The TIKI 100-Day Plan

Note: Our 100 day plan kicked off Dec. 1. It took us a bit of time to get it all put together into a single succinct medium.

With our crowdfunding raise and move to Nashville complete, we met as a team to flesh out the next 100 days from a tech, business, and user standpoint. Our mission has been and will continue to be a lofty one, though we are now positioned better than ever to turn our goals into a reality. The mission is to flip the data ecosystem on its head, placing users, not businesses, in charge by allowing users to exercise their data ownership rights. This paradigm shift results in a new, fair market for data where users own their data, businesses safely get the insights they need, and TIKI operates as a facilitator to make the market a functioning reality.

Our vision is a vertically integrated user data ownership platform that combines data privacy, ownership, issuance and marketplace.

The pursuit of this mission and vision must remain in alignment with our established values of trust, transparency, and user-centricity. Data, naturally, is a highly sensitive subject. Making data anonymous protects our users. Publishing our code and updates makes our company as transparent as possible. While we strive forward, we will never compromise on these three pillars.

Where We are Now

The first step to getting TIKI up and running was figuring out if people actually cared about what we plan on doing. This meant first establishing market validation. To date, we have a 130,000 user waitlist, 30,000 beta testers, 300 investors and 10 steering committee members, establishing that in fact, yes, people do care about what we are doing.

Product-Market fit (startup speak for a product that satisfies the needs of a “good” market) requires both market and product validation. We’ve proudly achieved market validation; our next 100 days outlined in the plan below are targeted at reaching product validation.

Or, in a pictorial sense:

What’s Next

We can think of our product validation as having 3 components — users, businesses, and the tech itself.  From a technology perspective, we must move from PoC quality to MVP quality. From a business perspective, we need to deliver 3 lighthouse customer PoCs with an executable go-to-market plan and roadmap. Finally, from a user perspective, we must move from the current state of user demand toward achieving tens of thousands of active and engaged users. The following sections will go into detail regarding how we plan on achieving these goals and why we’re going about things the way that we are.

Technology

The specifics of the technology plan for the next 100 days will be outlined in terms of monthly targets, though the exact timelines will vary. The current plan is based on the lift from the current tech staff of Mike and Ricardo and does not account for potential new hires.

As a reminder, our technology goal is to move from a Proof of Concept (PoC) to a functioning Minimum Viable Product (MVP). The biggest difference being that while a PoC demonstrates what can be done, an MVP is a real, much higher-quality product requiring a couple additional features. In the TIKI world—a world all about data—this comes down to data integrity.

December

• Faster data fetching
  At its most foundational level, TIKI works by fetching data on the user’s behalf from their existing accounts. As it stands, fetching data takes much longer than necessary for a positive user experience. Mobile apps primarily fetch data while the app is running in the foreground, with short bursts infrequently in the background (~30s once per day). Using the current Gmail integration as a primary example, it is readily apparent that the time it takes to populate each card (Comcast emails you, being a card example) is far too long. Faster data fetching is integral not only for our current “unsubscribe from email feature.” but for all data features in the future.

• Security key backup
  To protect user data privacy and anonymity, security keys are necessary for log-in. However, it is easy for users to lose their security keys, thus locking them out of their account permanently. The current stopgap is for users to create a new account. But once monetization begins, users need a way to safely recover their accounts. We have designed and will be implementing an optional safe and anonymous, key backup/recovery system. In-app support
  Integrating Zendesk knowledge base into the app. See User Plan for more details.

• Multi-account UX
  Right now, you can link one Gmail or one Outlook account. This feature will allow linking multiple accounts independent of platform (i.e. you can link all of your Gmail and all of your Outlook accounts if you choose).

• Crypto Wallet
  We’re minting billions of data NFTs. Users need a wallet in order to manage access to their NFTs and receive and withdraw their earnings (stablecoins).

• Unsubscribe cleanup
  There are a few errors that need cleaning up on the populated cards. For example, the email address of a company does not show up on the card. If a company is using multiple email addresses to contact you, you may not fully unsubscribe from a given company with a single swipe. Some company names are so long they do not fit on the card. These and other minor population errors will be fixed.

