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OkHi – Solving the lack of a physical address system in Kenya

okhi.co

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Re: OkHi – Solving the lack of a physical address system in Kenya

#31

Post by tibbon »

jhull wrote: post #15
BronSteeDiam wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you live in a country with no addresses, you don't need to be told "Why". From their blog "So what’s wrong with the physical address system in Kenya? It’s not that it doesn’t work, it’s that it fundamentally doesn’t exist. The majority of homes do not have a name or number, rarely have a street name and definitely no national level post or zip code. This leads to major social and economic issues that are throttlin…

My point is, why do I need to dig to the bottom post of their blog in order to find out what they do. That should be clear on the homepage.

But if you were the target market, you'd understand it.

Victoria's Secret doesn't explain the purpose of bras on their front page- yet their target market understands the purpose of them.

Re: OkHi – Solving the lack of a physical address system in Kenya

#32

Post by seansmith1020 »

euskode wrote: post #28

We spent 2 years trying to solve this very problem at Addy. While there are a few dozen products in the space (the pretty, the hacky, the I'm-hopeless-let-me-cease-and-desist-you-on-no-grounds-whatsoever), none so far has managed to create enough of an incentive for consumers to switch. This is absolutely key to any success in the "personal addressing" market, I really cannot stress this enough. We decided to switch…

I think the difference is your market though. Was Addy US focused? In Kenya, desperately describing the color of the tree in front of your gate to an Ambulance driver as a loved one lays dying is a very realistic situation. With poorly signed streets and no number system to speak of it seems to me there is plenty of incentive.

Re: OkHi – Solving the lack of a physical address system in Kenya

#33

Post by euskode »

seansmith1020 wrote: post #32
euskode wrote: post #28

We spent 2 years trying to solve this very problem at Addy. While there are a few dozen products in the space (the pretty, the hacky, the I'm-hopeless-let-me-cease-and-desist-you-on-no-grounds-whatsoever), none so far has managed to create enough of an incentive for consumers to switch. This is absolutely key to any success in the "personal addressing" market, I really cannot stress this enough. We decided to switch…

I think the difference is your market though. Was Addy US focused? In Kenya, desperately describing the color of the tree in front of your gate to an Ambulance driver as a loved one lays dying is a very realistic situation. With poorly signed streets and no number system to speak of it seems to me there is plenty of incentive.

Absolutely not, we were very much Middle East and Africa focused, in fact we've lived in many of the countries where we were going to market. We were in SF physically, but had on-the-ground teams in 15 cities.

Re: OkHi – Solving the lack of a physical address system in Kenya

#34

Post by ColinWright »

tibbon wrote: post #31
jhull wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My point is, why do I need to dig to the bottom post of their blog in order to find out what they do. That should be clear on the homepage.

But if you were the target market, you'd understand it. Victoria's Secret doesn't explain the purpose of bras on their front page- yet their target market understands the purpose of them.

If you don't know who Victoria Secret is, and you don't know they sell bras, and you land on their page, and they don't have any pictures of bras, and you aren't thinking about bras, and there is absolutely no indication of what they do, would it immediately spring to your mind that they've solved the "I need structural support" problem?

I contend that the answer is "No".

I wonder if you're looking at the page already knowing what they do and what problem they're solving.

So imagine you have the problem that OkHi are solving, that you could use their solution, but that you don't know that they have the solution. Now imagine that you end up on their landing page. Have a look. Go on, have a look. You arrive, not thinking about the specific problem. What is there that tells you that:

a) they understand your problem, and

b) they have a neat, clean, efficient and effective solution.

Nothing.

They need to make it clear that they have a solution to a problem that you might not at this moment remember that you need solving.

I understand that you think I'm not in their target market. (In fact I am, but that's not the point.) The point is that a landing page should bring to mind why they need you, and make sure you know that they are a brilliant solution.

But if you think it's fine, and they think it's fine, then maybe I, someone who actually might be interested in their solution, is obviously wrong, and the feedback is obviously misplaced. It's not like the public is ever right about the service being provided for them, and the implementors are always right. Screw feedback - that's useless.

Re: OkHi – Solving the lack of a physical address system in Kenya

#36

Post by seansmith1020 »

euskode wrote: post #33
seansmith1020 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the difference is your market though. Was Addy US focused? In Kenya, desperately describing the color of the tree in front of your gate to an Ambulance driver as a loved one lays dying is a very realistic situation. With poorly signed streets and no number system to speak of it seems to me there is plenty of incentive.

