What did I learn from #YaluMalu after 8 months of operation

Desire towards “I want to test out a product in the market and learn it’s behaviour”, #YaluMalu was born in last year May. #YaluMalu is a messaging application which allow Dialog (the leading telco in Sri Lanka) subscribers to send and receive messages via SMSs and to share their locations using triangulation and SMS for a minimal subscription of Rs.3+tax per day. I call this as the WhatsApp of feature phones.

#YaluMalu is been used by thousands of users now, covering most parts of the country. Guess what? It’s used by Smart Phone users as well.

After 8 months of operation, I learnt many lessons and would like to summarise a few for you to realise how powerful a telco application can be.

1. User testing sometimes can be deadly

Understanding what user think and want and identifying hidden necessity is a key for a venture to improve and grow. I ran a week long user testing for #YaluMalu. Upon the users feedback, majority said it’s better to have a picture messaging option. Which we implemented and started heavy hitting on marketing. Guess what it didn’t work out well but started to loose about 2℅ of the customers.

2. Ride on social trends. Get people to evangelise.

During last year’s final bus strike, I made a post using #YaluMalu Facebook profile, people to use #බස්නෑ and come up with creative comments and to receive T shirts. Internet didn’t blow away but it did bring us some quality users and people who received T shirts, started talking about it in their own forums.

3. Sometimes you really don’t know where your product will be used.

During last year flood situation in Sri Lanka, few of the startups in Sri Lanka ran some cool humanitarian efforts. Since #YaluMalu is powered with LBS, I used it as a tool for any subscriber who has subscribed to share the location with their relatives if that person is in danger or need in help. Guess what around 50 times this option was used. More than the happiness of feature been used, being able to help people is what the ultimate satisfaction.

Dealing with different market segments require different methods and mechanisms. Afterall it’s about the journey. Let’s see what I’ll learn by the end of an year with the product. Until then you can follow #YaluMalu in Facebook and Instagram.