• Integrate Local Chain
  The local blockchain (aka local chain) is responsible for minting data NFTs on each user’s phone. 

January

• Sync chain
  This syncs and backs up user local chains so you do not lose your data if you lose or damage your device (phone).

• Knowledge Graph v.1.0
  We developed knowledge graph v.0.1 (Learn more here). From deploying the knowledge graph, we learned what we need to change to make the knowledge graph produce valuable and usable insights. 

• Knowledge Graph v.1.0  mobile integration
  When we update the knowledge graph, we need to update the mobile app to publish to the new graph accordingly. We also ultimately want to add the ability for a user to see the data they contribute to the graph.

• Bug/feature feedback and badging
  As TIKI releases updates to the application more frequently, in combination with the reality of 30,000 beta users, bugs and feedback submission need to be more intuitive. Creating a portal within the application will allow for expedited and efficient communication of bugs and feedback. A live list of current known issues coupled with issue volume will provide insight on what we already know and what we are presently working on.
  
  Badging is a merit-based system offering digital badges for users completing certain tasks. For more see the User Plan.

• New Data Source OR Control Feature
  Currently, the TIKI beta allows for users to unsubscribe from email as its primary feature, with the data sources of Gmail (Google) and Outlook (Microsoft) powering the feature. In January, we will look to add either a new data source (for example, location data or  Facebook/Instagram demographic data) to the existing control feature, or implement a brand new control feature (for example, deleting accounts from companies you no longer use, or which have been hacked; identifying and deleting emails with sensitive info [ex. passwords or credit card info]; reporting companies who still send spam after opt-out)

February

• Knowledge Graph Analytics Integration

  After a data API, the next step in delivering business consumable data is the option, to use a commonplace analytic tool like Tableau or Looker with TIKI data. 

• In-app user polling
  TIKI is user-centric. We have limited resources; getting user input early and often is critical. Populating as cards, we can ask questions such as “Would you share x data with y company for z price?” For example, the decision of adding a new data source or control feature could be helped along by in-app polling. Polling could be used to enable segmentation, creating a more tailored user experience, or even can enrich user data, increasing its value.

• Onboarding UX
  Onboarding to the app as it stands is simply creating an account and connecting a data source (email). Moving forward, the onboarding process should be much more intuitive for users, easing users in, and delivering value along the way. 

• Data funds distribution
  When somebody purchases user data, users need to get paid.

• Bugs, bugs, and more bugs (aka tech debt)
  There’s going to be a lot of ‘em. As mentioned above, as we release more frequently, there will be more and more bugs. We will dedicate time to fixing them and expediting processes to do so.

Business 

As previously stated, the 100-day goal from a business perspective is to deliver 3 lighthouse customer (early customer to establish credibility) proof of concepts with an executable go-to-market plan and roadmap. Utilizing our steering committee, we will isolate target markets and pave the way for executable proof of concepts.

Business Pain: As users push for more data control and privacy, access to critical data sets is becoming increasingly difficult for businesses.

Unique advantages to the TIKI approach

Access to difficult- or impossible-to-obtain data —  user consent driven anonymous data, ultimately enables businesses access to data that was either previously, or becoming impossible to access. Such as a competitor’s data, sensitive health data, email pixel data, or cross-channel digital footprints.

Timeliness —  it’s not uncommon for data sources that businesses currently rely upon to lag 30, 45, 60 or more days. Access to near real-time data becomes a competitive advantage.  

Data integrity — the current data ecosystem is a hodgepodge of tools, code, and magic. Clean, tagged data straight from users could dramatically reduce expensive data engineering costs.

Compliance & Safety — storing user data is a risky proposition for businesses. With ransomware attacks, shifting privacy laws, and user push back, it’s only getting worse. Getting the answers they need safely, without the liability is a significant advantage. 