Absolutely not, we were very much Middle East and Africa focused, in fact we've lived in many of the countries where we were going to market. We were in SF physically, but had on-the-ground teams in 15 cities.

Perhaps you all just mistimed the market. With smart phone penetration and 3G coverage steadily increasing, maybe two years ago there just wasn't the existing user base to make it feasible. If that were the case you'd also have to incentivize the purchase of smart phones and data plans (which is always a difficult sell).

However, the need is glaring and I refuse to believe there is no incentive for people to find a better solution. Happy to listen to a counter argument though.

Re: OkHi – Solving the lack of a physical address system in Kenya

#38

Post by euskode »

seansmith1020 wrote: post #36
euskode wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely not, we were very much Middle East and Africa focused, in fact we've lived in many of the countries where we were going to market. We were in SF physically, but had on-the-ground teams in 15 cities.

Perhaps you all just mistimed the market. With smart phone penetration and 3G coverage steadily increasing, maybe two years ago there just wasn't the existing user base to make it feasible. If that were the case you'd also have to incentivize the purchase of smart phones and data plans (which is always a difficult sell). However, the need is glaring and I refuse to believe there is no incentive for people to find a b…

Look at the most advanced markets suffering from this problem: GCC countries.

Most of their residents have the very latest devices, are at least as tech-savvy as your average Western consumer, and have disposable income. We conducted hundreds of different experiments, and most of them led to the same conclusion: pain by itself is not enough. These are people that have suffered from the issue extensively (including myself for many years), yet are unwilling to engage in a significant behavioral change. Investors feel exactly the same way, and I am talking about the very best with partners who were raised in some of these countries.

I am not saying that we tried everything, but I think we were extremely exhaustive, often employing city-specific growth/incentive tactics akin to those used by many successful companies in these regions.

It's a super simple problem to solve. There are hundreds of solutions out there. The people, thus far, have wanted none. I think I know why, and I am keen to share our findings, ultimately, though, there really is no better way to convince yourself than to find out directly, by getting your hands dirty.

Re: OkHi – Solving the lack of a physical address system in Kenya

#39

Post by seansmith1020 »

euskode wrote: post #38
seansmith1020 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps you all just mistimed the market. With smart phone penetration and 3G coverage steadily increasing, maybe two years ago there just wasn't the existing user base to make it feasible. If that were the case you'd also have to incentivize the purchase of smart phones and data plans (which is always a difficult sell). However, the need is glaring and I refuse to believe there is no incentive for people to find a b…

Look at the most advanced markets suffering from this problem: GCC countries. Most of their residents have the very latest devices, are at least as tech-savvy as your average Western consumer, and have disposable income. We conducted hundreds of different experiments, and most of them led to the same conclusion: pain by itself is not enough. These are people that have suffered from the issue extensively (including my…

We'll see how it pans out. Maybe you should speak with Timbo at OKHi and share some thoughts with him. All I know is it's a glaring problem, government's aren't going to address (pun partially intended) the issue, and it will be solved somehow. The technology is simple, but so often in these markets, the execution is complex. With you all being spread across 15 cities and based in SF I'd imagine it contributed somewhat to missing the mark (on top of being a difficult problem in the first place).

Re: OkHi – Solving the lack of a physical address system in Kenya

#40

Post by BrandonMarc »

timwiththebo wrote: post #11

Thanks for all for the feedback, we clearly need to work on our website messaging! To be honest, we just pulled together the website last week; we weren't quite expecting this attention... but bring on all the early feedback! To try to help explain in a little more detail what we're up to... * Problem * The lack of physical address system is a huge problem here in Kenya. Here is the GPS trail of a fast food delivery…

I like how Colin broke it down into "setting up" and "finding", the two sides of a use-case scenario.

Since you mentioned delivery riders and ambulances, would you expect (hope) them to be part of your user base? Say a customer / patient is a user ... does the business / hospital need the app, or does the URL you send give them what they need as-is?

Either way, I expect you'll want to (or already have) reach out to businesses, hospitals, police, etc to spur adoption (or at least let them know what it is and how to use it).

Such outfits (on the finding end, with a definite interest in successful use) will also be looking at your website to determine what you do, how it works, how they'll use it, etc.

If you can, create some demonstration videos of how it works. Ideally with actual people in a scenario like you describe. If a 45 second clip can demonstrate what you described above, that could be very helpful in getting people to adopt.

Can you get any insight / partnership / knowledge share from FedEx, UPS, DHL, etc? I'm sure they've operated in Kenya for a long time, and have spent lots of brainpower on figuring out efficient locations and routes.

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