We regularly interact with a lot of people around us and notice

problems they face on a day-to-day basis. As a product manager

you have a keen eye for such hurdles and acknowledge the
need to work on it.

Tell us about a real-world problem that you have observed

around you which can be solved using a digital product.

Amirthavarshini LJ
MBA/0086/57
amirthavarshini2022@email.iimcal.ac.in
7845306288 CONFIDENTIAL
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 ● Why did you choose this problem and what potential impact can
solving it create?
● Which parts of the problem will you solve for first and why?
● How will you use technology to solve it?
● How would you measure whether the chosen solution is working?
● What might be the reasons for this chosen solution to fail?

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 Problem Overview
Every year, the Indian government releases multiple Yojanas (schemes or
plans) that are curated for the benefit and upliftment of different sections of
the society
‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ (BBBP) scheme, Ayushman Bharat Yojana, Pradhan
Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, etc. are a few famous examples
However, a large part of these schemes remain unutilized and do not reach the
expected target population
This could be due to multiple reasons, including but not limited to, lack of
awareness, complexity & non-uniformity in procedure to leverage them, and
so on

MARKET RESEARCH IMPACT

Primary Research The impact of solving the problem

Female, 24 years, Hubli – Prospective user can be witnessed and measured
In-depth Interviews We see the Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao slogan written around the town but I across three levels:
During Jagriti Yatra, an 8000 KM just thought it was a government advertisement to ask for vote from women
train journey across India’s tier 2 & Individuals
3 cities, I interviewed 20+ Male, 64 years, Madurai – Prospective user ✓ Financial upliftment &
individuals to gauge their I worked and retired in a small, private company and was not aware of the social mobility
Research Insights

pension schemes provided by the government until a neighbour leveraged ✓ Increased awareness
awareness & utilisation of
it and told me. I am still facing issues with some documentation about rights & avenues
government schemes

The central government released 40 schemes in the 2 years 2015 & 2016 Communities
Secondary Research alone. This is apart from the schemes announced by the individual state ✓ Elevation of
governments [1] marginalised sections
Govt. reports & surveys ✓ Network effect of
Reports by the central & state awareness & upliftment
60% of the targeted population are not even aware of the existence of loan
governments on the number of schemes that are meant to benefit them [2]
schemes released every year across Nation
✓ Better utilization of
different ministries & surveys on The utilization rates are some times as low as 2.4%, like the utilisation of the allocated resources
their utilisation was analysed workers welfare corpus in Karnataka [3]

[1] Govt. report on number of schemes released

Problem Definition: The government welfare schemes do not reach the majority of the intended population [2] News article on survey results showing lack of awareness
due to lack of awareness among the target population about the schemes and how to leverage them
v.nnd.2015.06 [3] News article reporting on low utilisation rates of schemes CONFIDENTIAL
 User Persona

Vishnu Ankita Jagadish

35 years, Deoria, UP 24 years, Hubli, KA 58 years, Madurai, TN

Vishnu is a person with disability and is Works as a help at a local government school Worked and retired in the informal sector and
bound to a wheel chair. He has studied till 6th and her husband works as an auto driver. They does not have a pension plan. Dependent on
Context

class and is in dire need of help to become have one smart phone at home. They have a meagre savings and does not have a medical
financially independent daughter insurance

• Needs help with knowing about the • Not aware of schemes that are meant for • Aware that government has pension and
government schemes that are released them and their daughter, in the form of health care schemes for senior citizens but
Needs / Pain

specifically for divyang citizens loan and education plans faces hiccups while leveraging them
Points

• Cannot frequent government offices so • Dependent on word of mouth from people • Finds it difficult to access information
would prefer completing the formalities in the neighborhood to know about yojanas online. Is not aware of what exactly to
for schemes in an online mode that can be leveraged search for and is not very tech savvy

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Feature # 1 Know Your Rights
Feature Description

▪ The app supports all vernacular Indian languages Vernacular

and English and the user can choose the one they language
are most comfortable in support

▪ The user then enters all the required details

required for checking scheme eligibility
▪ Personalised search results of the yojanas that the
user is eligible to apply for is displayed
▪ On clicking on each of the listed yojanas, the user
can get actionable insights on the documents
required, the nearest office to visit to apply, online
application link, etc.