Present

Great companies usually start with one simple, but still great, idea. For Amazon, it was books. At TIKI, our goal for the data marketplace is to find out what our “books” are.

Initially we have identified 9 broad data market segments where user data is critical: email analytics, web analytics, social media creator analytics, customer attribution, quantitative finance, health epidemiology, machine learning training, entertainment data, and audience data. To arrive at the discovery of our  “books” we are utilizing 2 programs in parallel, the PoC and the Steering Committee.

Building a proof of concept with real user email data that a business leader can look at and see the path forward will accomplish two major things:

1. We demonstrate an end-to-end system that can securely aggregate data from devices, anonymize it, use NFTs to attach ownership, add to our knowledge graph, and generate a useful, valuable report (i.e. a business consumable product).

2. Elicit a “WOW” reaction, i.e “If we got x data from users we could do a, b, & c which we couldn’t do before.” 

What is the PoC?

Objective: Quickly (in January), using actual user data (email), demonstrate three main use-cases

1. Email Analytics
   For example, when are emails being sent? Who is opening them? Reading them? What time of day? Performance metrics have been traditionally easy to track and measure with services such as Mailchimp. Privacy changes from Apple and expected changes from Google have resulted in the near eradication of email pixel tracking. No longer can businesses see the performance of things such as email newsletters; TIKI can fill this gap.

2. Audience Data
   TIKI audience data will have a powerful advantage: the ability to see insights cross-platform. Data can be layered on top of email performance. Insights generated won’t just be how the email is performing, but who is opening, what do they like, who do they follow, where do they live, their age, gender, etc. This shows real uniqueness in our data, particularly as it pertains to competitor data. It starts to form a 360 view of the user. See what emails competitors send, how they perform, and who’s their audience. Users selling data anonymously have no horse in the race, therefore data is not siloed within companies. It is great to see your own company’s data, but often more valuable to see other companies’ data.

3. Machine Learning (ML)
   TIKI data can address two major problems that plague the world of AI/ML. First, roughly 80% of effort in data science is in data engineering, i.e. getting data, cleaning data, tagging data, etc. Because TIKI data is coming straight from the user, the cumbersome tasks of cleaning and tagging data are already complete. Second, unless you’re a major tech corporation such as Microsoft, Amazon, etc, you don’t actually have the data needed to train your machine learning models. The key to machine learning has always been who has the data? With TIKI, companies can tap into a wealth of data they can plug right into machine learning models. 

Utilizing the TIKI Steering Committee

The TIKI Steering Committee was formed to address questions on the ethical use and monetization of user data. Leaders from a wide variety of markets were selected because of their involvement in data.  

The TIKI steering committee is pivotal in the development of our go-to-market plan. In line with the aforementioned Amazon comparison, we are looking for our “books.” Where do we start? How do we get customers? How much do we charge? How do we acquire companies? What resources do we need? Do we have the data we need? Do we need more users? Do we need different data sources? What comes after “books”? We need to go from “books” to the next “thing” quickly, prioritizing breadth and scope. 

The members of the Steering Committee can help answer these questions and many more culminating in  a well-researched and feasible go-to-market plan.

Monthly Summary:
December: Determine PoC (what are the charts, data sources, appearance, how it works)

January: Build PoC and utilize Steering Committee to formulate a go-to-market plan

February: Assess what we have learned, iterate, and build out our plan.

User

The goal from the user perspective is to move from high user demand toward a community of thousands of active, engaged users. The 100-day timeline will be used to educate and prepare users, moving users from a primary “make money” mindset toward a focused effort and understanding and solidifying the understanding of users already excited about the privacy/control aspects of the TIKI app.

To achieve this, we will drill in on the following areas:

Email and Chat Support

As it stands, support is relegated to emailing to the Zendesk platform or communicating with us in one of our communities (Discord, Telegram, Signal, social, etc). We are working to build a comprehensive knowledge base native to the Zendesk platform that can be integrated directly into the TIKI app. This will allow for users to directly contact us via the application if necessary, but more importantly will provide a library of information to encourage learning and self-service.

