Refer to the project brief and the additional resources before you begin this project!
(Go through them at least 3 times or till the time you don’t have a mind map in your brain)

Let’s begin

It's time to kickstart the project by taking a crack at building your Elevator pitch.

(Think of this as an introduction to your product- make it remarkable!)

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Want to play your favorite sport but don’t know where to start or whom to play with?
Playo organizes games across 10+ sports at 100+ exclusive venues — just show up and play with 1000+ players matching your skill level, no equipment needed!
Want to play with friends or short of players? Simply book a venue and get matched with others at your level.
Skip the hassle of finding players and venues — download Playo, book or join a game, and start playing!

(Go and speak to different users of the product and the people in the chain: households buying the product, shopkeepers selling the product, churned users, and users using competitor's products. In the case of B2B products identify the decision makers, the influencer, the blocker, and the end-user)

Understanding your ICP

(Put down your ICP’s in a Table Format. A tabular format makes it super clear for anyone to understand who your users are and what differentiates them)

We have multiple users of a product and not all of them can be our ICP for whom we make our strategies, we need to prioritize.
(use an ICP prioritization table)

🏅 Playo - All-in-One App for Sports, Fitness & Finding Your Play Tribe

Whether you want to play, train, or explore new activities, Playo makes it easy:

• Create/Join Games: Set the time, location, skill level, and game type. Chat, ask questions, view player profiles, and pay securely.
• Book Venues: Check ratings, amenities, availability, and even bulk/corporate booking options.
• Train with Coaches: From football to yoga, browse verified trainers, see ratings, and join batches that suit you.
• Check Out Players: View other players’ skills and activities to decide who to play with.
• Create/Join Groups: Based on location or sport. Chat, share games/media, and build your sports circle.
• Manage Play pals: Chat, view activity history, mute, block, or remove.
• Join Game-time: No equipment needed. Just show up for pre-arranged matches with skill-based matchmaking and discounts.
• Book Treks: Discover and book local treks, all info included.
• Track Bookings & Payments: Everything’s stored and managed in-app.
• Notify Play pals: One tap to alert your buddies if you're short on players.
• Fitness Sync: Connect your fitness watch to track calories, steps, heart rate.
• Fitness Insurance: Covers injuries like fractures, ligament tears, dental, etc., starting at just ₹9.
• Refer & Earn Karma Points: Get rewarded for sharing the app—use points for discounts.
• Stay Active Socially: Share games, chat, and be part of your local sports community.

Core Value Proposition

For people who want to stay active, play sports and meet like-minded players with least hassle, Playo is the one-stop sports and fitness platform that helps you discover games, book venues, train with coaches and join communities, making it easy and fun to stay fit and social.

Market Overview

India’s sports tech market is growing fast with expectations of doubling from ₹26,700 crore to ₹49,500 crore by FY29. The growth is being driven by young users, rising fitness awareness, and increasing digital habits with fan engagement(fantasy sports. ticketing, etc.) making up a bulk of ₹21,400 crore. Data analytics for player performance and decision making is also growing big at around ₹5,300 crore currently. India now ranks 2nd globally for the number of sports tech startups, with 350+ active players fueling this fast-growing space. Companies like Decathlon are rapidly growing, with plans to increase their Indian stores from 129 to 190 by 2026, reflecting the rising demand for sports and fitness products.

Target Audience

Our core users are urban Indians aged 18–45 who enjoy playing sports but often struggle with finding players, venues, or structured games. They’re tech-savvy, socially active, and health-conscious—ranging from college students and young professionals to weekend athletes. Many are looking for convenience, community, and consistent ways to stay active without the hassle of coordination. They also lean towards digital solutions for booking, payments, fitness tracking, and discovering local activities.

