status.
The scenario composed, then, is one with
multiple actors and different needs interacting
in an environment crowded with information
dispersed amongst numerous sources.
The introduction of real-time monitoring data
combined with treatment and gathering of
existing information, can unlock multiple range
of new services and products and enable the
human-pet relationship to reach a stronger bond.
The team, in order to pursue its vision and mission,
proposes the creation of a data-management-
platform within the broad scenario, capable of
gathering, integrating, treating and exchanging
information between the actors inside the pet
ecosystem.
The platform is based on three main pillars:
• Gathering information from external databases
and specific information within the communities
(veterinarians, trainers, groomers, etc.).
2. THE PROPOSITION < what we envision >
THE BROAD SCENARIO
• Assessing real-time monitoring data from pets.
• Creating communities to increase the exchange
of information.
The platform will unlock another level of human-
pet relationship, as it will rely on high volume
of accurate data, previously never correlated
and treated, to provide useful insights and
information for all the players involved in human-
pet lifecycle. The merging of external data with
real-time monitoring data enables the provision
of more useful information instantly accessed,
and tailored solution and suggestions.
The players involved in human-pet lifecycle were
redivided within three groups according to the
similarity of their needs.
These groups are the customer segments
addressed by the solution.
Their needs and related value proposition are
following highlighted:
• Individual Relationship with pets (B2C):
the customers compressed in this segment are
those that establish an individual bond with one
or few pets. It is mainly composed by pet owners
and handlers.
Needs: as previously highlighted they would
better understand their pets to be a better owner.
Value Proposition: to enhance their relationship
with pets by providing access to real-time data
backed by and linked to external sources of
information, in order to provide daily, useful
insights and tips. Create a community that would
foster the exchange of information leveraging on
its network effect.
• Relationship with multiple individual pets
(B2B): this customer segment is composed by
the numerous players that establish a professional
relationship with a higher number of pets.
They were identified as veterinarians, trainers,
breeders, shelters, therapists.
Needs: they would improve their decision-making
process to prevent issues.
Value Proposition: Improve efficacy and
effectiveness of services by providing useful
insights and pattern identification about pet
behaviour and health status; Facilitate real-time
monitoring of pets, also create a community
of practice, enabling better, faster and more
THE NEW ECOSYSTEM
personalized service provision.
• Relationship with a population of pets
(B2B2C):
the third and last customer segment is composed
by the companies which do not have interest in
information about any individual pet, but rather
in information about a mass of pets. The possible
players identified are: pet food companies, pet
healthcare companies, groomers, insurance
companies, pet gadget manufacturers, marketing
agencies, hospitals.
Needs: to have a big picture of the market,
and aggregate information to identify business
opportunities, to increase awareness of their own
products and services.
Value Proposition: generate higher profits for the
actors in the customer segment, by providing and
selling gathered mass data about pet ecosystem
and offering them a strategic consultancy service
in the fastly changing pet environment.
To uncover the hidden relationships between
dogs’ actions and wellness, a pattern recognition
algorithm will be developed. Linking behaviour
to integrated quantitative and qualitative data.
pet services providers
family
handler
vet
volunteers trainers
owner
breeder
shelter
N TT
cash flow data flow networking services
pet food
industry
pet healthcare
industry
pet gadgets
manufacturers
groomers
insurance
companies
municipalities
hospitals
marketing
agencies
ethologistsopen-source
platforms
therapistsexternal
database
who
ow
ns
the pet who provid
es
petcare
Fig. 6 System map
. 9 10 .

9. Designing
THE BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS
As already stated, with the proposition of
“bringing value to all the actors within the pet
value chain by data (pattern) generation and
collection”, the Business Model Canvas has the
purpose of further illustrating the functioning of
the solution.
Customer Relationship
The customer segments will establish a direct
relationship with the proposed solution. The
first customer segment interacts directly by-
receiving useful insights and information about
pet care, and having access to a community of
professionals and peers. The second customer
segment also has access to professional
communities and receives direct instantaneous
insights from the platform, an automated service.
The third customer segment receives direct
consultancy services and can buy huge volumes
of data gathered by the platform.