Content

Content has been, and will continue to be a major focal point for our project. We are working to create content for dozens of platforms, from our own website, to Medium/Substack, to podcasts and feature posts at publications such as HackerNoon. We will be generating one major cornerstone piece per week, 1-2 social shares relevant to the cornerstone piece from reputable outside sources, or organic, as well as a weekly recap podcast highlighting what has happened at TIKI in the past week. Additionally, a bi-weekly newsletter and monthly video summarizing weekly content will be generated.
Monday: monthly summary video (first Monday)
Tuesday: Cornerstone piece (repeating)
Thursday: Update podcast (repeating) , bi-weekly newsletter (second and fourth Thursdays)

Communities

Weekly content will be coordinated to be released to our user communities in order to create a sense of theme and ritual for our users. We will begin to emphasize Discord as the main channel for communication to and between users. The TIKI POINT system will be created in an effort to reward users for their contributions to the server, in which, users will accrue “points” based upon the completion of tasks, such as reading and commenting in the discussion channel about cornerstone pieces, re-sharing content on social media, demonstrating knowledge of educational content, etc.

Discord channels will be consolidated to eliminate clutter and solidify purpose and laid out as follows:

Welcome

#start-here
Explanation of channels

#resources
Website, social, blog, other pertinent links; team & moderator info

#rules
Server rules

Updates

#announcements
Company news press, etc.

#development
Dev updates, releases

#content
Cornerstones, supplementary content, video, podcast

TIKI Community

#discussion
Discussion of content / TIKI-relevant topics

#tiki-tasks
Weekly tasks re: content

#task-awards
Tracking task completion, i.e:

• read and comment on cornerstone piece (+1 TIKI Point)

• re-share content (+1 TIKI Point)

( x amount of TP (TIKI Point) = new badge/accolade)

#tiki-vip
Accolade-based chat for super-users (earned via TIKI Points)

Beta Users

TIKI currently has thousands of active beta users on our application. We will look to use a service such as Amplitude to understand user behavior internally better. Gamifying the experience for users is important as well; badges are in development as incentive to complete certain tasks and workflow within the app. Various avenues from onboarding question(s) to surveys to reading and comprehending our content (knowledge base and blogs) will allow for progress toward new badges and the ability for TIKI to identify power users within the app that may receive updates early in order to get feedback from our most informed, passionate, and active users. The same TIKI POINT system mentioned above (Discord) will be used in-app, incentivizing in-app and community participation toward the badge/accolade system.

Bug Reports / Feedback

Currently, feedback lives on an outside platform (Upvoty) as well as through our user communities. A more consolidated version of feedback is in development. The current plan is to re-vamp the existing Upvoty platform to serve as the primary repository for feedback as well as bug reports. A known issues page linked to our Zendesk knowledge base will broadcast which issues have been reported and at what volume. In-app bug reporting can be linked to the Upvoty platform so users do not need to leave the app to report bugs. Because of the potential volume of bugs, it is important to not overload our team with inbound tickets.

PR

We are dedicated to informing our current and future users directly for the current time. This will consist of things such as our own podcast and, when necessary, press releases. As mentioned, weekly internal podcasts will give users more insight into our specific accomplishments, plans, actions, and all things TIKI.

Thank You!

If 2021 was any indication, we believe 2022 will be even more successful and eventful for TIKI as we build out a product for our revolutionary new idea. We could not have done this without our users, our investors, our friends and families. Starting in the middle of a pandemic as a completely remote start-up company, going through the trials and tribulations that come with trying to get something brand new off the ground and up and running, raising some money, settling down in Nashville, Tennessee—all these things have made our journey a roller coaster of emotions. And believe me, the emotions have truly run the gamut.

We are elated to execute on this 100-day plan. When we hit on these three areas (tech, user, business), we will truly be firing on all cylinders. Next stop: user data ownership.

Keep up with us on social media and our Discord community as we share content and updates more frequently. All links can be found on mytiki.com.

All the best,
The TIKI Team