Understanding Competitors-

Customer needs and pain points (Playo)-

Based on user feedback and personal experience, people look for a seamless way to play sports and connect with other players. Although Playo effectively caters to almost all of these needs, the common pain points reported by users both online and offline are:

• App glitches in community features
• Poor customer support service and issue resolution with venues
• Bulk pre-booking of some courts on specific time slots
• Higher prices

Market Opportunities and Sizing the Market-

• Collaborate with schools, sports academies, and premium housing societies to tap into large, engaged communities and drive consistent usage.
• Offer more affordable prices to attract casual players who are price-sensitive.
• Introduce all-access passes that allow users to avail discounts for long-term commitments, increasing affordability for regular users.
• Partner with gyms for single-day workout access to expand into the fitness space and offer more flexibility to users.
• Add dance and martial arts coaching to appeal to a broader audience interested in fun, movement-based wellness activities.
• Enable users to capture and share play moments on social media to boost organic visibility and grow brand awareness through user-generated content.
• Conduct public and corporate events and championships for community engagement, brand visibility, and fostering a competitive yet inclusive sports culture.

Features that let users share their moments, streaks, progress, and achievements play a big role in boosting engagement.
These not only make users feel proud of their journey but also create content hooks that drive organic reach when shared on social media. When players see their friends posting game highlights or hitting personal milestones, it encourages them to participate too—building a cycle of motivation, community interaction, and brand recall.

Assumptions–

• 8% and 35% of Indian population stays in Tier 1 and 2 cities respectively
• Considering two age groups
  -- Ages 3–20 children who can learn/play various sports activities
  -- Ages 20–45 earning class who can play sports or engage in fitness-based recreational activities
• 80% and 60% of the population stays in urban areas in Tier 1 and 2 cities respectively.
• 20% of this population who have the appetite to pay at least Rs 3000 a month (considering Income Tax paying population)
• 25% of the above population actually are enthusiastic to engage in such activities.
• Considering Rs 3000 as Average Order Value given Gym Memberships starting from Rs 1000 a month to adults and children spending Rs 3000/4000 per month on training to people spending more than Rs 5000 a month on high-end sports such as Snooker, Swimming, Pickle ball and other adventure sports.
• This brings us to our TAM (Revenue per month) to be around Rs 4315 crores.
• 80% of the urban population within the age groups considered are actually digitally savvy enough to discover, engage and digitally pay for these activities.
• This brings us to our SAM (Revenue per month) to be around Rs.3452 crores.
• Considering 50% of the market to always remain unorganized and Playo can only have a 10% market share of a matured market. The SOM (Revenue per month) comes to be around Rs 173 crores.

Designing Acquisition Channel

Channel Strategy for Playo

Since Playo is an established player and probably in the mature scaling stage, it makes a lot of sense for them to double down on the channels which have worked for them and tap into other low effort, quick and scalable channels to acquire a lot of users who aren't using Playo.

Channels which have worked for them

• Partnerships with venues and coaches. Since partnerships have worked for them, they can expand into other sports, fitness and wellness activities such as venues and academies for athletics, dance, yoga, etc. They can also onboard more trained coaches to monetize from the coaching programs.
• Partnerships with educational institutions, corporates, and high-end housing societies is a big opportunity for them as they have the appetite to pay, infrastructure (most have), and bring in sticky long-term business. These partnerships will also give them visibility of individuals looking to play and book venues on their own.
• Since Word of Mouth is a strong channel for them, improving community features on the app, introducing multi-day passes, and creating a high-incentive incremental referral program will drive a lot of incremental engagement among its customers, which will rope in new customers as well using word of mouth.

Untapped/Under-Utilized Channels

• Social Media sharing of streaks, game moments, and achievements is a channel which can bring virality to Playo's brand name and create content loops for its market, thus improving its brand recall and engagement.
• Product Integrations with Decathlon can bring a lot of users who are buying sports equipment and would be willing to play at a nearby venue without the hassle of finding players.
• Collaborations with Decathlon by utilizing their venues and getting their inventory at discounts in return for advertising their products on Playo's venues and app is a great untapped opportunity for Playo.

