This document proposes a mobile application called Waitaway that helps users avoid long wait times at restaurants and other businesses. It summarizes key insights from user research indicating that people dislike wasting time waiting in lines and want a more efficient dining experience. The proposed solution is a crowdsourced app where users can check reported wait times and verify the waits at different locations. This would help other users make more informed decisions about where to go. The document outlines user personas, design iterations, and a business model for the app with potential revenue from advertising and boosting business for merchant partners.

1. its time to outsmart the lines

3. the problem

4. the problem
Americans spend
37 billion hours each year
waiting in lines
2012 MIT study

7. the solution
Occupied time feels far
shorter than unoccupied
time
2012 MIT study

10. waitaway is a mobile application
for the urban community
devoted to appreciating good food
discovering local business,
and outsmarting the lines.

11. waitaway is a mobile application
for the urban community
devoted to appreciating good food
discovering local business,
and outsmarting the lines.
join us.

12. Key screens and features
No time to wait
Patience is a virtue

13. Key screens and features
No time to wait
Patience is a virtue
hrd coffee
shop small
foods

14. planning

15. method: I sent a survey out and got 50 responses
and conducted interviews with 8 people
findings: Individuals expect dining out to be a
pleasant experience in itself; lines are a huge cause
of stress and consume an immense amount of time
opportunities identified: to disrupt this system, to
make institutions more efficient and minimize waits

16. Affinity Diagrams

17. Nikki
Key Characteristics
• 24 years old
• Lives in an apartment in the Marina
• Disposable Income
• Loves exploring the city
Background: Nikki works as a marketing manager at at a start
up in San Francisco. She lives in an apartment with friends in
the Marina and spends lots of time in the area. She is very
active on social media and loves exploring the city. She often
goes out to lunch with co-workers during the day, and out to
dinner or drinks at night with friends. She rarely has a reservation
unless she is going out for special occasions. She enjoys trying
new types of cuisine and being “in the know” as far as the cool
restaurants and bars. She uses a variety of social media
platforms to share information with friends.
Habits
• Eats at least one meal a day at a restaurant
• Drinks coffee daily
• Active on social media; twitter, facebook
• Checks in on foursquare/uses Instagram
• Spends lots of time with friends/groups
Motivations
•Loves exploring the city
•Unpredictable schedule- likes to try popular places
•Busy and doesn’t like to waste time waiting
•Likes to pick up coffee on her way to work
•Can’t be late
•Likes perks as far as free drinks

18. Thomas
Key Characteristics
• 35 years old
• Investment Banker
• Disposable income
• Two kids
• Lives in Palo Alto
Background: Thomas is in his mid 30s with a wife and two kids.
He lives in Palo Alto with his family but commutes in to the city for
work. He is an investment banker in the city and so has an
unpredictable work week. He often meets friends, his wife, and
sometimes the family in the city for dinner. They make
reservations at restaurants on special occasions and when they
want to try a new place, but they often don’t have time to cook
and make last minute decisions to go out. Thomas and his wife
are foodies and enjoy trying places recommended by friends.
Doesn’t often engage with social media but uses Linkedin and
Twitter. He is tech savvy.
Habits
• Eats dinners out
• Commutes daily
• Eats meals out with clients
• Often can’t make reservations
• Packed schedule daily
• Uses Linkedin and twitter
Motivations
• Has two kids and so can’t deal with long waits
• Commutes in from Palo Alto for dinners in SF
• Eats at a variety of places (kid-friendly, etc)
• Foodie- likes to try good food
• Likes to try recommendations from friends
• Wants to stay up to date with social circles

19. Scenarios
Method: I sketched out potential user scenarios to identify how
the user would interact with Waitaway
1. a user going to lunch @ peak hour
2. a user going to dinner without a reservation
3. a user meeting friends at a bar
4. a user grabbing coffee in the morning
Core product experience: Waitaway eliminates the mystery
around wait times enabling users to become more efficient
through discovery of new places

20. First iteration: Hypothesis
Method: Tested 10 people with a pop app prototype
Findings: Users were confused by the menu and the report/check in options
Opportunities Identified: After user testing I realized that many of the menu features would
logically live within other features. As a result of user testing I moved the “check in” option to
the individual restaurant pages, and I created an entire report menu on the home page.