It is important to highlight that HITOE could be
adapted according to the customer segments
needs and changes, establishing a two-sided
relationship with the customer.
Channels
Customer segments will be reached through
customized marketing campaigns. As NTT has
no presence in the market, it is important to build
awareness of the product and service. For that
purpose, HITOE should initiate a pilot program,
further explained in the road map.
In the future, customer segments will purchase
HITOE through the online platform and in
physical stores.
On the other hand, the third segment will submit
a direct request for offer.
Revenue Stream
The main revenue streams are:
Direct product purchase.
Subscription fees to the second customer
segment, in order to have access to professional
communities and better insights.
Advertising inside the platform.
Critical mass data selling to the third customer
segment, which will be the main source of profits.
. 13 14 .
2. THE PROPOSITION < what we envision >
Key Activities
The main activities performed by the solution are
gathering and treating data from multiple actors,
leveraging real-time and benchmarked data,
and provide tailored insights to the customer
segments. This involves previous marketing
efforts to enter the market, product redesign
and algorithm development. Also, the company
will be responsible for the production of the
product and maintenance of the communities
and database.
Key Resources
The first main resource is the databases and the
gathering of different sources of data, including
the mechanisms to safely protect data. There
is an essential need for experts to support the
algorithm development. Furthermore, the main
identified resources are production facilities,
possible patents and the algorithm.
Key Partners
The partners will be extremely important to build
awareness in the market. The solution will rely
in a partnership with pet therapists and shelters
to initially develop the product and start data
collection for the platform. Indeed, another key
partner, the Ministry of Health from the Italian
Republic, endorsed the pilot program and offered
support with developing the solution.
Professionals and experts will be essential to
build trust and reputation.
Cost Structure
The cost structure will be basically composed by:
Research and development
Costs related to the data gathering, and algorithm
development.
Costs of marketing and advertising the solution.
Platform development and maintenance costs.
COST STRUCTURE REVENUE STREAM
KEY PARTNERS CUSTOMER SEGMENT
KEY ACTIVITIES VALUE PROPOSITION CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP
KEY RESOURCES CHANNELS
TO BRING VALUE
TO ALL THE ACTORS
WITHIN
THE PET VALUE CHAIN
GATHERING DATA
TREATING DATA
ALGORITHM DEVELOPMENT
PRODUCT MANUFACTURING
DATABASE MAINTAINANCE
CONSULTANCY SERVICE
DATABASE
ALGORITHM
PRODUCTION FACILITIES
PATENT
IT COMPETENCES
DATA ANALYTICS
PROFESSIONALS
EXPERTS (ETHOLOGISTS)
GOVERNMENT (MINISTRY OF HEALTH)
NTT’S BUSINESS UNITS ( HITOE, RMA CONSULTING )
CUSTOMER WITH A PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP
CUSTOMER WITH A PROFESSIONAL RELATIONSHIP
DATA CLIENTS (3)
MARKETING AND ADVERTISING
PLATFORM R&D
PLATFORM MAINTEINANCE
R&D (FOR NEW VERSIONS RELEASES)
DIRECT PRODUCT PURCHASE
SUBSCRIPTION FEES (professionals)
PLATFORM ADVERTISING
DATA SELLING/ CONSULTANCY (data clients)
‘‘ ‘‘
PHYSICAL STORES
PERSONAL SELLING
ONLINE STORES
RFO (3)
PLATFORM CHATBOT
PHYSICAL STORES
24months WARRANTY
ACCOUNT MANAGER (3)

10. Designing
2. THE PROPOSITION < what we envision >
THE USER EXPERIENCE
The main aim of this paragraph is to give an
insight on how the proposed solution will work.
“Being a pet owner with Hitoe”
Starting from the first segment (individual
relationship), the system will work with the
usage of both the product and the platform.
For the owners which are the primary users in
that segment, the platform will have a digital
application for smartphones, as way to enable
the user to interact with the ecosystem and
access the broader online database.
