Week #1 #

Team Formation and Project Proposal #

Team Members #

Value Proposition #

• Identify the Problem: Finding roommates in universities presents a significant challenge for many students. The difficulties arise from the need of a harmonious environment in which students can live and thrive. Having like-minded friends can be a tremendous source of motivation. In addition to that, management of day-to-day responsibilities in a group of strangers is a challenging task for many. We seek to offer a solution that would reduce the everyday stress of living in a dorm room.

• Solution Description: We offer a comprehensive roommate matching platform that is tailored to help find compatible dorm roommates, making the task of moving to a dorm much easier. By utilizing a detailed questionnaire and matching algorithms we ensure that students are paired with compatible roommates based on personality traits and lifestyle preferences

• Benefits to Users:

  • Reduced Stress: With compatible roommates students reduce daily stress and avoid conflicts.
  • Enhanced Academic Performance: A supportive and peaceful living environment allows students to concentrate better on their studies.
  • Improved Social Life: Living with like-minded individuals can lead to lasting friendships and a more enjoyable university experience.

• Differentiation:

  • Search by Criteria: Ability to find roommates based on interests, habits, and preferences. This significantly increases the likelihood of finding a compatible roommate.

  • Communication Functionality: Built-in chats for discussions and getting acquainted before moving in.

  • Managing Shared Living:

    • Shared Budget: Tools for managing shared expenses such as rent, utilities, groceries, and more.
    • Chore Schedule: Automated schedule for cleaning, trash disposal, and other household chores, helping to avoid conflicts and improve the organization of shared living.

  • Comparison with Competitors

    • Social Networks and Forums:
      • Disadvantages: No specialized tools for finding compatible roommates, managing shared living, or shared budgets.
      • Advantage of our project: Specialized features tailored specifically for finding roommates and managing student shared living.
    • Housing Search Websites (e.g., Avito, Cian):
      • Disadvantages: Only offer housing search, without functionality for finding roommates by criteria and managing shared living.
      • Advantages of our project: Integration of housing search with functionality for finding roommates and managing shared living.
    • Home Management Apps (e.g., FlatMate, Splitwise):
      • Disadvantages: Focused only on budget and chore management, not on finding roommates.
      • Advantages of our project: Combining functionality for finding roommates, managing chores, and shared budgets in one app.

  • Why Users Would Choose Our Project

    • Target Audience: Specializing in students, considering their unique needs and challenges, making the app more relevant and useful for them.
    • Comprehensive Solution: Combining all necessary functions in one app, eliminating the need to use multiple different services.

• User Impact:

  • Positive Living Experience: Students experience a more positive and fulfilling living situation, leading to overall better mental health and well-being.
  • Stronger Relationships: By living with compatible roommates, students can build stronger and more meaningful relationships.

• User Testimonials or Use Cases: We have collected a couple of first-hand stories from Innopolis University

  • Foreign students

  I went to Innopolis University as a foreign student. I didn’t know how I will live in a different country and who am going to live with. I got allocated to a 5-person apartment, and we couldn’t get along quite well. Luckily, I managed to quickly make some friends and after a while we managed to score a separate room for all of us. I believe it would’ve been much easier if we had some way to find each other before moving in the first time.

  • Rooming limitations

  I went to Innopolis University with 3 friends, but we needed a plus-one to get a 5-person room for all of us. One of us met someone while waiting in line for lunch and we moved in together. Sadly, we quickly found out that this plus-one had some terrible habits that we couldn’t tolerate. We are waiting on a place to move out separately. We would appreciate if we could declare our habits and preferences somewhere and find a roommate suitable for us.

  • Day-to-day struggles

  I got lucky and moved in with roommates I quickly became friends with. Despite all of the positive sides, we still struggle with managing every day tasks. We always who’s turn it is to take out the trash, who’s turn it is to do the cleaning. We also tried to implement sort of a “wishlist” system. The idea is when one of us goes for groceries we send a list of groceries to that “shopper”, so that they can buy stuff for us. Saves time. But some of us are usually busy, so we can’t ping the shopper with our shopping lists. We would deeply appreciate if someone could implement a system where the shopping lists are sent automatically once one roommate announces that they are going shopping.

Lean Questionnaire #

Please answer the following questions related to the lean methodology:

1. Who are your target users or customers? Our target audience will be primarily students from universities and colleges who struggle to find a suitable place to live, find like-minded roommates, and/or have difficulties managing house-keeping duties. Since we are students as well, we will have much easier time understanding the needs of our users. We also have direct access to a vast number of potential interview targets.

2. How will you validate and test your assumptions about the project?

   1. Conduct Market Research: Understand the demand for roommate matching platform by running surveys on potential users.
   2. Customer Development: Develop and conduct interviews with future customers to gain insights into their struggles and needs in day-to-day dorm life.
   3. Develop an MVP: Create a minimum viable product with basic functionality to test initial responses and gather user feedback.

3. What metrics will you use to measure the success of your project?

   1. Feedback and Ratings: Collect and analyze user feedback and satisfaction levels through ratings and reviews.
   2. User Engagement: Track the frequency and duration of every feature used by users on the platform.
   3. Successful Transactions: Monitor the percentage of users who find roommates and are satisfied with the result.

4. How do you plan to iterate and pivot if necessary based on user feedback?

   1. Implement Changes: Make changes or add new features based on user feedback and iterate the product accordingly.
   2. Continuous Feedback Loop: Regularly gather feedback through surveys, user interviews, and by monitoring user behavior to identify areas for improvement or potential pivots.
   3. Flexibility: Be open to making significant changes to the platform if user feedback suggests a need for a different approach or additional features.

Leveraging AI, Open-Source, and Experts #

We plan to use generative AI tools to help us write code faster and bridge any learning gaps that might show up while developing the project.

We also plan to study common AI-based recommendation algorithms to improve user experience in finding suitable roommates. Since we do not have much expertise in this area, we plan to ask for guidance the professors of Innopolis University.

We heavily rely on open source frameworks for developing the project. We plan to use industry standard tools, so that we have access to professional documentation and can ask experienced programmers for help if needed.

Defining the Vision for Your Project #

• Overview: Our project aims to create a comprehensive roommate matching platform designed specifically for university and college students. This platform will address common challenges faced by students living in dorms, such as finding compatible roommates and managing day-to-day shared living responsibilities. We will develop a solution that not only helps students find like-minded roommates but also offers functionalities to streamline household management, reduce stress, and enhance their academic and social experiences.

• Tech Stack: Our project will be split into 2 parts: frontend and backend. Here are the techstacks for each part: Frontend:

  • Next.js: Framework back-bone for the entire frontend part of the project
  • Redux ToolKit: For flexible state management
  • TypeScript: For flexible type management
  • SCSS: To write styles
  • RTK Query: To work with the API
  • Next Auth: To work with authorization Backend:
  • Aiogram: Asynchronous framework for Telegram Bot API written in Python
  • Postgresql: DBMS
  • Django: Backend part for our TG web application