Pain points addressed

▪ Lack of awareness about all eligible schemes

▪ Lack of knowledge about the process of availing
them
Implementation

▪ The search results are derived using ML-based Enter details for
eligibility check and
web scraping automation that scrapes, parses and click the button
renders the details from multiple government and
ministry websites across which they are currently
dispersed
▪ Human intervention by social workers and policy
volunteers can be incorporated at initial stages to
perform sanity check on data correctness
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Feature # 1 Know Your Rights

On clicking on each of the search

results the user can get detailed
Personalised & exhaustive list of all
and actionable information on how
the schemes that the user is
to leverage the scheme
eligible for is displayed

The nearest office to visit is

auto-suggested based on the
user’s current location

The link to post a query, if any,

redirects to the Q&A page of the
particular scheme in the forum
within the app

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Feature # 2 Community Forum

Feature Description
Search feature to find Q&A
threads related to any
▪ The Q&A forum within the app can be used for this purpose where the user particular scheme or topic
can post any query that they might have regarding a scheme or in the
process of leveraging it
▪ The queries can be answered by other users who have previously leveraged
the scheme and are aware of the process or by social workers or volunteers
with knowledge in the field
▪ This helps in utilizing both community as well as professional knowledge
▪ The users can also use the Search facility to view the Q&A page of any
particular scheme and gain information from previously shared details Queries are answered by social
workers with knowledge in the
Paint points addressed
area
▪ Helps address hiccups and queries along the way while the users try to
leverage these schemes
▪ Reduces the need to frequent government offices multiple times to resolve
them
Implementation
Queries can also be answered
▪ This feature will require onboarding of human resources like social workers, by other users
volunteers, policy workers, SMEs, etc. who have sufficient knowledge in the
field to answer the queries accurately and efficiently
▪ To ensure sharing of valid information the experts can mark answers shared
by other users as “verified”

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Feature # 3 Knowledge Centre
Feature Description
Ads from banks and NBFCs to
▪ Freelancers and employees who are subject matter experts can be open scheme accounts that
both creates awareness &
onboarded to create short videos and articles on various government
generates leads
schemes for quick and easy consumption by the viewers
▪ The users can easily find videos and articles in the topics of their choice by
using the Search feature or by using Hashtags
▪ Across the app, ads from NBFCs and banks can be displayed, which will act as
a source of sustainable income
▪ The ads will be about the accounts that these organizations provide to
leverage the government schemes and hence will be a channel of lead
generation for them Apart from Search, the users
can also use Hashtags to filter
content topics
Pain point addressed

▪ Helps bridge the information gap in the society about the multiple schemes
released by various governments across different areas of social
improvement by leveraging content creation

Implementation

▪ This feature will require onboarding of human resources like social workers,
volunteers, policy workers, SMEs, etc. who can create interesting and
engaging content to keep people informed and up-to-date about various
schemes
▪ NBFCs and banks need to be onboarded with a balanced value proposition
that is mutually benefitting for them as well as the app
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 Feature Prioritization

Features are rated relatively across Customer Benefit [increasing awareness & easing scheme leverage process] & Ease of Implementation [evaluating human resource &
technological complexity], both on a scale of 0 to 10

S. No. Feature Name Customer Benefit Ease of Implementation Overall Score Priority

9 7
1 Know Your Rights [customised list of eligible schemes & steps to [involves training of ML models to automate 16 Immediate
leverage at finger tip] web scraping]

6
7
Community Forum [External factors - need to on-board reliable 13 Near-term
2 [great resource for getting queries cleared]
SMEs to resolve queries efficiently]

7 5
[increases awareness about schemes & about [External factors - need to on-board SMEs to
Knowledge Centre 12 Near-term
3 organizations that provide accounts to create content & partner with NBFCs &
leverage them] banks for ads]

Which parts of the problem will you solve for first and why?
Based on the above prioritization, the part of the problem which involves creating awareness about the existence of schemes the user is eligible for & the steps to
leverage them would be solved first before moving into resolving individual queries & bridging knowledge gap about all available schemes

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 Success Metrics

Measuring the success of the chosen feature – Know Your Rights

North star metric – Number of searches for eligible schemes [Monthly]

App Adoption Number of app installations

App Engagement Monthly Active Users (MAU)

Achieving Month-on-Month increase is a
Number of new users clicking on “Find eligible schemes” positive indicator
Feature Adoption
button

Feature Engagement Number of clicks on search results

Churn rate on search page and search results page

Customer Satisfaction Lower the better
[without clicking on any search result]

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 Reasons to fail

Areas of concern Description Mitigation

Internet users in rural India, where majority of the target population

India currently has ~41% internet penetration & ~55%
might reside, have grown to ~300 Mn and continues to increase [4]. The
Digital divide smartphone penetration. This might reduce the reach
web & mobile versions of the app can be made available in panchayat
of the app among the intended population
offices & through NGOs to increase reach to the intended population

The income from ads would help in making the app self-sustainable in the
There would be high dependence on grants & CSR to
Business model long run. However, overall the solution would work well only for a not-for-
develop & maintain the app
profit model

The target communities need to be reached through partnerships with

The target population might contain considerable local NGOs whose goals match with ours. The first set of onboarded users
First time users number of first time internet users who might not try can then be encouraged to become the ambassador for the app among
new apps easily their neighborhoods, families & communities & can gain a small referral
fee for the same

[4] News article on the internet penetration in rural India

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