Each user will have a personal account with all
the personal information about their dog and
the real time data about it. Moreover, the app
will provide suggestions and insights to enable
them to improve their understanding of the
pet. A section of the app will show information
about professionals, how to contact them,
get suggestions or book appointments and,
through their remote monitoring, be notified by
them in case the dog has a prescribed therapy
from a specific vet that could provide alerts or
reminders. Also, the app will have a part entirely
dedicated to the community of pet owners, that
will promote increased connections and receive
suggestions, tips from other pet-lovers. The app
will be tailor made for the user needs, with the
possibility to add different data to the basic set
to enhance the experience. Also, the notification
system will be personalizable to have a more
customised service experience.
“Being a pet professional with Hitoe”
On the other hand, another interface has been
envisioned for the professional segment. It allows
them to to not only visualize real-time data, but
also to compare this data with one of several
other dogs and to manage those in a seamless,
easy to use way. The level of details and the
variety of data will be higher, in order to provide
them data related also to the clinical history of the
patient. Moreover, the creation of a community of
practice, of their specific field, will help to know
and spread the best practices and to have a more
comprehensive knowledge of dogs.
1.
While running with her friends, Elena hears about
the new product every pet should have: PAWSOME 2.
She doesn’t miss the chance to have it, but before
buying it, she checks some reviews online. 3.
With the new collar, Elena feels free to leave her
pets alone at home...
4.
...indeed, she’s always updated about her pets’
health condition and position. 5.
Moreover, she can keep in contact with other pet
parents and professionals, getting suggestions. 6.
It’s time to the visit the vet: Elena receives the
alert to remind her of the appointment..
7.
The vet can now schedule periodic visits for the
pet, and send reminders to the owner 8.
Thanks to the platform, the vet can not only
gather and collect more precise data... 9.
...but also compare historical data to conduct
research and prevent issues.
. 11 12 .

11. 3. THE ROADMAP
Developing
THE CHALLENGES
Even though the potential of entering the pet
market has been recognized and proven, the
potential challenges have been identified:
• No presence in the pet market: as already
mentioned, the Hitoe product was created to
address human issues, while, the direction taken
would suggest the client to enter a totally new
market;
• No expertise in pet science: the client
doesn’t have the capability of gathering and
selecting relevant data in order to provide useful
information for the actors. The assumption leads
to the need of developing an algorithm that will
match the monitored data with the real emotions
of the dog and unveil the pattern of behaviour.
• Product redesign implications: as the original
product was created to monitor humans, it could
lack accuracy and precision if applied directly
to pets (considering hair and fur on pets). For
this reason, the redesign of the product will be
considered as part of the initial investment by
the company in order to enter the market.
• Existing platforms: other platforms that
attempt to create new meaning in existing
Dog data through integration of real time
monitoring. These platforms, have very specific
goals like - Predictive analysis for Prevention
(Medical), Behavioural Monitoring (Medical
R&D), Marketplace Platforms with integration of
Blockchain Scientific Studies in Dog Science.
All these platforms attempt to use one or a
combination of wearables for Dogs to collect
data. This is their greatest limitation, which
should be easily overcome by us due to existing
technology owned by Hitoe. Lastly, all platforms
found by us are currently NOT commercial. They
are built and used for Research or Scientific
purposes. They are: Pet Insight Project, Voyce,
Felcana, Petsource, Fitbark, PiPat.
To overcome these barriers the team has
developed a strategic market entering plan,
which will be further described in the Road Map.
mvp product development
pilot: pet therapyidentification
PROFESSIONAL
RELATIONSHIP
PERSONAL
RELATIONSHIP
DATA
CLIENTS
< how to get there >
lead users launchidentification
version 1 launch version 2 launch
consultancy service launch
lead users launchidentification
version 1 launch
Fig. 7 Roadmap
version 2 launch
. 15 16 .

12. 3. THE ROADMAP
THE MVP
“Real-time monitoring data combined with
external-source multiple data about dogs
can generate value for users, opening up
the possibility to provide customers with
tailored suggestions and thus increase their
effectiveness in pursuing their goals in context
to the role of their pets.”