21. Second iteration
No time to wait
Method:
Findings:
Opportunities Identified:
Patience is a virtue

22. Second iteration
No time to wait
Patience is a virtue
hrd coffee
shop small
foods
Method:
Findings:
Opportunities Identified:

23. High Fidelity Prototype
method: Tested the prototype on 10 individuals
findings: The monocle feature was very successful
but the map feature can be better developed
opportunities identified: This functions as a proof
of concept but then I would like to expand the wait
service to hospitals/security lines/etc
Link: https://www.flinto.com/p/fa9f47e4

24. Design Iteration

25. Today
Heads to
Darwin for
lunch
User
Is hungry
and wants a
Kale Salad
Discovers a
huge line and
hops in
20 minutes
later she
realizes she
Rushes back
to the office
and wasted a
lunch break
User is hungry
and frustrated
Checks Yelp
and finds
Darwin
Checks the wait at
Darwin and its 45
mins
Looks up highly
reviewed restaurants
in the area by wait
time
Discovers
Garaje that only
has a 15 minute
wait
The Future
Heads there to
pick up lunch
to go
The time the
user is in Garaje
is recorded as
“wait” time
The wait time is
recorded and
posted

26. The Future
The app
automatically
records the wait
Verified merchant
account is
created
Option to only
report if the
wait is < 30
Hostess reports
wait manually for
parties 2/4/6
If reservations
are available
last minute
Wait is
updated
periodically
Its posted if
OrderAhead or
pick up options
are quicker
Restaurant users
Restaurants
acquire new
customers!

27. Competitive Analysis
Competitor
Yelp
Urbanspoon
Market
Service
Local search:
Urban dwellers of
Reviews all
all ages
merchants and is a
forum TO review
Younger
demographic
See restaurant
reviews and make
reservations at
select restaurants
Cost
Free
Free
Opentable
Allows users to
Everyone looking to
make reservations Low cost for users,
reserve, majority of
online, penalizes
expensive for
restaurants are
for missing
restaurants
members
reservations
Nowait
allows users to see
waits at restaurants
and place
themselves on a
waitlist
Currently only in
Philidelphia, only
for sit down
restaurants
Free
Features
•Local search
•Crowdsourced
•Vast amount of
data
•Recommendation
s
•Write reviews
•Find restaurants
•Reserve tables
• Reservations
• Review
restaurants
• Incentive system
to make
reservation
• Local search
• Put yourself on
waitlist ahead of
being there
Type
Indirect
Indirect
Indirect
direct

28. Key Partners
Key Activities
Value propositions
Restaurants
1.Restaurants input data
2.Users input data
3.Users verify data
For the Individual
In the initial stages, we would rely on
restaurants to post their wait times
whether it be manual or automatic
through their opentable system into
a customized app
1. People become more efficient
2. People are happier
3. Complete transparency
4. Individuals gain points by
contributing to the system
Opentable
This would allow cancelled
reservations/no shows to appear on
the application. Also, wait times
could automatically be reported.
As a crowdsourcing application,
people would need to input data
into the system. I am working on
making this as seamless and easy
as possible for the user.
1.Customer satisfaction- no
longer a mystery around wait
time
2.Discover new great
restaurants
3. Point system with rewards
for participation
For the Restaurant
Key Resources
People
CUSTOMER
RELATIONSHIPS
1. iPhone app
2. iPad app (restaurant)
3. Users inputting data
4. Technology in
restaurants
Yelp
1. Bring in business on slow days
2. Encourages efficiency
3. Complete transparency
For Yelp/Opentable
1. Increases traffic to their site
2. Help generate reviews for new/
less reviewed institutions
3. Reduces lost business due to
cancelled Opentable reservations
Customer Segments
1. People going out for
meals without a reservation
2. People who want to
grab coffee or a drink at a
bar but are interested to
know the wait
3. Individuals going out for
lunch with limited time
CHANNELS
1. Will assist local
business
2. Will increase
customer satisfaction
It would be beneficial to be able to
include yelp reviews on the app.
User research showed that people
look to yelp to assess restaurants.
COST STRUCTURE
REVENUE STREAMS
•Cost of developing the application
•PR (getting restaurants on board)
•Getting people to generate content
• Boosting business at local restaurants
• Advertisements

30. next steps
streamline design
partnerships
build community