Jenny Chiu's Profile

Thanks for your post! I am also a user for these fashion in a box. However, one pain point I have is the fact that sometimes they don’t get my style / size right for the first time. Do you know if Stitch Fix design any mechanism to correct the data that we key in initially (well, sometimes we tend to under-report our waist size) to provide a more accurate experiences for customers?

Thanks for your post Nazli! I think it is fantastic for education innovation like this to challenge the status quo and rethink about whether the data we collect makes sense to achieve the ultimate objective. Meanwhile I do not like the idea that standardized test score is the only indicator to determine students’ success, it is also extremely difficult to quantify some of the behavioral / qualitative data and make assumptions that they would drive students’ success. Can you elaborate more how AltSchool tries to test out the metrics that they measure and improve these predictions in time?

Thanks for your post! I wonder whether MTA themselves have leveraged their own data and done something about it, vs. just relying on 3rd party developers. I recall I read about Boston city government being extremely tech-savvy relatively to other public bureaucracy. For example, they have an official app that you can report all the potholes you have found while you are driving. The app also harnesses the GPS function so that the government would know immediately where that pothole is and dispatch a team to fix it shortly. Meanwhile I think it is great to have 3rd party involved, but with the potential privacy concern they have and that they might not be able to share all the data, it is not a bad way for them to think what they can do about it.

Thanks for the post! And now it got me interested to use it! However, I wonder how they can keep users coming back to the websites to contribute and help solve the questions. I understand the intrinsic motivation part, but they might only limit to people who are extremely passionate about fashion and thus lower the size of audience that could contribute. Maybe I am not their ideal customer segment, but wondered how you think about their effectiveness of solving the potential supply problem and what they could have done differently.

Thanks for the post! I think other than the trust issue, another issue about talent crowdsourcing is the fact that the outcome of the job is somehow hard to measure vs. Uber where it is much more transaction based. For example, how could you determine someone is doing a good job in its consulting project? You might be able to have the clients comment on professionalism and attitude but harder on the actual outcome.

Also wondering how their privacy protection is like. I worked for a consulting firm before and they have strict rules on not working in engagements of clients that are directly competing with any previous clients you have worked in. Do you know how they make sure nerds follow similar rule?

Thanks for the post. The Kiva Zip sounds like Kickstarter where small businesses can use as a platform to raise funds, except the way to prove credibility is different. How does Kiva Zip incentivize lenders to lend in this case? Do they get any interest payback? Or similar to Kickstarters they also will see the lenders as early supporters and give them the products once they are out in the market?

I have personally signed up for Goodread also never be able to enjoy the benefits. The truth is, although I am a avid reader, most of my friends aren’t, which depreciated the value it could provide by forming a social network. Although it would be helpful for me to join groups that have similar reading tastes to find books that I would like (e.g., just like the different channels in Spotify, it is quite powerful for me to get access to new songs with the style that I like)

Thanks for sharing. I like the fact that they are trying to solve an obvious painpoint that district’s staff face, and am able to make the product free to acquire a big number of users early on. The question is whether they can also attract the app developers to do, and whether the Clever platform is ‘clever’ enough to adopt and integrate new apps with all kinds of different formats into what the users are used to. If done successfully, maybe the Clever platform could be a standard for app developers to design how they capture and display the data.

I also wonder whether this product could be expanded to other industries that also use a lot of different apps and lack a cohesive way to manage all the applications – maybe for SME who couldn’t afford to buy big data management software would be appealed to this?

Thanks for the post. It does seem like network effect is crucial in this model for customers to buy into that the value that RelayRides offer is better than other car rentals. Not only would it lower the price, but also convenience is a huge factor to win in this market. I like the fact that they start entering into airport to enhance convenience for both the renter and the car owner. I also wonder how RelayRides could create even more values going forward – for example, could RelayRides help arrange some kind of logistics to make things convenient for both owners and renters (just like AirBnB that provides clean up services for the apartment)? What about providing insurance for owners to limit their risk of getting their cars damaged?

Thank you for your sharing.

It does seem like they serve as a disruption to the traditional classroom type of English learning given its convenience and better tracking / feedback system. However, what is your thought in why they are winning within the online English learning sector? It does seem that other learning platform also consider using native teacher and live classes. Do you think that they particularly stand out because of other reasons such as fundraising or sales strategy? Or you think that they excel other players in terms of their technological platform?’

I used to go to school at Michigan and Borders is one of my favorite bookstores nearby. They have a good selection of books, a corner for staff picks for more unconventional selections, and an area reserved for a coffee shop. I enjoyed the bookstore experience but recalled ultimately getting books from my very first generation of kindle because eBooks are usually cheaper. I do believe they have created an unique experience (value creation) for booklovers like me, but sadly it seems that they are not very good at capturing the value into revenue.

Thank you for your blog post. It is true that the publishing industry definitely suffers from a huge blow from the digital wave (I recalled how I used to use paper textbooks in most of my college classes. And now it seems like we have a nice variety of materials such as videos, online news articles or academic papers etc. that textbook is no longer a must). However, I wonder whether there is ways that these publishing players could innovate their way out of the situation.

You talked about having a licensing model to protect its materials. I think it could be continually a good way to generate revenue as long as they enforce stronger protection in IP and make meaningful upgrades to the materials. There is of course a world out there that you might be able to download those materials for free (think how amazon sell kindle books but sometimes there are illegal versions available to download in other websites, although for older books), but if customers have a hard time getting those pirated copies, and also they believe the product they are getting through the official channel has more value, it is not impossible that they are willing to pay for the licensing fee.

This then raised a question on ‘what does it mean by better quality on materials’. I think with the buzz word in education talking about ‘active learning’, digital can play a big role by making the textbook contents more interactive. Functions that creates social interactive, regular quizzes and performance tracking etc. could potentially help students learn better. It could potentially be a way for these losers to recover their grounds.