Driven by this assumption, the team identified
an effective method to demonstrate whether
the combined real time monitoring with
further data provided by the platform increase
the rate of healthy and well integrated dogs, to
observe the resultant user engagement and to
understand the right way to communicate and
share data with final users.
To test these hypotheses a simple experiment
should be conducted over a period of one
month, aiming at improving the ad integration
of dogs in the houses of new owners after
adoption from animal shelters or other sources.
It is based on the creation of three different
scenarios:
• A first group would receive a written manual
containing generic suggestions and tips for
better dogcare and health.
• A second group would recieve hard data
from real-time monitoring of their dogs using
existing pet wearables.
• A third group would receive real-time
monitoring and suggestions from experts, like
behaviourists, that will analyses the dogs’ data
and provide to this group personal tailored
suggestions.
They will receive contents through existing
messaging platforms and after a month, a
group of experts will evaluate the well-being
and integration of dogs in each segment.
In the case that the third segment achieves
best results of all would prove the hypothesis
assumed, evidentiating the value of platform’s
scope.
The experts, the ethologists, behaviourists
involved in the experiment will be also useful,
after the development of the new, dog-
friendly, version of the product to develop
the algorithm needed, matching the data
monitored with the real emotions and feelings
of dogs, and to create the foundations of the
platform.
THE PILOT PROGRAM
The purpose of the pilot program is to overcome
the entry barriers and challenges identified, as
well as reducing NTT’s investments and risks by
addressing a niche market.
The pet therapy market was chosen as the pilot
program, for these main reasons:
• It is a growing practice, in process of increasing
its awareness inside the pet community:
growth potential and increasing visibility in pet
environment.
• It is an application with ethical bases and
socially responsible: build reputation among
users and professionals.
• It relies on direct value aggregation to pet
therapy by improving the internal process flow:
no need of full working data-platform and huge
amount of third party data.
• Enable gathering of consistent amounts of
data to build the foundation of the platform.
Overview
Pet therapy is a service that has spread all
around the world during the past two decades,
with an increasing number of customers. It is
an alternative type of therapy that has as main
goal to improve a patient’s social, emotional or
cognitive functioning through their interaction
with pets, mainly dogs. The therapy can be useful
for educational and motivational effectiveness for
participants, that through empathizing with pets
feelings and emotions, can better understand
and express their own feelings.
The therapy session involves up to four people:
the therapist, one or two handlers and the patient.
The therapist’s role is to arrange the room based
on the type of therapy session applied to the
patient’s needs. The handler is responsible to
calm the dog down, relieve its stress and prevent
misbehaviour.
Providing value through Hitoe
The offering map presented on the right has the
function of clarifying how Hitoe will provide value
within the pet therapy.
The service enabled by Hitoe creates benefits
for all the actors: the therapists will have a tool
to register and analyze sessions’ progresses and
results, the therapy is further facilitated with the
< how to get there >
better understanding and exposure of dog’s
feelings and emotions; the patient is involved into
a more effective and engaging therapy session
that brings faster results; the handler is assured
that the dog is well treated and is not excessively
stressed, as well as to have a better monitoring
of its health status.
Furthermore, addressing pet therapy enables the
collection of Stimuli-Reaction Data, gathering
data simultaneously from the patient and the
pet. This kind of data is enriching and valuable
both for the therapy and the construction of the
platform.
It is important to highlight that Hitoe technology
will be given to the handlers, in order to collect
full-time data from the pet, during a certain
period of time.
lead users that can provide feedback about the
functionality and physical design of the product,
as well as increase the awareness of the product
within the pet community.
. 17 18 .
Fig. 8 Offering map
PET THERAPY
program for professionals
DESIGN
TOOL
PERSONALIZED
SESSIONS
DEVELOPMENT
PROGRAM
real time
analytics
visualize
feedback
data
collection
sharing of
best practices
historical
data
get insights
(data elaborations)
compare insights
(data elaborations)
correct timely errors networking learning
enhance the effectiveness

13. 3. THE ROADMAP
PRODUCT-SERVICE LAUNCH
Lead-users and data gathering
In the period that the MVP and the pilot program
are being executed, external sources data will be
acquired.