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Content Loop

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Step 1 → Nail down your content creator, content distributor and your channel of distribution
Step 2 → Decide which type of loop you want to build out.
Step 3 → Create a simple flow diagram to represent the content loop.

Content Creator-

User will be the content creator in case of pictures, moments being shared. Playo can enable such shares with catchy template designs with Playo branding. Playo will be the content creator in case of streaks, achievements of the user, tournament wins, exclusive access or game pass unlocks, with catchy design templates Playo can enable and motivate the user to share them.

User will be the content distributor mainly, while Playo can distribute match-moments, winners, exclusive event/pass unlocks, etc.

1. Tournaments
Participate in tournament → Win badges/photos → Prompt to share ("Just crushed it at [Tournament Name]! #PlayOnPlayo") → Share on Instagram Stories/Whats App → Friends see tournament buzz → Friends want to join → New tournament fills faster → More participants → More sharing → Loop continues

2. Training / Wellness Programs
Join training or wellness program → Unlock milestone badge or achievement → Prompt to share ("New Level unlocked — join me on Playo!") → Share on Instagram/WhatsApp → Friends see fitness progress + Playo mention → Friends inquire/join training → New signups for programs → More milestones → More sharing → Loop continues

3. Casual Match Bookings
Book a match → Complete the match → Prompt to share ("Weekend = Sorted. Booked, played, slayed with Playo. You in for next time?") → Share on WhatsApp/Instagram → Friends feel FOMO → Friends join future games → More matches booked → More sharing → Loop continues

4. Leaderboard / Streak Achievements
Achieve top 5 leader board / longest streak badge → Prompt to share ("10 games. 1 streak. No stopping now. Let’s Playo.") → Share brag post on Instagram/WhatsApp → Friends see challenge → Friends start booking to catch up → More competitive bookings → More sharing → Loop continues

(Understand, where does organic intent for your product begins?)

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Step 1 → Identify complementary products used by your ICP
Step 2 → Use the selection framework and compare the potential integrations it in a tabular form.

Complementary Product used by Playo's ICP

Decathlon stores and online store is becoming the go-to store for a lot of sports and fitness enthusiasts because of its extensive collection, affordability and smooth customer experience.

Strava is also becoming popular in India which allows fitness enthusiasts to track all sports and movement activities.

Integrating Playo's core offering of finding and playing at nearby courts might bring in users with strong intent.

Selection Framework ( Decathlon would be better to integrate as users have common intent and might be new to sports , looking for venues and players to play with)

Step 3 → Collaborate with necessary stakeholders
Step 4 → Map the customer journey
Step 3 → Design the wireframe with the new integration
Step 3 → Run pilot tests before launching
Step 3 → Measure post-integration metrics

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Collaborate with necessary stakeholders-

Identify and align with internal teams (product, engineering, marketing, partnerships) and external partners (Decathlon) to establish goals, expectations, timelines, and success metrics for the integration.

Map the customer journey-

• Curated Discovery: Show Playo's venue offers on sport product pages (e.g., Badminton page → "Play nearby for free/x% off"); posters with QR codes in offline stores.
• Click through: User clicks banner/ad/QR code.
• Landing Page: User lands on a customized Playo page showing nearby courts for that sport.
• Signup: User signs up quickly (social login/OTP).
• Booking: User books a venue or match with applied incentives.

• Measure post-integration metrics-
• Track key metrics:
• • Discovery Click-Through Rate (CTR): % of users who click on Playo promotions (on product pages/QR posters).
  • Landing Page Conversion: % of users who sign up after reaching the customized Playo page.
  • First Booking Rate: % of users who complete their first booking after signup.
  • Incentive Redemption Rate: How many users used the "first game free" or discount offers.
  • Repeat Booking Rate: % of users who book again within 30/60 days.
  • Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): Cost to acquire a customer through this integration flow.
• Set up dashboards:
• • Use tools like Google Analytics, Mixpanel, or Playo's internal systems to track each step of the funnel separately.
• Analyze and optimize:
• • Identify where users drop off (e.g., click but no signup → maybe landing page needs improvement).
  • Double down on high-performing sports or regions.
  • A/B test different incentives or placements (e.g., "First Match Free" vs "50% Off").
• Report impact:
• • Create a simple before-and-after report showing how the integration improved discovery, signup, and bookings.
  • Share key learnings to refine future partnerships.

