Case Study

Name(s): GOUTAM KUMAR SAHOO (Group Leader)

ABHISHEK SOLANKI (Team Member)
BARATHRAJ T (Team Member)
PRANJAL (Team Member)
Email ID (s):
Submission Date:

Part 1: User Research

Question 1: Identify the target audience for the roommate/flatmate finding service.
Target (Word limit: 100 words)
Audience
Response Target Audience are students and working professionals within age group
of 19–35 living in urban area away from their base locations for education
and work-related purposes. Their preference for shared accommodation
is to address hassles associated with finding suitable place for stay along
with cost benefits, locations advantages, amenities and companionship.
Predominantly tech savvy with more than one device (Mobile/PC/tablet)
of use along with uninterrupted access to internet access.
Here between certain age groups / gender- preferences vary a lot. Keep
that in mind the personas have been defined accordingly.
Question 2: Prepare an interview questionnaire (write down the questions here)
Interview suiting your objectives & hypothesis. (Word limit: 500 words)
Questionnaire
Response Please find the survey questionnaire sheet and the response sheet from
the links mentioned below.

Survey Questionnaire:
https://forms.gle/iVaiXT2YyHNffZ1EA

Survey Response Sheet:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/11Zej3_8r522weGQXWwBkTLV5zqnST
Ny4pJNaZ6tBcxY/viewanalytics

Please find the interview Questionnaire below with the questions asked to
the audience via interviews and surveys:
1. Age (in years)?
2. Gender?
3. Qualification?
4. Marital status?
5. Native?
6. Current Location?
7. Location Type
8. Occupation?
9. Income range (in Lakhs)
10. Current accommodation status?
11. Hobbies/Interests?
12. Preferred duration of contract of your accommodation?
13. Emergency contract termination option (Yes/No)?
14. Required House Furnishing?
15. Challenges for considering room sharing?

© Copyright UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved.

16. Opinion about sharing rooms?
17. Food preferences?
18. Catering Needs
19. Roommate preferences?
20. Source of info for rental / room share searching?
21. Motivation/Purpose for room sharing?
22. Top Priority for room sharing
23. Preferred property type?
24. Preferred Floor (if any)
25. Preferred house type?
26. Preferred monthly budget?
27. Preferred room type
28. Preferred amenities?
29. Parking requirements?
30. Security requirements?
31. Housekeeping service expectations?
32. Public transport options?
33. Proximity to workplace priority?
34. Frequently used devices?
35. Mobile Platform that you use?
36. Operating System of choice?
37. Top 3 applications of use in your mobile?

The interview questions are almost same with survey questions and are
as follows:

Age? CUSTOMER PROFILE CHECK

Gender? CUSTOMER PROFILE CHECK
Qualification? CUSTOMER PROFILE CHECK
Marital status? CUSTOMER PROFILE CHECK
Native? CUSTOMER PROFILE CHECK
Current Location? CUSTOMER PROFILE CHECK
Occupation? CUSTOMER PROFILE CHECK
Income range (0-10,10-20,20-30..) CUSTOMER PROFILE CHECK
Current accomodation status? CUSTOMER PROFILE CHECK
Social preferences? CUSTOMER PROFILE CHECK
Lifestyle choices/Flexibilities? CUSTOMER PROFILE CHECK
Hobbies/Interests? CUSTOMER PROFILE CHECK
Preferred duration of contract of your NEED ANALYSIS OF CUSTOMER
accomodation?
Emergency contract termination option NEED ANALYSIS OF CUSTOMER
(Yes/No)?
Required House Furnishing? (Full or NEED ANALYSIS OF CUSTOMER
Semi)
Challenges for considering room NEED ANALYSIS OF CUSTOMER
sharing?
Opinion about sharing rooms? NEED ANALYSIS OF CUSTOMER
Food preferences? NEED ANALYSIS OF CUSTOMER
Roommate preferences? NEED ANALYSIS OF CUSTOMER
Source of info for rental / room share NEED ANALYSIS OF CUSTOMER
searching?
Motivation/Purpose for room sharing? NEED ANALYSIS OF CUSTOMER

© Copyright UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved.

 Top Priority for room sharing NEED ANALYSIS OF CUSTOMER
(security/convenience/economy…etc)
Preferred property type? PROPERTY PREFERENCES
Preferred Floor (if any)? PROPERTY PREFERENCES
Preferred room type? PROPERTY PREFERENCES
(3bhk/2bhk/1bhk)
Preferred Budget? PROPERTY PREFERENCES
Preferred Amenities? PROPERTY PREFERENCES
Parking requirements? PROPERTY PREFERENCES

Security requirements? PROPERTY PREFERENCES

Housekeeping service expectations?
Public transport options?
Proximity to workplace priority?
Frequently used devices?
Operating System of choice?
Top applications of use in ur mobile?
PROPERTY PREFERENCES
PROPERTY PREFERENCES
PROPERTY PREFERENCES
TECH ANALYSIS OF CUSTOMER
TECH ANALYSIS OF CUSTOMER
TECH ANALYSIS OF CUSTOMER

The second column tells the categorisation of our interview questions of

the objective / intent of asking the question with respect to the case study
objective.

PFA the responses received by interview process.

ROOMMATE
FINDING SURVEY QUESTIONAIRE.xlsx

Question 3: Analyse the data you gathered from interviews. Draw insights out of the
Insights from collected data. You can segregate your insights basis the objectives of
User Research conducting user research: users pain points, motivations, personality,
goals, demographics. (Word Limit: 600 Words)

Response Objective:

To understand the user needs and demands for a shared rental service
application.