Particularly, data about pedigree characteristics,
training, breed, health and diet will be collected.
These data, combined with real-time monitoring
data about dogs biometrics, posture, localization,
activity and age enable the provision of real-
time tailored suggestions. This activity will be
supported by pet professionals - behaviorists,
ethologists and experts - that will be responsible
for matching the multiple range background
data with real-time monitoring data to provide
useful insights. Those professionals will support
the development of the algorithm.
In order to expand the addressed markets, a set
of lead users from the first and second customer
segments will be identified with help from the
pilot program participants and from the “Instituto
Superiore di Sanità”.
These lead users have the role of providing
feedback about the functionality and interface
of the platform, increase the awareness of the
solution within their community and provide
initial data.
Launch
After the aggregation of a sufficient amount of
data, increased awareness and platform building,
the new release of Hitoe for pets, pawsome or
inu ? Inu, is launched in the whole market.
This will enable the regular user to buy the
designed product and access the services
provided in the platform.
Thehugewebtrafficpromotedinsidetheplatform
- leveraging on data collected from dogs and
the interactions promoted in the communities
- pushes NTT to develop a customer-as-source
and customer-as-target strategy.
The first is enabled as customers demands can
be addressed by redesigning Hitoe to collect the
required datas and insights.
The second is possible as the exchanging of
information within and between communities
permits NTT to assess the market trends and
develop better solutions to its customers. Also,
this is a useful way of gathering information for
the consultancy service.
This new assessed needs will be addressed in the
future versions of the product.
To address the needs of the third customer
segment, it is necessary to aggregate significant
amounts of data within the platform.
It is important to highlight that, once the platform
is launched, it will rely on its networking effect
to continue constant expansion - the more users
the platform has, the better will be the service
provided.
The third segment is the one that will bring
higher financial value to NTT: selling mass data to
this customer segment and providing strategic
consultancy to these industries would be the
main source of revenue for NTT.
CONSULTANCY
18 .
Annex
FINANCIAL ANALYSIS
This section will give a brief and approximate description of
the monetary value that must be invested to develop this
project and the estimation about the future cash inflows.
Initial investment*
CONSULTANCY COSTS
PLATFORM DEVELOPMENT
COMPETENCES TO ACQUIRE
PRODUCT REDESIGN
MKT AND COMMUNICATION
DATA COLLECTION
*In the above table, all the relevant investments are
reported. This is the way in which each item has been
calculated:
• Consultancy costs: in this item are included strategic
consultancy, corporate branding, product branding
and packaging design costs. The estimation comes
from research of small-medium sized design studios,
consultants and agencies.
• Platform development: Basic costs to develop the
platform internally, indeed the hypothesize is based on
the development of the platform exploiting the services
of the society owned by NTT, RMA. To calculate the
Human-hour costs, we referred to a request of offer
done in a website of an IT company.
• Competences to be acquired: this item includes
the cost to insource temporarily the capability and
competences of scientists of different fields around the
pet world. It was estimated as the quarterly average
wage multiplied for seven (as the number of different
scientists needed).
• Product redesign: this item includes the cost that
must be sustained to adapt the technology of Hitoe
to dogs and to the different shapes and sizes of their
bodies. It was estimated starting from the total R&D
expenditure of NTT during the year 2013 (the year in
which Hitoe was developed), dividing that number by
four since we assume that in three months Hitoe could
200 €
200 €
126 €
1. 188 €
80 €
280 €
2. 074 €
be adapted using the 5% of the resources at a global
level of the company.
• Marketing and communication initial investments:
this item includes all the costs that must be sustained
to enter in a new market addressing new customers
following the strategy that consultants could give to
NTT. It was estimated online through https://www.
nuvonium.com/blog/view/how-much-will-it-cost-to-
market-my-new-product
• Data collection: this item includes the monetary
value of the efforts that must be faced to collect
the initial population of data to be putted inside the
platform at the beginning. It has been overestimated
by hypothesizing to give for free an hitoe (assumed
to cost 80euro) to any breed of any age of dog
(estimated to be 3214 different types of dogs, breeds
times evolutional age) and adding a budget of 25keuro
about to insource several datasets about dogs owned
by other websites.
