Segmentation Exercise: Briefly segment customers in the industry you
were in previously or one that you are interested in working in after Wharton.
I was in hardware tech before. I was working for Intel, making chips for
external customers and then Apple, making chips for other internal teams.
What do you think the key segments are and why?
In terms of hardware chips, the key segments are customers who would pay
more for speed, hence want the high end chips (eg: Amazon servers) AND
the customers who just want something that is good enough to do the work
and not necessarily top end (eg: chips in TV remotes) and the entire
spectrum in between. If customers are in-house, it’s a little less clear what
the different segments are, but they key considerations are broadly the same
for everyone – area, speed, power efficiency.
What differing needs do these segments have?
As mentioned previously, the key factors are area (the lesser the better),
speed (the more the better) and power dissipation (the lesser the better). As
to whether you want to be pushing the extremes or just work with something
that’s good enough is really dependent on the application case (again- look
at server vs remote example)
How would you identify people or organizations in each segment?
For the most part, we were given the data. But if that were available, I would
first think about the use case. Does a remote really need to be as fast as say
an airplane controller? (Probably not). Then reach out to the specific
people/companies in the said domains to verify my guess, and then improve
on my estimates based on the feedback I get.
If you were to actually conduct a segmentation analysis, what are
some of the questions you think would be most helpful in separating
the segments?
I think this is particularly easy in hardware, just because it is so well define.
But the questions would be-
- What is the range of MHz/GHz your device will be operating in?
- What’s the max area you can afford?
- What does your battery life need to look like?
- What is your rank order of preference for optimizing area, power and
speed? (Usually we can’t optimize for all, and there’s a tradeoff)
Customer Journey Exercise: Reverse engineer a few purchase decisions
made recently. What were the stages you went through? What information
impacted your decision-making at each stage? Start by writing up your
thoughts on your own decision (half a page to a page, with bullet points or a
box and arrow diagram is fine). Then talk with some classmates to compare
and contrast your journeys. How were the various journeys similar?
Different? What led to variations? What types of decisions led to similar or
different journeys? What are some key dimensions on which decisions differ
that might shape the how the customer journey looks? Add another half page
to page to your write-up based on this discussion
The most recent purchase I made was take-out dinner tonight.
Stages-
1. Do I want dinner? Yes I am hungry
2. Do I have food at home? No, I ate the last of it this morning
3. Do I have time to cook tonight? No, I have to go to Follies meetup
4. Does that mean we order dinner? Yes
5. What cuisine do I want? Indian (that’s our default go-to when we are too
busy/tired to think)
6. Where to pick up food from? Not sure about the restaurants in the area, so
lets look up if there are any on my way back from Follies meetup (at
Bonner’s) to home. There were 2/3 options
7. Amma’s has a nice ring to it, and a friend was recently there. Called them
up. Holy cow, that’s like expensive expensive. I just need food. That’s a no-
go. (I wish I never left Texas)
8. It’s kinda late, most places will close in under an hour. Let’s hope the next
one is a hit. Oh here’s the kaati-roll place, wife and I were just walking past it
last night. Let me go in and see what the prices are like. (Oh nice, this is
Texas like prices!!)
9. Ordered 2 plates to-go. Ready in minutes. Walked out a happy customer.
Even tipped a couple of bucks more just coz it was still WAAY CHEAPER THAN
AMMA’S
I feel like my purchase was almost a necessary one compared to that of my
friends. They purchased items like jewelry, furniture, and shoes. So, the time
spent deliberating (by me) was little to none.
Also, the dollar amount was much smaller. So, I could have peace of mind
just knowing I paid half of what someone else is paying for, probably the
exact item. Plus the item I was ordering (take out food) is way more
commonplace than decorative jewelry or sports shoes, so I had a good idea
about what it should cost. That is not necessarily the case with my friends. A
lot more research was necessary to make sure they were indeed making the
right decision.
Considering the time urgency and small amount, there was no need for any
feedback/recommendations either. The fact that the shop was open with at
least another person standing in there to buy stuff, and Google rates is 4+
was good enough. Whereas the friend who purchased jewelry looked at
prices in India and USA, looked for recommendation online and from friends,
researched how the different types of jewelry costs varied.
I’m not sure if there was much similarity. Struggling to find what we did alike.
Probably the fact that we justified the purchase to ourselves? Anything else?
I am eager to find out.