Creating Experiences Through AI with Siqi Mou & Kailu Guan
We had an awesome time chatting with HelloAva Co-Founders, Siqi Mou and Kailu Guan, about launching an MVP, embracing a “User-Centric” philosophy, collecting and using data points and so much more!
Here are some of the most important insights that we were able to take away from our conversation with Siqi & Kailu:
A user-centric journey. Given their product’s emphasis on personalization, HelloAva set out to embrace a user-centric philosophy from the start. This meant that before they could even build an MVP, Siqi and Kailu had to find ways to understand what their customers really wanted through user interviews. Siqi recalled interviewing over 300 women in the Palo Alto Shopping Center before they started building any sort of product: she wore casual clothes and tried stopping people as they walked out from “Sephora, Macy’s, and other beauty stores to hear about their beauty purchasing experience.” Unfortunately, however, not many people stopped for the interview. After some thinking, Siqi decided to reapproach the problem, this time bringing a dermatologist in residence (wearing her white coat) with her to conduct the user interviews. She also tweaked her pitch to connect with individuals on a personal level, asking questions about what they would want to see in a product or service to meet their personal needs. Ultimately, the new approach resulted in hundreds of successful user interviews and Siqi explained that “it’s not only that we seemed to have more credibility the second time around, but it’s also because we rephrased the questions to be more about the individual...the you, rather than the us.” These initial aha-moments have led to HelloAva’s current user-centric philosophy, which focuses on building a user feedback loop to drive better and more personalized product recommendations.
Ready, Set, MVP! HelloAva’s vision for an AI-empowered skincare consultant would require lots of capital, technological expertise, and time to build. So, like most early-stage startups, Siqi and Kailu set out to build an MVP to validate their idea. To mimic the personalization experience they sought to create, Siqi and Kailu built out an SMS Chatbot; it enabled users to text “Ava,” go through a series of personalization questions and then get linked to a professional skin advisor. Kailu mentioned that while “the chatbot took less than a week to make,” it allowed them to test HelloAva’s product/market fit and informed key product decisions for the future; one of which is maintaining a balance between human and AI expertise.
Balancing AI and human expertise. HelloAva started with 50% of AI (their personalization recommendation engine) and 50% of human expertise (licensed estheticians) across their user experience. However, since then, HelloAva has evolved its AI capabilities to cover 80% of the personalization experience. In light of this change, Kailu explained that “the goal is to never have AI to replace human beings, but to have AI to empower the decision-making process.” Given the number of products offered, increasingly complex skincare needs, and cheaper costs of using technology for personalization, building out a stronger digital experience makes sense. However, keeping human expertise as a part of the user experience is also an intentional decision, as Kailu believes it makes users feel “cared for and understood.” The human aspect of the user experience also allows for a more nuanced feedback loop, where it can cater to niche user needs that are unable to be addressed through technology.
In 2016, Siqi Mou and Kailu Guan founded HelloAva, an AI-powered platform that works like a skincare consultant to help people find the perfect products for their skincare routine. At certain points in their lives, both Mou and Guan faced issues with their skin, but they couldn't find a solution that was truly personalized for their individual needs. Enter HelloAva’s refreshing user experience that enables individuals to complete a quick skincare survey and send a selfie through its chatbot; then, an algorithm recommends the best products for each person, which are confirmed by licensed aestheticians and board-certified dermatologists. Since launching at TechCrunch Disrupt in 2017, HelloAva has over 70,000 users, sent over 1.6 million skincare consultation messages, and works with top beauty brands like L'Oréal, Caudalie, and Unilever. Besides founding HelloAva, Kailu’s background includes fashion design, AR, and wearable technology, and Siqi worked in investment banking, as a Bloomberg news anchor, and made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in 2019.