Connecting Indonesians with neighbours for hyperlocal info
DekatKita
Background
DekatKita was set up in 1Q2021 to prove their initial product concept on a neighbourhood social platform for Indonesians. I joined at the start of their journey in May 2021.
My immediate tasks were to turn these initial ideas and research into a launch-ready 1st MVP to quickly validate these assumptions with real users.
Constrained by a tight startup budget and timeline, we prioritised time to market over in-depth user research and polished UX/UI for this 1st MVP.
Founding Product Designer + Product Manager
MY ROLES
TIMELINE
2 months (Jun - Aug 2021)
1 product designer/ manager (me), 0.5 product owner, 0.5 QA engineer and an external vendor
(we worked remotely across Singapore, Indonesia and Vietnam)
THE TEAM
“I click well with my gated community of 10 households, but would love to find a trusted network of neighbours beyond that!” — Adi, Bandung resident
The Problem
Indonesians do not have a one-stop platform to easily keep up with local community news (e.g. power shutdowns), safety alerts (e.g. COVID-19 clusters), events, and trusted recommendations on food & service providers.
What we thought would work
Hyperlocal neighbourhood hub with up-to-date local info, trusted recommendations and services
1st MVP launched in Aug 2021 to 50 users
The 1st MVP - A Neighbourhood Social Platform
We wanted to first test the hypothesis that Indonesians value a safe, private space to connect with verified neighbours. This platform would facilitate meaningful connections with neighbours, where they can then share useful community news, events and information with one another.
WHO ARE MY NEIGHBORS?
Users can click on the neighbourhood bar at the top of their homepage to see who their neighbours are.
They can learn more about their neighbours and interests via their profile pages, and choose to send private messages to connect one-on-one.
My contributions
As product designer, I distilled user research to inform key product features, bug-fixed relentlessly and designed branding assets and the DekatKita website from scratch. Post-launch, I gathered user feedback from both in-app behaviour and feedback sessions to inform future MVP iterations.
As design lead cum product manager, I closely guided our external vendor and their designer to customise a white-label neighbourhood platform to fit our needs. I also worked cross-functionally with our ground team to translate and localise the product for an Indonesian audience.
What we learnt
Despite initial interest in the first 2 weeks of launch, pilot users’ in-app behavior and feedback gradually suggested that we were not quite solving the right problem — instead of socialising with neighbours, it became clearer that most people wanted their practical needs around the neighbourhood met.
“Not everyone wants to share things with others, they want to make their lives easier” — Kiki, pilot user
Actual user behaviour and feedback collected post-launch showed that most users were not keen to socialise with neighbours.
The user journey of a typical pilot user also illustrates how they are least engaged with features around socialising and networking.
Next Steps
It was evident that our product had to provide more targeted solutions and compelling value to users, in more practical ways that made a tangible difference to their everyday lives.
And that was what we set out to do in the subsequent iterations, pivoting progressively from a social platform towards a marketplace.