RileyBot Interview Preparation

- It’s an observation, not evidence yet
- Mostly friends and my year, so a narrow sample
- That’s why I’d research it properly
- I could be wrong about why, or even how many

Upper Sixth: Biology, Chemistry, Maths. Interested in why people make the choices they do. Evidence: Cornell customer interviews, EDGE strategy, my own cat food research. Want to see that applied to a real product

Weeks 1-2: short survey (about 8 questions): which tools, for what, why
Weeks 1-2: 5-6 short interviews, because surveys show what, interviews show why
Weeks 3-4: find the main barrier: awareness, habit, features or trust
Weeks 5-6: recommend one change and test it, e.g. a short demo of one use case
Proof I can run surveys: club survey, 30 responses, open text boxes are so much more in terms of information giving than tick the boxes since they might be missing something

Neutral wording, no “why is ChatGPT better?”
Reach beyond friends: other year groups, light AI users
Separate what people say from what I expect

- It doesn’t need to beat them at everything
- Find what RileyBot does that they can’t, e.g. built for the school context
- Not known = growth problem; known but unused = product problem
- Different fixes, so measure first

Posting at the right time and a strong hook make a big difference. For RileyBot I’d try a storytime-style hook, like ‘there’s someone in my class who finishes essay planning in ten minutes’ and then show the tool, rather than a plain advert. I would experiment with different formats on social media to get more outreach.

Advertising only helps if awareness is the barrier. If people already know and still don’t use it, ads would waste effort. So I’d measure first.

Choose the creative writing club: you ran a survey, used the results to plan the first sessions, and set the structure (a shared opening block, then independent writing). Or the Rotary fundraising: going door to door and raising £544.70 for four charities took persistence and dealing with rejection.

It’s 1-2 hours a week, so I’d fix that into a regular slot, agree small weekly deliverables, and tell you early if a mock or exam week means I need to scale back.

That’s a good result. If students aren’t using RileyBot for a reason I hadn’t thought of, that’s more useful than confirming my guess.

I’d try it first, work out exactly where I’m stuck, then ask a specific question

How would the team use the findings from a Research & Insight resident?
Has anything been tried before to get more students using it, so I don’t repeat it?

- worked on theoretical business projects so far
- want to see how research shapes a real product
- noticed many sixth formers use ChatGPT or Claude
- want to find out why, as a user myself

- skills: desiging surveys and campaigns, analysing data and turning findings into reccomendations
- how startup functions work together
- see how a team judges whether a strategy was successful

- seen the problem from the user side
- students already have strong tools
- i like the questione behind behaviour
- cornell was where I first interviewed people about price and found that more interesting

- First choice: Research & Insight
- Second: Growth, because I run a study account and know what hooks people
- Happy with Product too. They overlap: understanding user needs can inform both product improvements and engagement strategies.

During Cornell's Food and Beverage programme, I worked on a theoretical food truck startup. I interviewed potential customers about their preferences and pricing expectations, then analysed the data in Excel.

At EDGE, my team worked on developing a strategy to attract younger customers to an escape room business. We examined competitors and considered how the business could differentiate itself. Our team won Best Concept, and the experience strengthened my interest in competitive strategy and understanding different customer segments.

Example: EDGE
Some teammates were very committed, some less interested
I balanced it by matching jobs to strengths
I listened to ideas I hadn’t considered

Set up a club for Year 10 up to upper sixth
Ran an interest survey, 30 responses
Used it to plan the first sessions
Structure: shared opening block, then independent writing
Hardest part was getting the 30 people to actually come, because a lot of people can show interest but not show up.