Net present value
The net present value of the project is estimated for
four years after the year zero, when the investment is
made, below.
The NPV has been calculated assuming a discount
rate of 0,18 in order to consider the quite high
risk of this unknown market but considering also
8.000.000
6.000.000
4.000.000
2.000.000
-6.000.000
-4.000.000
-2.000.000
€
€
€
€
€
€
€
€
years
FCF
NPV
Fig.9 NPV and FCF
. 19
-5.000.000
-5.000.000
2.380.00
-2.983.05
2.977.50
-844.657
3726,87
1423,63
4,671,09
3,832,93
5,857,61
6,393,35
This section will give a brief and approximate description of
the monetary value that must be invested to develop this
project and the estimation about the future cash inflows.
Initial investment*
CONSULTANCY COSTS
PLATFORM DEVELOPMENT
COMPETENCES TO ACQUIRE
PRODUCT REDESIGN
MKT AND COMMUNICATION
DATA COLLECTION
*In the above table, all the relevant investments are
reported. This is the way in which each item has been
calculated:
• Consultancy costs: in this item are included strategic
consultancy, corporate branding, product branding
and packaging design costs. The estimation comes
from research of small-medium sized design studios,
consultants and agencies.
• Platform development: Basic costs to develop the
platform internally, indeed the hypothesize is based on
the development of the platform exploiting the services
of the society owned by NTT, RMA. To calculate the
Human-hour costs, we referred to a request of offer
done in a website of an IT company.
• Competences to be acquired: this item includes
the cost to insource temporarily the capability and
competences of scientists of different fields around the
pet world. It was estimated as the quarterly average
wage multiplied for seven (as the number of different
scientists needed).
• Product redesign: this item includes the cost that
must be sustained to adapt the technology of Hitoe
to dogs and to the different shapes and sizes of their
bodies. It was estimated starting from the total R&D
expenditure of NTT during the year 2013 (the year in
which Hitoe was developed), dividing that number by
four since we assume that in three months Hitoe could
be adapted using the 5% of the resources at a global
level of the company.
• Marketing and communication initial investments:
this item includes all the costs that must be sustained
to enter in a new market addressing new customers
following the strategy that consultants could give to
NTT. It was estimated online through https://www.
nuvonium.com/blog/view/how-much-will-it-cost-to-
market-my-new-product
• Data collection: this item includes the monetary
value of the efforts that must be faced to collect
the initial population of data to be putted inside the
platform at the beginning. It has been overestimated
by hypothesizing to give for free an hitoe (assumed
to cost 80euro) to any breed of any age of dog
(estimated to be 3214 different types of dogs, breeds
times evolutional age) and adding a budget of 25keuro
about to insource several datasets about dogs owned
by other websites.
Net present value
The net present value of the project is estimated for
four years after the year zero, when the investment is
made, below.
The NPV has been calculated assuming a discount
rate of 0,18 in order to consider the quite high
risk of this unknown market but considering also

14. the CAGR of this market that is particularly high
(25%) as reported by http://businessresearcher.
sagepub.com/sbr-1863-102160-2772364/20170227/
the-pet-industry and https://americanpetproducts.
o r g / U p l o a d s / M a r k e t R e s e a r c h a n d D a t a /
PetIndustryMarketSize2018_HistoricalTrends.pdf.
In the table below, all the estimated items that have
been considered in the calculation of the NCF are
presented*. Here some notes:
• A realistic number of hitoe sold has been setted
considering total pet wearable industry market size
1.07 billion in 2016 multiplied twice by CAGR 14.8%
to create 2019 market size as reported by https://
www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/pet-
wearable-market. Then it is assumed to capture 1%
market share to create a very conservative forecast
considering the functionally superior product and the
fact that NTT is not a new startup with no production
facilities.
• The production costs has been assumed as 50% of
the price of the product.
