If you were to design a phone for Microsoft, what would that look like?

This is a product design qn:

Step 1: Clarify:

a) Will this phone be designed using a Windows or Android OS?

b) Is this phone designed for any specific group of individuals e.g. special needs?

c) Is this phone designed for a specific region or geo?

d) Do you have any price range in mind?

e) Should the phone have any must have features?

Step 2: Select user group

a) User group 1- kids & teenagers <16 years of age

b) User group 2- senior citizen (>65 years of age) or people with special needs

c) User group 3- Low income adults (with early income <30K)

d) User group 4: Industry and commerical usage e.g. EMTs

I will select c) User group 3- Low income adults (with early income <30K) as my target user group

Step 3: Define goal

Offer a value product at a reasonable price

Step 4: Pain points

a) The phone should a decent sized screen i.e 5 inch with good display fidelity

b) The phone should processing power and memory to run commonly used apps e.g. youtube, bank apps, tiktok etc.

c) The phone should be built tough- It should not break easily when I drop it

d) The phone should work with low cost network service providers e.g. cricket, metropcs etc. along with major telecom providers

e) The phone should cost $100-$150 without any contracts

f) The phone should come with an internal storage of atleast 10 GB as well as ability to attach memory cards

h) The phone should be water, sweat and dust resistant for some degree

i) The OS used by the phone should have a library of compatible apps

j) The phone should have a good speaker for playback purposes

k) The phone should have a decent battery

Step 5: Priortization of pain points

a) Priority 1- High Frequency, Impact and Relevancy 

a) The phone should a decent sized screen i.e 5 inch with good display fidelity

b) The phone should processing power and memory to run commonly used apps e.g. youtube, bank apps, tiktok etc.

e) The phone should cost $100-$150 without any contracts

i) The OS used by the phone should have a library of compatible apps

k) The phone should have a decent battery

These are bare bone requirements for the phone.

b) Priority 2- Medium Frequency, Impact and Relevancy 

f) The phone should come with an internal storage of atleast 10 GB as well as ability to attach memory cards --> one memory is cheap and and this should not be a big deal second in memory cards are in play, very well go for smaller internal memory

h) The phone should be water, sweat and dust resistant for some degree --> there are good phone covers available on Amazon

j) The phone should have a good speaker for playback purposes --> Most people use headphones today

b) Priority 3- Low Frequency, Impact and Relevancy 

d) The phone should work with low cost network service providers e.g. cricket, metropcs etc. along with major telecom providers --> This may be false assumption to make that people in low income group use low cost mobile service providers since they are known for their poor network outside city limits

Step 6: Solutions

a) Microsoft OS will unlikely have lot of app developers come and develop an app library hence it create a flavor of Android OS for the phone

b) Focus on camera, display, CPU and RAM over expensive features such as face recognition, LIDAR etc.(to keep cost <100-150)

c) Leverage Microsofts core strength in designing user experience to simplify usage of phone functionalities ( for people whose english skills or technical skills are not very high)

d) Battery life of 7-8 hours. Also provide two sets of chargers viz. one for car and other for home

i) Payment swipe integration--since lot of low income professionals work as manual labor contractors

j) Provision of custom apps only available with this phone e.g. boombox, Education and Learning, making tik tok video etc.

h) Provide few phones with outer covering like CAT instruments, rough and tough(at a slightly higher price)

i) External characterstics a microphone to be used as a crowd horn, loud sound to attract attention, emergency help button, 

Step 7: Prioritization of solutions

a) Priority 1- High Impact (must have), medium-high implementation cost

a) Microsoft OS will unlikely have lot of app developers come and develop an app library hence it create a flavor of Android OS for the phone

b) Focus on camera, display, CPU and RAM over expensive features such as face recognition, LIDAR etc.(to keep cost <100-150)

d) Battery life of 7-8 hours. Also provide two sets of chargers viz. one for car and other for home

c) Leverage Microsofts core strength in designing user experience to simplify usage of phone functionalities ( for people whose english skills or technical skills are not very high) --> if we dont this, there will be no difference between Samsung and MSFT phones

a) Priority 2- Medium Impact (should have), medium-high implementation cost

i) Payment swipe integration--since lot of low income professionals work as manual labor contractors --> With the advent of Google pay, Amazon pay etc. This might no longer a must have functionality. Also people are concerned about sharing cards with people that they dont know well 

j) Provision of custom apps only available with this phone e.g. boombox, Education and Learning, making tik tok video etc. -->Depends on the user group. If this was 35 + user groups than these apps will not be important to them

a) Priority 3- Low Impact (could have), medium implementation cost

h) Provide few phones with outer covering like CAT instruments, rough and tough(at a slightly higher price) --> This is tricky decision since needs would differ profession to profession e.g. an eletrician will have different need compared to a painter

i) External characterstics a microphone to be used as a crowd horn, loud sound to attract attention, emergency help button, ---> Same as above