Hypothesis:

One: Young populations who are primarily students or working

professional in tier 1 & 2 cities would prefer living in shared
accommodation to reduce cost, live in preferred locations that are secure
Two: People would stay in shared accommodation would prefer staying
with known individuals
Three: People would stay at residences with clear agreements and no
owner intrusions
Four: People would be very particular in have certain amenities and
features at their place of stay
Five: People would only eat out and do self-cleaning to have more options
and keep maintenance cost low
Six: People would stay for longer and full periods stated in/required by the
rental agreements

© Copyright UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved.

Hypothesis Validation:
One: This hypothesis has been validated by our research during surveys and interviews
wherein a majority of young adults who have moved out their base location to Tier 1 & 2 cities
for education and professional reasons are preferring to stay in shared accommodation with
top reasons for it being economical, convenient and security. The population surveyed
consisted of 52.9% males and 41.2% females and about 85.3% of the population was
unmarried.
Two: This hypothesis has been validated as 88% of the survey participants are willing to stay
with friends or colleagues or classmates as opposed to 8.8% preferring to stay with unknown
individuals. 41.% of the population preferred to have individual rooms in shared
accommodation as opposed to 55.9% who are ok with shared room.
Three: This hypothesis has been nullified as only 23.5% of respondents are concerned about
unclear rental agreements and 17.6% are concerned about owner intrusions while considering
rental accommodation.
Four: This hypothesis has nullified with only 5.9% of the respondent population are keen on
amenities being a deciding factor in choosing shared rental accommodation. When available
Broadband (55.9%), RO water (55.9%) and convenience store nearby (52.9%) are the top
sought-after amenities

© Copyright UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved.

Five: This hypothesis has been nullified as 73.6% is looking for catering options and 88.3%
are looking for housekeeping services which would help in deciding on providing a bundled-
up service comprising of catering and cleaning along with rental.

Six: This hypothesis has been nullified as 61.8% of respondents are looking for options with
rental period requirement of up to only one year along with only 17.6% of respondents not
interested in emergency contact termination provision.

© Copyright UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved.

Pain Points

• Fitment with flat mates (55.9%)

• Time consuming searching process (23.5%)
• Unclear rental agreement terms and conditions (23.5%)
• Keeping cost of renting low at < 7K per month

© Copyright UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved.

Motivations

• Cost benefits in sharing room (55.9%)

• Ability to live in preferred locations (32.4%)
• Having companionship (26.5%) and creating new connections (23.5%)

Demographics

• Majority of the prospects are between age group 19-35

• Almost evenly distributed on gender and majority or bachelor/spinsters
• Most of the them are either Students or working professionals
• Income level being <15Lakh and currently living in Tier1 or Tier 2 cities
Please find more details on the same in the below charts.

© Copyright UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved.

© Copyright UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved.
© Copyright UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved.
Preferences

• Most of the people prefer staying with friends /colleagues / unknown person.
• Majority are ok with non-vegetarian food preferences
• 41.2% are ok with unfurnished compared to 20.6% and 38.2% looking for semi and full
furnishing respectively
• Property type, room in a house and floor of stay aren’t significant as preferences are
distributed across the respondent population

© Copyright UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved.

© Copyright UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved.
Personality

• Majority are willing or open to sharing room

• Almost all are Tech savvy and use multiple devices/platforms options which can be
used for searching shared rental

© Copyright UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved.

© Copyright UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved.
 Part 2: Product Artifacts
Question 4: Create a persona for from the user research data. Use the template given below.

Response:

Based on the user ages we had observed that different age groups have a slight different
expectations and priorities with respect to budget / comfort and security aspects. Gender wise
this also this aspect varies. Keeping this in mind – instead of 1 we created 3 personas – one
for student, one for mid working professionals (women) and one for little senior professionals.
Please find the snapshot and the attachment of the same below.

© Copyright UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved.

PFA of the same below.

Persona.pdf

Questions 5: Create a user journey map for the given user goals:

(a) Find a shared accommodation space that satisfies my logistical constraints

• Proximity to Workplace, Recreation, Utilities

• Amenities e.g. Gym, Swimming Pool, Parking
• Support ecosystem e.g. Cook/Maid, furniture, laundry etc.
• Cost

(b) Find roommates with whom I share preferences in terms of:

• Food habit
• Timings
• Visitors

The following user journey maps has been created to satisfy the above goals. However, for
the (a) question, we also created and extended the roadmap beyond the research journey of
the user as desired till the process completion of the booking request.

© Copyright UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved.

PFA and the snapshots of the same.

User Journey
Mapping_Goutam Sahoo.pdf

© Copyright UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved.

Disclaimer

All content and material on the UpGrad website is copyrighted material, either belonging to UpGrad or its
bonafide contributors and is purely for the dissemination of education. You are permitted to access print and
download extracts from this site purely for your own education only and on the following basis:-
• You can download this document from the website for self use only.
• Any copies of this document, in part or full, saved to disc or to any other storage medium may only be
used for subsequent, self viewing purposes or to print an individual extract or copy for non
commercial personal use only.
• Any further dissemination, distribution, reproduction, copying of the content of the document herein
or the uploading thereof on other websites or use of content for any other commercial/unauthorized
purposes in any way which could infringe the intellectual property rights of UpGrad or its contributors,
is strictly prohibited.
• No graphics, images or photographs from any accompanying text in this document will be used
separately for unauthorised purposes.
• No material in this document will be modified, adapted or altered in any way.
• No part of this document or UpGrad content may be reproduced or stored in any other web site or
included in any public or private electronic retrieval system or service without UpGrad’s prior written
permission.
• Any rights not expressly granted in these terms are reserved.

© Copyright UpGrad Education Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved.