Design a TV for a car.

1.     Comprehend Situation

1)    What is it? Standalone/Attached-to-car

2)    Who is it for? Private cars/commercial cars

3)    Why do they need it? Entertainment/tourism guidance

4)    How does it work? Constraints/rules

Go with standalone TV used in private cars for entertainment. Must comply with driver rules.

2.     Identify Customer

30-40 yo professional, loves road trips, has kids.

3.     Report Customer Needs

·      As a professional with kids, I want to be able to make peaceful road-trips, while keeping my kids entertained

·      As a busy professional who aims to buy self driving car, I want to be entertained on my ride to work

4.     Cut (prioritization)

Select car TV to entertain kids.

5.     List Solutions

1)    Have TV above the back street that plays cartoons/tv-shows for kids

2)    Controlled by phone, able to stream from phone

3)    Allow subscription to subscription based content providers

4)    Controlled by voice and integrated with google-maps. Automatically start a kids program based on time left to destination

5)    Connectivity with Bluetooth headphones for kids

6)    Integrated with google maps, play tourism-specific guidance with information about the sight-seeing places coming up

6.     Evaluate Trade-offs

2,3: Difficult to control while driving. Having to select from many options can cause overhead

6: Good to have feature, but might have low frequency usage  

Conclusion: Implement 1,4,5

7.     Summarize

I would recommend building a car TV that could be attached over the backseat of the car. It would be integrated with google-maps. It will be voice-controlled and automatically start a kids show based on time-to-destination. It will be equipped with Bluetooth connectivity to kids headphones.

This will be beneficial to the user, since they can decide on using the product on the fly while driving or when they sense the kids edginess. Its minimalist selection approach will free the user from making choices when in a hurry or driving. It will result in hassle-free road-trips.

Question: Design a TV for car

Context: Customers and Needs 

Who needs TVs in their cars? When do they need it? What kind of content?

- Families with your kids to keep them entertained on long drives in cars, RVs, private buses

- Luxury cab drivers to offer their passengers a experience to charge a premium.

- Drivers such as Truck Drivers needing a break and follow their favorite sports team.

- Drivers needing to use the TV for communication, coordination on the go with their customers

My role - as a TV vendor, who is wanting to release a new product in the marketplace, giving people a choice. Considering the current landscape, there is a TV viewing experience on family cars for kids. For them, a basic viewing and listening experience controlled by an adult would be interesting. For luxury cab drivers, a premium experience is key and the TV experience contributes to it as well. For majority of the truck drivers, they are usually riding solo and they are employed drivers. For them, the key is to catch up on events and tune into special events, 

Considering the above, if my goal is to increase expansion of my current TV product to fulfill the needs of new customers, expand the served segment, I would like to focus on making a TV for the luxury cabs or sedans. As a user, many times, I am stuck in traffic and have nothing better to do but it would be nice to catch up with favorite team. AFAIK, the car ride companies also make most of their margin on luxury makes and it would help shore up that margin.

User Cases & Prioritization: 

1.  As a user, I need to see my favorites on the go.  Such as a favorite sports team or yesterday night's big game. Frequency of Usage: High

2. I want to have a good viewing experience - I am willing to pay an extra dollar, good video quality, good sound quality - eliminate road noise, vehicle noise Frequency of Usage: High

3. I am buckled in but want to be able to make choices easily  Frequency of usage: High- 

4. I want to continue where I left off : Frequency of usage: High

5. I want to photos, videos, on a bigger screen some times since the ride may not be very long. : Frequency of usage: Medium

6. I want to catch up on news : Frequency of usage: Medium

7. I want to watch pay per view episodes: Frequency of usage: Low

Solutions:

Solution 1:

1. TV designed to work with a mobile phone so that mobile content can be cast on the TV screen. 

2. TV has accompanying head sets with noise cancellation speakers to eliminate road noise. 

3. Mobile video content provider of cjhoice providers their own choice - a movie/episode/podcast catalog 

4. Mobile apps cast on TV - provide all familiar controls, continue existing viewing habits

5. TV designed to fit within the car and work in both daylight and nightime - so light adaptive brightness control particularly important

6. Considering this is a mobile device, over the air updates to keep device healthy/update is important.

 Solution 2:

1. Provide a VR like head set instread of TV screen.

2. Accompanying mobile app allows theater like experience for existing content.

3. Provide link up to popular cable/broadcast channels to show 

Considering that this is first version and that there are lots of uncertainties, recommend #1 to gauge interest. Further, the TV could be a general purpose tablet with popular video content providers available for viewing, popular programs shared via rider profile.

Success Metric: Percent of cars activated with TV in area of launch, Percent of users watching TV per ride, % return users