How would you design a phone for kids aged less than 5 years?

Assumption - A phone that will be used by kids below 5 yrs or a phone that will be used by teachers , caregivers etc who take care of kids aged less than 5 yrs. - Primarily Former

Why are we building this ? - There is a demand for phones for this segment. Our Objective will be to help parents, caregivers and sell more products.

User Segment - 

1. Kids who need it for playing and having fun(Toddlers)

2. Kids who need it learning, playing, emergency calls and text(Pre-schoolers)

3. Kids with special needs. 

I would like to focus on segment 2. At that age kids are usually little advanced to use a phone. 

Needs or Pain Points

1. Adult phones are too big for kids hand size

2. Too many applications in adult phones, kids don't understand.

3. Parents want phones to help kids in their learning

4. Parents want phones to help kids answer their questions.

5. Parents want phones to keep kids engaged.

6. Help them to make calls to families (Grandma, Grandpa etc).

7. Parents want to limit screen time(Phones, iPad etc).

8. Safe to use

Since we are building a product and not improving it, I would assume we should address most of these pain points. If I have to prioritize in terms of the pain points that are most important to kids or parents, I would say #1,#2,#3,#5,#7,#8 are the most important ones and we will try to build solutions to address these pain points.

Solutions

1. Phone size comparatively small and light

2. Build a Kids App Store(Only applications for kids), app stores can only be accessed by parents.

3. Limit the number of applications that can be on the phone(Max 5-10 apps). Once the hit limit, they have to delete an existing app to add any new app. Phones come with few pre downloaded apps, learning apps, rhyme apps, storytelling apps etc. 

4. Voice enabled feature to help interact with kids(customize the name and voice, based on kid favourite name like a cartoon character. Ex - Ok Mickey), with libraries of poems, learning information for preschoolers.

5. Phones have restriction on usage time except for call(incase of emergenices), let's say an Daily limit on apps usage after which apps automatically shuts down. Only parents can adjust this in advanced settings.

6. Phones have 3-5 speed dials that parents can set up ( Family and Emergencies). No other contacts of directories.

7. Incoming calls are only restricted from a few numbers(parents and Family).

Prioritization (MVP)

• 1,3,6,7 are low cost features and basic attributes(bare minimum) will be expected from a kids phone.

• #5 is a low cost delighter feature but adds a lot of value to the phone.

• #3 and $4 involves high cost and execution pain, but will have high impact. They are my delighter features.

If cost is a constraint I would build the phone with 1,3,5,6,7. If not I will either add #3 or #4 to my above list for my MVP, both are equally important but an app store will have more impact in the long run.

Success Metrics

Keeping in mind the business Objective below are my success metrics -

1. # of Product Sold

2. Avg time spent per day on the phone

3. Avg time spent on a feature or Apps

4. Avg num of time, phone turned on per week/month etc.

5. Num. of Apps downloaded.

6. ARPU from Kids App store

1, 2 and 6 will be my north star metrics.

Summarize

The goal was to build a phone for kids. We decided to focus on Preschoolers and based on their and their parents needs and pain point, we decided to build a low cost phone that is light, small , helps kids in their learning, keep them engaged and is safe to use. Our primary goal was to  help parents and sell more products. Some of our north star metrics are # of Products Sold, Avg. time spent per day on the phone  and ARPU.