Best Customer Touchpoints
• After sharing a picture/streak through Playo to a social media app.
• After completing a game.
• After hosting a tournament.
• After playing a new game multiple times.
• After giving positive feedback of the game or venue.
• After giving positive feedback of a particular training/wellness program.

Brag-worthy element
• Most players brag about finding people and booking a great game without painful coordination.
• Rewards in the form of money, access and fame for games played, streaks achieved, tournament wins or remarkable stats achieved.

Platform Currency
• Money — Playo credits, discounted game passes, group booking discounts.
• Access — Priority access to premium venues, exclusive tournaments/events.
• Fame/Social Bragging — Leaderboards, most games played, longest streaks, highest rated player.

Who to ask for a referral
• A seasoned user.
• A repeat user.
• A power user.
• A successful referrer.
• A repeat referrer.
• A streak achiever, tournament winner, exclusive access experienced user.

Referral Discovery
• In-app features like banners or pop-ups.
• Push Notifications.
• Email or message notifications.

Referral Sharing and Communication
The invite link will work as a referral link if it’s shared with a new user, in which case no first discount or lesser first discount can be offered.

• WhatsApp – "Book games, courts, and teammates — in one tap. Super easy to find a court & a full team. Use my link and get ₹100 off your first game! Let’s play together [link]"

• Instagram – "Game days hit different when it’s this easy. Instant games, premium venues, new friends. ₹100 off your first game → [Your Link]. #PlayOnPlayo #WeekendSorted"

• Facebook Groups – "Always have a game — never miss a weekend. No more last-minute “bro any turf?” panic. Playo's got full teams, booked courts, and rewards for just showing up. ₹100 off your first game → [Your Link] #GameOn #PlayWithPlayo"

Tracking Referrals & Encouraging Continuous Referrals
1. Referral Tracking Page design
a. The tracking page will show total reward points, total savings, exclusive accesses unlocked, upcoming exclusive access for grabs, incremental reward stages.
b. It will also show rewards earned for each referral and its credit status.
c. It will also show the trackers of their referees stages such as pre-signup → signup → 1st booking.
d. Small CTA – Refer 2 more friends to unlock an Exclusive Game Pass.
e. Active referral link with social media sharing icons.

2. How will the referees know if their referrals were successful
a. After game completion/booking completion.
b. In the refer and earn section.
c. Using other ways like push notification or in-app alerts might disrupt the booking journey.

Referral Landing Page for non-users
You’ve Just Unlocked Game Mode.
Your friend thinks you’re ready for the big leagues. Play your first match with ₹100 off.
CTA – [Sign Up & Claim Reward]

I booked, I played, I won — and I want you in the next match.
– [Referer’s Name]

Real people. Real matches.​

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Partner Program

• Collaborate with Communities:
  Partner with schools, sports academies, and premium residential societies to access large, engaged communities and drive consistent usage. Incentives to offer can be commissions.
• Expand into Fitness:
  Team up with gyms to offer single-day workout passes, bridging sports and fitness needs for greater flexibility.
• Diversify Activity Options:
  Add dance, martial arts, and movement-based wellness classes to attract a wider, more diverse audience.
• Host Community Events:
  Organize corporate leagues, open tournaments, and championships to foster an inclusive, competitive sports culture and boost brand awareness. Incentives to offer can be competitive pricing, better pricing for long term contracts, brand marketing campaigns on and off app, free access passes to winners as prizes.