Annex
Number of hitoe sold
Revenues (100€ units)
COGS basic (50%) (€)
Marketing costs (20%) (€)
Administration costs (10%) (€)
Investments (€)
Distribution (5%) (€)
Platform maintenance (€)
Free Cash Flow (€)
Discounted NCF (€)
NPV (€)
2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
162.000 202.500 253.125 316406.25
20.250.000 25.312.500 31.640.625
• The price has been assumed to remain constant
and the number of hitoe sold grows at 25% every
year considering both the growth of the overall pet
wearable market and the potential market share
gained from incumbents.
• The platform maintenance costs have been
estimated through a request of offer to a real IT firm.
They increase according to the higher volume of data
collected.
• A realistic estimation for the marketing and
administrative budget.
• There is an overestimation of the investments by
doubling them in order to account for a worst case
scenario.
These numbers show that even without the consulting
and data selling to third parties, the third segment, and
without considering the sales inside the professional
market (neither the potential subscription fees), there
could be a positive cash flow starting directly from the
first operating year and reach a total repayment of
the investment during the first half of the third year.
EVIDENCES
To better show where the real profit possibility are,
and why is wort waiting to create a functional data
platform before starting the consulting/data selling
business the following examples of operations are
made.
PURINA
Analysing the financial statement of Nestlè, it’s
possible to estimate the inventories at the end of the
year, the marketing and the R&D expenditure. For the
mktg expenditure, a driver was defined to split the
total found inside the aggregated income statement,
it has been calculated considering the operating costs
of each business area over the total operating cost; for
the inventories and for the R&D expenditure, the rough
estimation has been done as the equal division of the
aggregate data over all business area. This data for the
Pet care segment only, in the 2017, was:
MARKETING PETCARE 2.382.795.427,78€
R&D PETCARE 255.726.666,67€
INVESTMENTS PETCARE 1.152.041.428,57€
With the services offered by NTT, exploiting the data
collected through Hitoe at a global level, it could be
possible to: increase the effectiveness of the R&D
efforts using a portion of the budget to buy Hitoe
insights as input; decrease the amount of inventories,
only reducing the WIPs or the FGs by 1% (with a lean
approach they could reach a 50% reduction) it is
possible to save up to 11 Mln of € that can be considered
the maximum willingness to pay to buy the service;
reduce the budget for marketing research since they
could get greater quality and more precise data that
they couldn’t get from an internal analysis.
ALLIANZ
Thepetinsurancemarketisgrowing.Nowit’saccounted
as the 1% of the total insurance market within the
company. Accordingly to the financial statement of
Allianz, insurance companies have to freeze a certain
amount of money called credit capital risk in order
to manage the risk they are undertaking. The capital
credit risk for Life&Health insurance in the 2017 was:
30.231 Mln€. So, estimating that the credit capital for
pet in the same field of insurance policies was still
at 1%, about: 300 Mln€. According to https://www.
transunion.co.uk/media/644762/7950-cc-white%20
paper-terms%20data%20value_v5.pdf, a reasonable
reduction of the risk can be achieved using a new
source of data like the one that NTT could provide, so
risk management services can be delivered.
LOCAL ADVERTISING
As the advertisement services offered by Google and
Facebook, it will be possible do this kind of offer to
all the local actors of the pet industry that want to
increase their visibility and to be found more easily by
dog owners.
These are only few approximated examples of the
exploitation of the real value of the data collected,
only with a couple of services the whole investment
could be fully repaid.
2024
316406.25
39.550.78116.200.000
-10.125.000 -12.656.250 -15.820.313 -19.775.391-8.100.000
-4.050.000 -5.062.500 -6.328.125 -7.910.156-3.240.000
2.025.000 -2.531.250 -3.164.063 -3.955.078-1.620.000
-5.000.000
-1.012.500 -1.265.625 -1.582.031 -1.977.539-810.000
-60.000 -70.000 -75.000 -75.000-50.000
2.380.000 2.977.500 3.726.875 5.857.617-5.000.000 4.671.094
-2983.051 -844,657 6.393.351-5.000.000 3.832.933
T V
2.016.949 2.138.394 2.268.291 2.560.418-5.000.000 2.409.298
*terminal value