Monthly Update 2021-06
In this edition: How can you support your kids while nurturing their independence? What's the latest on our product experiments, and who's this new Snail?
Hello everyone!
Just like that, the June holidays have come and gone. The second half of the school year is upon us! Each new semester can stir up different feelings in parents and kids, with exams lurking on many of our minds... If you’re reading this, take just 5 seconds to close your eyes and breathe. 🍃 You’re doing your best 🤗
Here’s what Bramble has been up to in the last month and a half.
The latest on our social media
Are you following us on Instagram?
Over the last few weeks, we’ve been breaking down the 6 components of our INVITE acronym. Click on the image below to read our latest post: we share 3 quick tips for how you can actively support your child’s pursuits, while still allowing them to grow and develop. 👏🏼
Along with that, we’ve been updating our blog with accompanying posts that elaborate further on each concept 😊 Most recently, we explored the sometimes tricky skills of how to notice your child’s outward behaviour, and name their invisible feelings. Click here to read all about it.
Product Experiments 🧪🤓
Since we last updated you, we’ve completed Cycles 7, 8, and 9 of our product development!
At the end of Cycle 7, we were beginning to feel a little stuck and out of ideas. Our Beta tests showed that Bramble’s app-facilitated conversations were getting too long and draggy (averaging 30 minutes per conversation), leaving both children and parents feeling restless by the end. On top of that, we realised that our app wasn’t providing enough guidance for users to create concrete and detailed solutions to carry out in their lives.
With these findings, we were re-energised to innovate from scratch, developing not one but two versions of the app in Cycle 8! What did we do differently?
Introducing our Snail 🐌
We began featuring a more prominent third-party “guide”, the Snail! Our goal here was to give the app a more active role in the conversation, letting the Snail’s empathetic & encouraging personality set the tone for the session.
Short video clips 📹
We introduced videos as a way of conveying ideas and engaging users. (Psstt… You can preview these videos by checking out our Instagram post here!) So far, users have responded positively to these short clips, as they deliver quick insights and offer a break in the monotony of the conversation. Our hope is to continue developing a library of helpful explainers.
Keeping it short & sweet 🍬
We tried to reduce the length of the conversation, aiming for a 20-minute maximum duration. In experimenting with this, we also learned that other factors such as the sense of progress in the conversation and regular mini-breaks can help reduce the feeling of repetition and drag, without compromising on the value delivered by the app.
Robust solutions 📝
We aimed to make the solution-creating process more robust, providing specific ideas for what parents & kids can do to achieve their goals together. To do this, we asked what kids find the hardest about reaching their goal, as well as what concerns parents might have along the way, then combined those factors to provide personalised suggestions to each family.
The results from this feature were promising: we found that the solutions created using Bramble were more actionable than ever before in Cycle 8 and 9! At the same time, the challenge remains in helping families to integrate these new solutions into their routines. In order to do that, we’re looking ahead and our creative juices are flowing…
Next steps 🥾
Right now, we’re in the middle of Cycle 10, and many exciting things are happening:
We’re thinking about how to re-design the layout of our app, such that new users will be quickly and clearly stewarded towards having their first conversation upon downloading. We’re asking ourselves: what is the first thing we want parents to see when they download Bramble? What emotional experience should our app create? What turns their curiosity into buy-in?
On top of that, we’re continuing to develop the features within the conversation, particularly those that can help parents and kids walk away with a solid, satisfactory solution ✅😎
We want to know: what is the minimum amount of information that users need to give us in order for us to create the maximum amount of personalised value? What is the “sweet spot” for an actionable solution: can it be detailed & failure-proofed while being concise & achievable?
Last but not least, we’re venturing out into different topics of conversation, hoping to expand our support beyond just talking about school-related things. We’ve zeroed in on other “hot topics” that parents often struggle with, such as screen time and daily routines.
That’s all for today! Stay tuned to hear more about our latest experiments!👂🏼 Thank you for your continued support of Bramble 🥰